But there I sat in my pew at Brophy Chapel on Sunday, totally unprepared.   You cannot be prepared for the experience of “Darkness and Light.”  One compelling piece of music after another reaches somewhere deep inside you and both pokes and caresses your soul with the amazing artistry that is the hallmark of the Phoenix Chorale, with an OMG! gorgeous new composition as the highlight of this stunning program of choral music.

“Darkness and Light” was a fitting title for a program full of juxtapositions  that stretched you in every emotional and spiritual direction.  It was fire and water.  Love and heartache.  Joy and sorrow.  Tenderness and brutality.  Conflict and peace.  Fear and comfort.  Death and survival.  East and West.  Tradition and mysticism.  Sensuality and solitude.  Dissonance and harmony.  Huge swells of luscious chords and haunting bass drone or repetitive chant.  Sound that filled every inch of the room and notes rendered with an almost imperceptible whisper.  Tears running down my face and an almost irrepressible urge to jump up from my seat and burst into joyful applause.   Exhaustion and exhilaration.  It was an experience best summed up by a phrase  my significant other used years ago to describe a Chorale concert:  ”I am as a jellied mass…”

There are no words to convey this experience, but those found in the program notes and text offer a glimpse that might allow you to imagine the beauty of the music they inspired.  There is music set to poetry of Rumi in honor of a wedding anniversary:  “May this marriage have a fair face and a good name, an omen as welcomes the moon in a clear blue sky.”  There is music set to poetry based on the Orthodox wedding service:  “Let her now tenderly spread her bridal veil…And he listens.”  There is music honoring MLK:  “Sleep, sleep tonight, and may your dreams be realized.”  A child’s prayer honoring schoolchildren slain by a gunman:  ”Welcome, Jesu — Deep in my soul forever stay.”  A song for a young woman killed in an accident:  “May flights of angels sing thee to thy rest.”  A lullaby in which a father comforts his child frightened by the sounds of gunfire: ”It’s just the drums of a new music.”

And then there was new music — literally.  Sunday’s concert featured the world premiere of  “Dark Night of the Soul,”  the Chorale’s composer-in-residence Ola Gjeilo’s new piece for choir, piano and strings.  The text of St. John of the Cross is powerful juxtaposition itself — of  his experience of heavenly visions while enduring barbaric conditions in prison, and his poetry of the spiritual journey from earthly constraints to communion with God — “Ah, the sheer grace!”   The music compounds the power of his words by contrasting percussive piano accompaniment with melodic strings and a broad band of choral sound, all surging and retreating with cinematic drama.  It was music that had my friends and I sharing glances and muttering “Oh my God…”  I have a feeling this piece will gain familiarity way beyond the world of choral music;  I look forward to seeing the cinematography that can do it justice.

Fortunately, this weekend offers second and third chances for this once-in-a-lifetime experience:  Trinity Cathedral on Saturday night, American Lutheran Church in Sun City on Sunday afternoon.  Don’t miss it.  You know it will be good.   Be prepared.  Read the program notes and texts.   Bring a hankie.

by Loral Deatherage, Phoenix Chorale Board Chair

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DARKNESS & LIGHT

February 27, 2010 – Saturday evening at 7:30 pm
Trinity Episcopal Cathedral
100 W. Roosevelt St., Phoenix – map
*KBAQ 89.5 FM Pre-Concert Talk starts at 6:30 pm

February 28, 2010 – Sunday afternoon at 3:00 pm
American Lutheran Church
17200 Del Webb Blvd., Sun City – map

Here’s the repertoire for these concerts:

With A Lily in Your Hand - Eric Whitacre

This Marriage – Eric Whitacre

Village Wedding – Sir John Tavener

Lullaby from “The Garden of Paradise” - Shawn Crouch

A Child’s Prayer – James MacMillan (Cassandra Ewer, soprano / Danya Tiller, soprano)

MLK – words and music by U2, arr. Bob Chilcott (Andrew De Valk, tenor)

Song for Athene – Sir John Tavener

Dark Night of the Soul - Ola Gjeilo (World premiere; Ola Gjeilo, piano / Alison Chaney, soprano / Michelle Mitchell, violin / Laura Speck, violin / Allyson Wuenschel, viola / Clara Lee, cello)

Noche oscura del alma – Carlos Surinach

Nocturnes – Morten Lauridsen (Joshua Hillmann, piano)

And don’t forget!  Check out the KBAQ 89.5 FM Pre-Concert Talk — only at Trinity Cathedral on February 27 — which starts at 6:30 p.m. and takes place in Atwood Hall.

Buy tickets here.

• 2 volunteers needed for Sunday, February 21, from 1:30 pm to 3 pm
  at Brophy Chapel (4701 N. Central Ave., Phoenix) more concert info here

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• 4 volunteers needed for Friday, February 26, from 6:00 pm to 7:30 pm
  at Trinity Cathedral (100 W. Roosevelt St., Phoenix) more concert info here

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• 3 volunteers needed for Saturday, February 27, from 5:30 pm to 7:30 pm
  at Trinity Cathedral (100 W. Roosevelt St., Phoenix) more concert info here

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• 2 volunteers needed for Sunday, February 28, from 1:30 pm to 3 pm
  at American Lutheran Church (17200 Del Webb Blvd., Sun City) more concert info here

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We are also presenting a special performance featuring Ola Gjeilo with special guest, Arizona saxophonist Ted Belledin. The concert, on February 26, features the two musicians in a duet creating new music, completely improvised on the spot, and in the stylistic vein of improvisers like Keith Jarrett and Jan Garbarek. The hauntingly beautiful music will be just as informed by classical and world music as by jazz and unlike a lot of free-improv jazz, it will be melodic and unabashedly lyrical. You can see a preview of the concert below.

Also, join us on facebook and play our Get-to-Know Ola Gjeilo Game. Each Monday and Wednesday there will be a question posted about Ola. The first person to answer the question correctly will win that round. The answers will be posted the next day (on Tuesday and Thursday). We will keep track of the winners of each round of questions and at the end of the game in late March, the person with the most points will win a sur-prize package. www.facebook.com/phoenixchorale

by Brittany Westcott, Phoenix Chorale Marketing Intern

The puppetry provided by Basil Twist and his troupe for “Master Peter’s Puppet Show” was a combination of “stick puppets” (for the puppet show within a puppet show) and life-sized (or even larger) puppets, with the large ones operated by one or more puppeteers dressed in black and wearing hoods, influenced by the Bunraku-style puppetry of Japan. In this production, the symphony and singers were on the stage, just in front of the elevated puppet theater, with the singers placed on the side of the stage nearest the puppets whose voices they were supplying. In my case, my “alter ego,” Don Quixote, came off the puppet stage and stood by me for a moment on his way down to the front of the stage for the final moments of the production, making an obvious connection for the audience between the puppet and his voice (me).

I had a bunch of “fans” out in Symphony Hall on Saturday–specifically, my entire family–including my brother and parents (who flew in from California), my grown children (Ryan and Erika), and my wife Jody, who had just driven back from seminary classes in California an hour before the performance. They’re all musicians, from amateur to professional, and so I was very happy to have all of them there for the performance. To add to the evening’s fun, we all rode the Valley METRO light rail to and from Symphony Hall, sharing the ride home with a bunch of supercross race fans from an event at Chase Field.

This project included both hard work (rapid, exclamatory, and dramatic vocal lines in Spanish) and a LOT of fun, especially spending time with Erik G and Yulia van Doren, my fellow singers, and conductor Michael Christie, whose wonderful manner in both rehearsals and performances is genuine, respectful, artistic and yet practical, and who is also very nice to have lunch or drinks with. Erik and I have sung together often, with his Evangelist portrayals complementing my singing of the words of Jesus in Bach’s passions, as soloists in Handel’s Messiah, and at High Holy Days at a Jewish temple.

The concerts were part of the second annual Target World Music Festival, and the first half included an interesting combination of works with a Latin-American theme, including some extended alternation of orchestral textures with Andean folk music played by Tahuantinsuyo, a group that utilizes authentic Andean instruments of various sizes. They had the audience clapping enthusiastically in time with their final piece of the first half as they danced through the audience.

In closing, I’d like to thank the dedicated staff (both administrative and musical) of The Phoenix Symphony–truly a class act–for making this an excellent experience, but also thank the representatives of the Phoenix Chorale who attended rehearsals and performances, and who were very supportive of “their singers.”

With lots of love,
David Topping, Bass-Baritone (aka “Don Quixote” or “DQ” for short)

click here for more pictures from Saturday Night’s performance

The puppet opera is pulled straight from the classic story of Don Quixote by Cervantes, specifically from Chapter 26 of the second volume which features a puppet show.  So what you end up with is a puppet show (of small puppets) within a puppet show (of life-sized puppets).

The role of Don Quixote is sung by Phoenix Chorale singer David Topping.  The role of Master Peter is sung by Phoenix Chorale singer Erik Gustafson.  Each of these roles are acted out by life-sized puppets under the direction of master puppeteer Basil Twist.

The basic story is this: Don Quixote is watching the puppet show and gets completely sucked into the story, sometimes confusing the puppet show with reality and sometimes even insisting Master Peter isn’t telling the story correctly.  Quixote eventually loses it and ends up destroying Master Peter’s puppet show.

I asked David what in particular he has liked about the experience so far and he said, “It’s pretty cool to see the puppeteers acting out the role I’m singing.”  Basil Twist introduced David to his alter ego, Mark, who is the primary puppeteer for Don Quixote and shook his hand (at which point, David clarified to me that he shook Mark’s hand – not the life-sized version of themselves; if you count, technically, there are at least 2 people and 1 puppet depicting the role of Don Quixote).

I was kind of confused about the story at first (thanks David for explaining everything to me) but now I have a better grasp on what’s happening.  It was really cool getting to see behind the scenes today and the puppets and the effects are excellent.

Be sure to listen for the harpsichord throughout – according to Wikipedia, de Falla’s inclusion of the harpsichord in the score was the first time it was written for use in the ‘modern orchestra.’

David appeared with the Symphony previously for one of their annual New Year’s Eve concerts and a few times for St. Matthew’s Passion and Erik appeared with the Symphony on Beethoven’s Choral Fantasy.  While neither David nor Erik are strangers to performing and are used to being featured in solos, this I believe, is the first time they’ve appeared as featured guest artists in this capacity and I’m very excited for them!  And (no bias here), they really sound fantastic.

If you can make it, get your tickets here.

Check out more photos from today’s rehearsal here.

Here’s the repertoire for these concerts:

To Morning - Gabriel Jackson

i thank You God for this most amazing day – Eric Whitacre

A boy and a girl – Eric Whitacre

Tal vez tenemos tiempo – Tarik O’Regan

Cecilia Virgo – Gabriel Jackson

Secrets & Prayers – Ola Gjeilo

Madrigali: Six “Fire Songs” on Italian Renaissance Poems – Morten Lauridsen

Leonardo Dreams of his Flying Machine – Eric Whitacre

And don’t forget!  Check out the KBAQ 89.5 FM Pre-Concert Talk — only at Trinity Cathedral on October 24 — which starts at 6:30 p.m. and takes place in Atwood Hall.

Buy tickets here.

Scavenger Hunt participants looking over their answers with Stacy Bertinelli of KBAQ.

So, the First Ever First Friday Scavenger Hunt was a big success!  We had a lot of fun putting this event together and watching it unfold.  Everyone was talking about it in the weeks leading up to last Friday and I couldn’t believe how many people had heard about it.  It was our opening event of the season and we gave away lots of cool door prizes, got to hang out with our friends at KBAQ, and made lots of new friends — including some zombies.  I had heard about the Zombie Lurch a couple of days before so I was prepared (and a little scared because I DO NOT like zombies).  Luckily for me, they were nice zombies.

Scavenger Hunt answer boards

In the end, the Scavenger Hunt proved to be pretty difficult.  I’m sure many of you are dying to know the answers, so here they are (we promise to make it a little easier next year!):  Scavenger Hunt Answers.

The Grand Prize Winner is Kristi Maekawa.  Kristi’s Grand Prize Package included: 2 Season Tickets to the Phoenix Chorale, a one-night stay at The Clarendon Hotel, gift certificates to MADE Art Boutique, dinner at Cheuvront’s, a KBAQ CD Box Set, and a Phoenix Chorale CD Box Set.

(l to r) Zombie, Jon Town, Zombie, Zombie, Sterling Beeaff, Jenna De Valk

Door prizes included KBAQ t-shirts, hats, CDs, Phoenix Chorale CDs and concert tickets, a gift certificate to Portland’s Restaurant, and free coffee from Fair Trade Cafe.  Everyone that attended the event received a free MP3 download of “Phoenix,” a new work premiered by the Chorale earlier this year and written by our Composer-in-Residence Ola Gjeilo.  Thanks goes to all of our sponsors for helping make this event happen.

Special thanks to our friends at KBAQ – Sterling Beeaff, Katrina Becker, Jon Town, and Stacy Bertinelli – for their help in putting this event together.

To see more photos from the First Ever First Friday Scavenger Hunt, click here.

Best Grammy-Winning Group You May Have Never Heard (or Heard Of)

Read about it here or pick up a copy of this week’s New Times and turn to page 260, in the Nightlife section.

"Rebirth" by Holly Sheppard

Also in this week’s New Times issue is artwork by our own Holly Sheppard.  Titled “Rebirth,” you can find it on page 235. Holly’s “Rebirth” was inspired in part by Ola Gjeilo’s piece “Phoenix” (which we premiered last season).  Ola Gjeilo is the Phoenix Chorale’s composer-in-residence this season.

You can see “Rebirth” in person at the New Times’ Wonderland exhibit opening at the [merz]project (1437 N. 1st Street, Phoenix) on October 2 or any time during October.  The Wonderland exhibit will showcase all of the art created for this special annual edition of the New Times by artists from all over the Valley.  The [merz]project is next door to the Burton Barr Central Library.

AND on October 16, we’ll perform for FREE at the [merz]project.  A special evening reception on October 16 features a performance by the Phoenix Chorale.  Details here.

Phoenix Chorale alto Holly Sheppard

A native of New Mexico, Holly Sheppard moved to Phoenix in 2003 to attend the University of Advancing Technology.  She works full time as an environment artist at Rainbow Studios, a local video game design company. She’s been singing with the Chorale since 2006.