FOREVER MUSIC
Here in the West, we tend to think of time as a straight line. Events pop onto our horizon one after another and recede into the past. It’s a clear-cut notion, reassuring in a way, despite the fact that our clocks go round and round. Many Eastern schools of thought, on the other hand, explain time as being cyclical, a wheel that spins without beginning or end, like the cosmos itself.
Tonight’s program, eclectic as it is, may indeed be an argument for the latter. The pieces presented swing wildly between moods and time periods, from raucous to ethereal, from modern to ancient, in a way that suggests it might be possible to experience everything all at once. In fact, there’s a line in the first act —from the aptly named Forever Music—that sums the situation up nicely. We find ourselves in “A labyrinth of dreams / Where present, past and future meet upon a narrow bridge of time.”
The other nebulous concept often described as circular, of course, is love. And the texts in our program find every way imaginable to explore its mysteries. We’ll hear of desire and longing laid bare, love for the earthly and the divine, the tantalizing withholding of love and the loss of love, as well. Ideas too universal to be carbon-dated. Too old to have an origin.
As we spend an evening in this venerable sanctuary, isolated from the noise outside, steeped in harmony, why not take a moment to consider the circle? The beauty of it, the geometry. Music is math, after all. And philosophy, too. Thinkers in the East and West alike agree on that. So let’s call tonight an opportunity for us to step outside our agendas, our calendars, our linear chronology, and enjoy something timeless.
-Mark McAdam
Songwriter and Producer
PROGRAM
DETROIT YOUTH CHOIR
Anthony White, Director
Various Artists DYC Mash-up arr. Donnell Mosley, Anthony White, Darius Washington
Soloists: Kaili Pickett, Naona Chambers, Immanuel Echols, Jasmine Cribbs, Eric Brown, Cydney Armstrong, Gwendolyn Jackson, Brandon Hill, Grace Franklin, Jason Kolbusz, Manny Riveria, Kennedy Faux, Carley Foster, Ryan Bowens, Tonie Larkins
Speakers: Tonie Larkins, Courtnee Pruitt, Azaria Huggins
Choreography by, Ashia Lee, Shalayla Williams, Natalie Craig, Daniel Valentine
WEST VIRGINIA UNIVERSITY CHAMBER SINGERS
Dr. Kym Scott, Director
TRADITIONAL Arr. RUTH McCALL Waltzing Matilda
DAN WALKER (Text by Michael Dransfield) Concierto del Sur
PAUL STANHOPE This is our home (Ngindaji ngarragî muwayi)
from Jandamarra - Sing for the Country. English text by Steve Hawke, Bunuba text based on song words by June Oscar and Patsy Bedford.
NATIONAL CONCERT CHORUS
Dr. Jason Max Ferdinand, Guest Conductor
Dr. Andria Fennig, Collaborative pianist
Brian Gaukel and Kimberly Francis, Projection Designers
G.F. HANDEL, arr James Chepponis Sing Unto God
STEPHEN M. MURPHY Union of Love [world premiere]
JAMES MULHOLLAND Keramos
TRADITIONAL arr. STACEY GIBBS Wait Til I Put On My Crown
MICHAEL ENGELHARD United
MARK HAYES Forever Music
Participating Ensembles:
Detroit Youth Choir; Anthony White, Director; Detroit, MI
Freeport High School Select Chorale; Monique Retzlaff, Director; Freeport, NY
Radford University Singers; Meredith Bowen, Director; Radford, VA
San Jose State University Choraliers; Jeffrey Benson, Director; San Jose, CA
Spirito! Singers; Carling FitzSimmons, Director; Oak Brook, IL
West Valley College Concert Choir; Lou De La Rosa, Director; Saratoga, CA
West Virginia University Chamber Singers; Kym Scott, Director; Morgantown, WV
Western Connecticut State University Choir; Jeremy Wiggins, Director; Danbury, CT
INTERMISSION
NATIONAL OPERA CHORUS
Dr. Nicolás Dosman, Guest Conductor
Alyson Cambridge, Soprano
David Margulis, Tenor
Sydney Outlaw, Baritone
SCOTT JOPLIN A Real Slow Drag from Treemonisha
GIOACHINO ROSSINI Come un’ape from La Cenerentola
GAETANO DONIZETTI Com’e Gentil from Don Pasquale
GEORGES BIZET Habanera from Carmen
VINCENZO BELLINI Ah perche non posso odiarti from La sonnambula
GEORGE GERSHWIN My Man’s Gone Now from Porgy and Bess
GEORGE GERSHWIN Lawd I’m On My Way from Porgy and Bess
LEONARD BERNSTEIN Make Our Garden Grow from Candide
Saturday Evening, June 11th, 2022 at 8:00PM
Isaac Stern Auditorium / Ronald O. Perelman Stage