Sept. IO @ no p.m. Ward Recital Hall

Sept. II @ IO a.m.

Festival Overview

CUA student works

Harbison's WOrdr from Paterson, performed by Great Noise Ensemble

sacred music St. Vincent de Paul Chapel

Sept. II @ 1:30 p.m. John Paul Hall

Sept. II @ TJO p.m. ~.ward Recital Hall

works for voice and piano

chamber works performed by Great Noise Ensemble

Concerti Friday, September 10 @ T30 p.m.

Ward Recital Hall

Two Arias from Oblivion., I Fall Asleep in the Full and Certain Hope Our Grey Indifference

Alexander Wolniak, tenor Jessica Bateman, flute

Jesse Crites, guitar Andrew Litke, cello

Kyle Gulling

1 Corinthians n:26-27 John Henderso Monica Israel Laura Schwab Jessica Thorn Elizabeth Lalor

Angela Candela Laura Yackley Elizabeth Brown Paul Campbell Nicholas Dragone Josh Armenta Andrew Vu John Danley Alec Davis

Two Songs Chris Bowen, baritone J ason Solounias, piano

Brian Ric

Bamidbar Nicholas Dragon Nicholas Dragone, tenor Ryan Patrick Welsh, baritone

Paul Campbell, piano

The Clod and the Pebble Danielle Lozano, soprano Lillian Blotkamp, soprano

Jay Parrotta, piano

Songs for a Lonely Voice

Love Songs from a Dalai Lama

Joshua Taylor, baritone Nicholas Dragone, piano

Lillian Blotkamp, soprano Jesse Crites, guitar Teresa Kim, flute Genevieve Norton, cello

Words from Paterson ~Intermission~

Clifton Ogea, baritone Great Noise Ensemble

Jay Parrott

Sarah Horicl

Ken Walicki

John Harbisoi

*We are proud to present Ken Walicki 's work on this program as part of fr.e New Voices@ CUA Festival. He was selected as part of the Call for Scores and is on the faculty of California St•te U11iversity, Fullerton.

About the Program

Kyle Gullings is a versatile composer of stage, vocal, and chamber works. A 2008

ASCAP/SCI Regional Winner, his music has been selected for performances through the Society of Composers, Inc., the College Music Society; the Kennedy Center's Page to Stage Festival, and the John Duffy Composers Institute. He has been performed by Altra String Quartet and Chicago Miniaturist Ensemble, and commissioned by Catholic University of America Women's Chorus. A post­secondary music teacher since 2006, Mr. Gullings is pursuing his DMA in Composition at Catholic University of America, where he was the first recipient of CUA's Stage Music Emphasis masters degree.

Program Note: These selections are from the recent one-act chamber opera, Oblivion,, based on H. P Lovecraft's short story "Ex Oblivione. " Incorpora ting a variety of poems, the opera details Howard's unexpec ted illness and death. He struggles to reconcile his acceptance of his own finite nature with the love and attachment of his living family. The colorful guitar harmonics and cello drone of "I Fall Asleep ... " accompany the son Philip as he delivers a solemn reading at Howard's funeral . "Our Grey Indifference" is a lyrical musing on the notion of acceptance and non-attachment .

John Henderson's compositions range from works for choral, orchestral, concert band, and chamber ensemble to those for solo piano, woodwind, and voice. His Nocturne,, for bassoon and piano won the Orlando Symphony's Young Composers Challenge in 2008 and is now published with TrevCo Music. His Mass of the Blessed Virgin Mary received an honorable mention in the Foundation for Sacred Arts' International Sacred Music Competition for Composers in 2010 . He was commissioned by Terry Hazel to compose and and record the music to accompany her new classical ballet workshop, Technique by Terry. As an arranger, John has composed popular song settings for a woodwind and piano ensemble for their performance at a wedding, has done work for the Northwest Florida Home Education Support League Concet Band, and arranged, led, and coordinated the music for the performances of St. Julian's Juggling Troupe of St. Gregory's Academy, John's high school. These perfo rmances included st reet shows, chari ty performances at nursing homes and hospitals, educational shows at schools and libraries, and hired performances for various clubs and associations. A native of Pensacola, Florida, John is currently pursuing a bachelor's degree in music composition at the Benjamin T Rome School of Music.

Brian Rice is currently in the DMA composition program at The Catholic University of America in Washington, DC, where he is studying composit ion with Dr. Andrew Simpson, and previously with Dr. Steven Strunk. Brian earned a Bachelor of Arts in Music from the University of Virginia, and a Master of Music in Composition from the University of Redlands. His piece Triptych was funded in part by the Composer Assistance Program of the American Music Center.

Program Note: The texts for these songs are poems by Lord Byron, She walks in beauty, and \Vhw we two parted. The poems cover the infatuation before the relationship, and

the fallout from the dissolution of that relationship.

Nicholas Dragone, OFM Conv., is currently an undergraduate student a The Catholic University of America. He is a composer, vocalist, pianist, and organist.

Program Note: Bamidar is the Hebrew name for the book of Numbers in the Old Testament and mean: "in the wilderness." T he poem describes a struggle between two people mourning the loss of a relationship. The piece opens with the tenor voice crying out to the wilderness. The wilderness is a plac of great pain, but also of great healing. One man is crying out in lamentation for the loss of a man that h loves greatly. The baritone responds in sharing his grief over what he cannot feel, over the love that cannot be. The duet begins in a sort of dream sequence when both men dream that they are in each others presence, sharing a warm embrace that comforts them before the impending cold.

Jay Parrotta is a Fellow of the American Guild of Organists and graduated magna cum laude from CUA with a Bachelor's of Music in Organ Performance and Minor in Composition this past spring. H e is continuing at the Benjamin T Rome School of Music with graduate studies in composition. He has premiered his music with the Columbia Pike Community Chorus, the D.C. Chapter of the American Guild of Organists, and at Washington National Cathedral. He has a varied and extensive mus. background serving as accompanis t, improviser, minister of music, organist, pianist, and solo recitalist throughout the Metropolitan Washington, D.C. area. He currently serves as interim choir director/o rganist at Trinity Church, Arlington, Virginia and

upon his completion of service to Trinity; he will serve as choir director/organist at Christ Church, Cambridge, Maryland.

Sarah Rorick is a native of Charleston, SC and is currently a doctoral student at Th Catholic University of America. Ms. Horick's works have been performed in the United States, Canada, and Europe on the programs of a number of international music festivals and recitals including Electronic Music Midwest, 2010 SCI Student National Conference, Delta State University's Elec troacoustic JukeJoint, and UNLV' Feste Fantini Trumpet Festival, among others. In addition to being a regional winner in the 2009 SCI/ASCAP Student Commission Competition, she was also finalist in the Vancouver Chamber Choir's Young Composers Competition, a finalist in the 200·.

Schlern In ternational Music Festival Competition in voice, and was nominated for an Outstanding Teaching Assistant Award at Florida State University in recognition of excep tional classroom teaching.

Program Note: Songs for a Lonely Voice.- se ts poetry by the contemporary poet Shannon Berry and was written for baritone Joshua Taylor (joshuatayloronline.com).

Ken Walicki is an American composer who is widely recognized and acknowledged for his dramatic, engaging, and often humorous music. He has received grants and commissions from ACP, the NEA, the J erome Foundation, the K.ronos Quartet, ETHEL, the New Century Saxophone Quartet, the Soldier String Quartet, the Mary Flagler Cary Trust, and Meet the Composer. He is composer-in-residence for The Divan Consort and the Rio Hondo Orchestra. As a Fulbright scholar, he studied with Karlheinz Stockhausen and Helmut Lachenmann and in master classes with Aaron Copland, Samuel Barber, and William Schumann. Walicki has collaborated

with various artists from the classical, pop, theater, film, and dance worlds, such as Lydia Lunch, Dora Ohrenstein, the Doug Elkins Dance Company, Emmy winning producer/director Mark Obenhaus, American Opera Projects, and Bermuda Triangle. He was the founder and composer of the Ken Valitsky

Ensemble which included Regina Carter and Thomas Chapin as members. Walicki was the first composer to have turntables as a regular instrument in a standing ensemble. Walicki was on the faculty at New York University and Istanbul Technical University. He is director of composition at Cal State, Fullerton. His music is available on Knitting Factory Works, C.R.I., CRS Artists, and Channel Records.

Progrrun Note: "Love Songs from a Dalai Lama" is based on the poetry of the sixth Dalai Lama, Rigdzin Tsangyang Gyatso (168r1706) as translated by Ken Walicki . Normally a boy is found and installed as Dalai Lama between the ages of three and five . Tsangyang Gyatso, due to political machinations of the fifth Dalai Lama's prime minister, was not discovered until he was around the age of fifteen. By this point , he did not want to become a monk, but rather wanted to lead a fairly dissolute lifestyle , drinking and chasing women. Since he was Dalai Lama, no one could stop him and he did what he wanted. In addition to leading a fairly debauched life, he wrote wonderful poetry describing his relationship with the infinite. His poet ry is considered classic in South and East Asia. In 1706, Tsangyang Gyatso was murdered by the Chinese. ManyTibetans believe that he is still alive and living in the Himalayas. Like Elvis, there are occasional sightings. All text is in Public domain.

About Words.from Paterson..

WOrds from Paterson.. was commissioned by the N ew Jersey Chamber Music Society, and was composed in Nervi, near Genoa, Italy in March 1989. In receiving a commission from the state where I grew up , I decided to make it appropriate to the occasion by choosing a text by the state's greatest twentieth century poet, and by writing exactly for the group that commissioned it . It is a real piece of chamber music, conceived as a series of trios and quintets, with the only full ensemble corning at the end, and only two real solos, alto flute and piano , for the Society's two directors.

But wi th all the tailoring to the occasion, I also followed the advice of the commissions to "write exac tly the piece I most wanted to write".Just after passing my fiftieth birthday I wanted to write a premature mediation on old age, the conflict between 'art' and 'life', the uses of the past-so I wouldn't have to do it later on. The piece parallels Williams contemplation of the medieval Unicorn tapes try with my composing in a system: which I derived from voice leading procedures I observed in medieval music. Though rigorous in principle, in practice it proved so natural that for months afterward the problem was ge tting out of it to begin another piece.

Two fine pieces which I have conducted, Yehuid Wyner's On This Most Voluptuous Night, which sets some of the same Williams passages in a very different context, and Donald Sur's The Unicorn and the Lady, which deals with some of the same dramatic themes, must have been influential in the launching of this piece. I am grateful to both of them, as I am to the New Directions for permission to use Williams text in the large integral sections which I chose from Paterson Book V

In Williams' poem Paterson is a town, right across the Hudson from the Cloisters where the Unicorn Tapestry is displayed in all its glory, and right next to Rutherford where the poet spend his li fe as a family doctor. It is also a person, the harried and lyrical Edward Paterson, whose story is intermittently told. My text seeks to reserve the poet's main themes, his hymns to the birds and the flowers and his quirky shifts

of tone and direction, the latter bringing us the curious reference to the New Orleans jazz clarinetist Mezz Mezzrow, whose diary quotation is dropped from my text (though many other luxuries remain).

-John Harbison'

Great Noise Ensemble

Armando Bayolo, Artistic Director & Conductor Clifton Ogea, baritone*

Rebecca Steele, viola DougJameson, cello*

Sacha Place, flute Janna Ryon, oboe & english horn

Cara Fleck, harp* Molly Orlando, piano

*indicates guest performers

' http://www.schirmer.com/default.aspx?Tabld=2420&State_2874=2&workld_2874=24259 Accessed 8/25/1 O

Hymns to the Virgin

0 mira novitas

Rising

Antiphonae

Concert II Saturday; September n @ IO a.m.

St. Vincent de Paul Chapel

Monica Szabo, soprano Nyla Louh, mezzo-soprano

John Henderson, piano

Elizabeth Smith, soprano Nola Richardson, soprano

Laura Yackley; alto

Monica Szabo, soprano Kate Suuberg, flute Sarah Scanlon, viola

Paul Campbell, piano

Jocelyn Thomas, voice Elizabeth Smith, voice John Henderson, voice

Rosemarie Houghton, soprano Jay Parrotta, organ

Caleb Wenzel

Lansing McLoskey

Christopher M. Wicks

Nissim Schaul

MarkWinges

About the Program Described as "delightfully creative" and "possess[ing] a unique and lyrical gift," Caleb Wenzel (b.1988) is enjoying a growing career as a composer vocal, choral and chamber works. He has received multiple commissions from educational, amateur and professional ensembles and has been performed in many major US citi es, including recent performances at National Pastoral Musicians' National Conference and the Texas Music Teacher's Assoc iation State Convention. Several of his chorale works are published as part of the Pathways series from Imagine MllSic Publishing An accomplished pianist, Wenzel maintains an active performance schedule as recitalist, concerto soloist and chamber musician. He has worked as a church organist and choir director for the past 8

years, and frequently leads parish liturgy workshops and choir clinics. A proud Texas native, Caleb currently resides near St Cloud, MN pursuing degrees in piano performance and composition from Saint /, John's Univers ity, where he is the 2010-u Theodore Presser Scholar.

Program. Note: The Catholic devotion to the Virgin Mary has held a dear place in my heart since my dad first taught me the Rosary in the second grade as I prepared for my first H oly Communion. Hymns to the..­Virgi1L became my personal devotional project from 2006-2008 (with a finalizing revision in 2010). Je Vous Sa!ue Marie..- is the French translation of the Ave Maria (Hail Mary). T he piece is written in three main sections: the fi rst honors Mary "full of grace", the second honors Mary as "Mother of God", and the last asks the Holy Virgin to pray for us. The piece closes with the soprano singing "Amen" while the piano softly ascends, humbly taking the prayer to Heaven. There Is No Rose..- is based on a 15'" century carol recalling the images around the Nativity It starts with a quiet lullaby depicting Mary and the infant. Suddenly, all of heaven opens as the angels sing "Gloria in Excelsis." So moved by the sight, we find ourselves called to leave worldly things behind to fo llow the child , joyfully singing "Alleluia."

Lansing McLoskey's music has been performed in thirteen countries on six continents, and has received more than two dozen national and international awards. He has received commissions from Meet The Composer, the N.E.A., the Barlow Endowment, the Fromm Foundation, Pew Charitable Trusts, ASCAP, and Music At The Anthology, and has written for such renowned ensembles as The Hilliard Ensemble, Speculum Musicre, and Dinosaur Annex. Recent performances include p remieres in Boston, New York, Rome, Chicago, Miami, and Melbourne, Australia, and performances in Mexico and at the XVIII International J azz Festival in Lima, Peru, among others. He was also a Guest Composer at the Aspen Music School las t

summer. McLoskey completed his Ph.D. at Harvard, with additional studies at USC and The Royal Danish Academy of Music. He currently teaches at the University of Miami School of Music. His music is released on Albany, Wergo Schallplatten, Capstone, Tantara, and Beauport Classics. Sixth Species, a monograph CD of his music, was released to critical acclaim in 2008, and two CDs are slated for release in 201r. wwwlansingmcloskey.com

Program. Note: 0 mira novitas was commissioned as a Christmas piece by the vocal ensemble Tapestry. As such I wanted it to be a celebration of the birth of Christ, but I also wanted it to have multiple meanings. After giving it much thought - and no doubt being influenced by the recent birth of our twin boys - I dec ided to make it not simply a celebration of Christ's birth, but of birth in general: A celebration of womanhood and of nurturing. However, after reading literally hundreds of Marian and matriarchal texts in various languages and from various eras and cultures, I was unable and unwilling to limit myself to

one single text. The solution was to make the piece a triple-texted motet. This allowed for a counterpoint of texts and meanings, as well as of musical ideas.

Christopher M. Wicks holds a M .Mus. in Composition from the Universite de Montreal, a M.Mus. in Organ from the University of Oregon, a BA in Music from Marylhurst University near Portland, Oregon, and he is a Fellow of the American Guild of Organists. The immediate former Dean of the Salem Chapter of the American Guild of Organists, he plays at two churches in Salem, and his compositions have been published by four houses, as well as performed in fourteen states, Canada, South Korea and four European countries.

Program Note: My composition "Three Feasts and Fasts" contrasts a second movement which is penitent in tone ("Vigil of St. Peter," June 28), with opening and closing movements which are more jubilant ("Easter Day" and "Trinity Sunday" (the eighth Sunday after Easter)). The musical language is rife with pandatonicism and shifting modes in a context which is not harshly dissonant nor altogether conventionally tonal. The poet, Englishwoman Christina Rossetti, lived from 1830 to 1894, and devoted much of her writing life to the advancement of Christianity as practiced by the Oxford Movement.

Nissinl Schaul (www.nissimmusic.org) is a composer interested in collisions of color - peaceful and vio lent, strident and subdued - in his search for the intersection between still space and grand gestures. Nissim grew up in Raleigh, NC, and, via New York City, currently lives in Paris. His work has been performed by, among others, QNG-Quarcet New Generation, the soprano Isa Lagarde, and Flying Forms, and been heard far afield <New York, Paris, St. Paul, The Hague, Slovenia, etc.) as well as on the radio on France Musique and Studio 360. Nissim has won two ASPCAPlus awards, and his music has been supported by the American Music Center's Composer Assistance Program, SUNY-Stony Brook, and a City of Urbana Arts Grant. Nissim has a

BA from Columbia University (with honors in music) and a Masters in Composition from SUNY-Stony Brook. His teachers have included Allain Gaussin, Sheila Silver, Jonathan Kramer, and Marco Stroppa. He is presently studying the vielle a roue (French hurdy-gurdy), just for fun.

Program Note: Rising is a setting the "holy holy holy" prayer (ranctus in Latin, kedushah in Hebrew) in a quasi-Gregorian chant style, but using the related or identical texts in Hebrew, Old Church Slavonic, and Arab ic. The piece was premiered in Croatia and performed shortly thereafter in Slovenia with the idea of "surprising" the largely-Catholic audience with Catholic-sounding music in the sacred languages of the two other major religions in the region, plus my own tradition, which also has deep roots in the Balkans. The piece is antiphonal, and the three choral parts are largely independent of each other. The result is a haze of sound, from which individual vocal lines sometimes pop out. As voices enter and drop out, moments of sonic mass and repose alternate .

Mark Wrnges was born in Louisville, Kentucky, and currently resides in San Francisco, where he is composer I advisor for the chamber choir Volti. He has studied

1

in Cincinnati, San Fran- cisco and the Musikhogskolan in Stockholm, Sweden. Performers of his works include the New Jersey Percuss ion Ensemble, the San Francisco Con- temporary Music Players, Earplay, Works-in-Progress: Berlin, the Pittsburgh New Music En- semble, the Pharos Music Project (NY), Carmina Slovenica (Slovenia), the Guangdong Choir (China), the Marin, Berkeley, Nashua (NH) and Pite:i (Sweden) Symphonies and many others. He is a fellow of the MacDowell colony. In a review of his recent CD But This Is This, Jason Serinus of

SFCV charac terizes his music as being from "a composer who, while serious in intent, enjoys wri ting music that enables per- formers to indulge in and relish their instrumental back-and-forths.'' Gramophone magazine has called his music "Stylistically adventurous in setting, but strongly beholden to conventional means". His song cycle Discover & Reveal for alto , viola and piano was recently premiered in Boston by Eli zabeth Anker and is being recorded for CD release. Recent large-scale works include: pax penetralis , commissioned by the San Francisco Choral Society, and A Weaving of Peace, com- missioned by the Nashua (NH) Symphony.

Program Note: Antiphonae (2010) is a setting of four Latin texts by Hildegard for soprano and organ. Although of the Christian tradition, the texts of Hildegard seem to me to also be a celebration of the spiritual in a more general sense. In addition to their vivid imagery, I detect a strong sense of the feminine in them. All of these are things that draw me to her writing, and I enjoy working with the open sound of the original Latin as well. Musically, lurking in the background of this piece are the melodic shapes and irregular rhythmic freedom of chant, even though the pitches and rhythms are decidedly of our own time (no chants were harmed during the composing of this music). Antiphonae..- is a true chamber music duo, with the soprano and organ having equal roles. As such, there is a decided lack of bombas t from organ, which instead emphasizes varied colors and textures.

Concert Ill Saturday, September ·II @ 1:30 p.m.

John Paul Hall

Five Songs from Carl Sandburg's Prairie-

The Writing on the Wall

Songs of Silver

Dana Litke, soprano Paul Campbell, piano

Alexander Wolniak, tenor Paul Campbell, piano

Robert Fleisher

David Asher Brown

Elizabeth Lim Megan Ihnen, soprano Chris Bowen, baritone

Jason Solounias, piano

-Interm.ission-

More Ben Kapilow Jessica Thorne, voice

Chloe Canton, piano Jason Solounias, piano

From Nashville to Dalton

It's Time for Roses

Existing

I Hate This Place

Sabrina Laney Warren, voice Chloe Canton, piano

Leslie Vrncent, voice Andrew Vu, piano

Eleni Nicole Gianulis, voice Andrew Vu, piano

Brittany Simmons, voice Paul Campbell, piano

Rachel De Vore Fogarty

Dennis Livingston

Natalie Lovejoy

Kevin Fogarty

About the Program

Robert Fleisher, a native New Yorker, attended the High School of Music and Art, graduated with honors from the University of Colorado, and earned his doctorate in composition at the University of Illinois, studying with Salvatore Martirano, Ben Johnston, and Paul Zonn. His music has been performed in Canada, France, Germany, Spain, the United Kingdom, and throughout the United States; recordings appear on Centaur and Capstone. His book, Twenty Israeli Composers: V<iices of a Culture., (1997), is published by the Wayne State University Press; he is also a contributing composer and essayist in Theresa Sauer's Notations 2r (2009), an

anthology of new music scores. He is currently professor and coordinator of music theory and composition at Northern Illinois University (DeKalb).

Program Note: The texts for the Five Songs from Carl Sandburg's "Prairie" were selected from the expansive poem that opens the poet's second collection, Cornhuskers, published in 1918. Under the influence of his evocative language, this song cycle explores a completely different musical world than that inhabited by my previous works. Sandburg (1878-1967) was a journalist, political activist, fo lksinger, and a Pulitzer Prize winner for both his poetry and his biography of Abraham Lincoln. These songs are dedicated to my wife, Darsha, who introduced me to "Prairie." The Five Songs appear on the Capstone Records CD "Portraits," released in 2008.

David Asher Brown is a composer and conductor working on his M.M. in music composition at UT Austin. His compositions draw on a wide and diverse range of influences including Ashkenazi Jewish music, Balinese Gamelan, Early Music, Minimalism, and Jazz. He has won several awards and honors including a grant to compose in Prauge, CZ. He was recently enjoyed a position as faculty member of the Franco-American Vocal Academy in Perigueux, France. His music can be found at www.DavidAshcrBrown.com.

ProgrrunNote: The text from The Writing on the WaU comes from graffiti found in subway tunnels, stairwells and toilet stalls.

Elizabeth Lim is currently a graduate student at the Juilliard School, where she is studying composition with Samuel Adler and Robert Beaser. A winner ofJuilliard's 2009 composers' orchestra competition, her work "Paranoia" was premiered by Jeff Milarksy and theJuilliard Orchestra in the newly renovated Alice Tully Concert Hall. Noted for its unique expressiveness and verve, Elizabeth's music has been widely performed throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia, and she has received honors and recognition from from ASCAP, BMI, the Society of Composers, Inc. (SCI), the National Association of Composers, USA (NACUSA), the New England Philhamronic, and the Society for New Music, among others.

Ben Kapilow is a composer currently attending school in Philadelphia, PA.

Progrrun Note : More.,, a work for voice and two pianos, utilizes lyrics by the composer.

Rachel De Vore Fogarty (b. Kingston, TN, October 6, 1980) is a graduate of Belmont University in Nashville. She has studied under the tutelage of Grammy Award nominated composer William Pursell and Deen Entsminger. In 2009, she was a selected composer for Score_ Underscore! which was sponsored by the Nashville Composers Association, the Nashville Film Festival, Film Nashville, and Christ Church Cathedral's Sacred Spaces for the Arts Series. Her arrangement of Puer Natt1S!God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen_, was aired nationally on the Emmy-award winning "Christmas at Belmont" series on PBS. She was recognized as a vocal category winner for Boston Metro Opera's 1st Annual Contemporary AmericanaFest and was recently honored as a finalist in the 2010

Meistersingers Choral Composition Competition. She participated this past summer in the ACDA Lehigh University C horal Composers Conference with Steven Sametz, Chen Yi and the Princeton Singers. She is currently writing an opera based on Jane Austen's Persuasion_, with librettist Dr. Douglas Murray.

Program Note: From Nashville to Dalton_, is a song cycle setting of two poems, Coil and Only Memory of a Family Wication,Age 9, by the award-winning poet Aaron Briggs. The composer, struck by the simple beauty of the first poem, Coil, created a stark, metallic ambience to describe the passing of time as well as a constant ticking motion in the piano to mimic a clock. The second poem, Only Memory of a Family vacation, Age 9, was set to portray the droning movement of a car and the wandering thoughts of a child as he observes what is around him.

The internationally-performed cabaret songs of Boston-based Dennis Livingston reach back to the story-driven, tuneful standards of the classic American songbook, while drawing at the same time on contemporary themes. Dennis' songs have been presented at four ASCAP-MAC Songwriter Showcases and Erv Raible's New York revue, SEPTEMBER n, 2001 .. . THE MUSICAL RESPONSE, as well as in other group shows produced by Sandi Durell and Theater Resources Unlimited in New York, Centastage in Boston and the DC Cabaret Network in Washington, DC. His songs have been performed on CDs by Chris Coleman, Dane Vannatter, Lua Hadar and Robyn Springer. Dennis drew on his family history for a revue titled FROM TIN PAN

ALLEYTO SILICON VALLEY, featuring numbers by himself and by his father, Songwriters Hall of Fame inductee Jerry Livingston. Dennis has also written two children's musicals -THE CRETACEOUS CABARET and THE WEAVER AND THE SEA. You can hear his songs at www.dennislivingston.com and contact him at dennis@dennislivingston.com.

Program Note: A lyrical, sensuous ballad narrated from the point of view of a shy, bookish individual, finally driven to make a commitment - almost in spite of him or herself- to someone who cannot be lost. In part, this is my story, but the details are all fictional. While it's usually a guy in this predicament, in these times, the song can be sung just as believably by a woman.

Natalie Lovejoy is a composer/songwriter currently living in New York City. Performances of her compositions include: selections from Deployed (a musicaD for New York University's First Stages, "Bass, Interrupted" (solo for double bass) for NYU's Mix Nouveau concert, the 10-minute musical "Performance Anxiety'' off-Broadway for Raw Impressions Theatre Company; original songs for Northwestern University's Songwriters' Showcase, and many choral works for St. Mark's United Methodist Church

\ in El Paso, Texas. Natalie has studied songwriting under Craig Camelia, Amanda McBroom, Lari White, and Andrew Lippa as a part of The American Music Theater Project. She is a graduate of CUA where she earned her Bachelor of Music in musical

theater. She has also studied classical voice and music theory at the Peabody Preparatory in Baltimore. Currently, she is pursuing a Master of Music degree in composition at New York University and studies private composition with Dr. Stephen Rosenhaus. Natalie is a member of the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP).

Progrrun Note: "Existing" is from Deployed, a new musical about soldiers and their families before, during, and after a year-long deployment to Iraq. In this piece, an army wife, Annabelle, has just watched her husband leave for a deployment - again - and relives all of the conflicting emotions that coincide with such an experience. One way in which this conflict is expressed in is the contrast between the tender lyrics and agitated piano accompaniment; she loves her husband and yet she hates him for abandoning her again. The piece ends with the realization that her whole life consists of "existing" - that is, existing for her husband, and not herself

Kevin Fogarty is a songwriter/composer based in Nashville, TN. His original compositions have been performed by the Belmont University Jazz Ensemble, Schola Pacis, Christ the King Choir, and others. As a country songwriter, Kevin has written songs for several Nashville artists and has been recognized by the Nashville Songwriters Association International. His musical "Call Me Home" (book by Rick Seay) received a workshop production at Montgomery Bell Academy in Nashville last summer and a full production is scheduled for spring of 2on in Lexington, VA. Kevin and his wife, Rachel De Vore Fogarty, lead worship at Belmont Heights Baptist Church in Nashville. They live in Antioch, TN with their cat, Haydn.

Progrrun Note : "I Hate This Place" is a song from Act 1 of a new musical in progress currently titled "Balance" (book by Brittany Simmons). The show follows four young professionals in Seattle, WA as they pursue their dreams. But when real life creeps into the picture, they must lean on each other and decide what's really important in life. This song takes place early on in the first act as Isla Donovan is working in a customer service call center. It's a job that has been paying the bills while she works towards higher aspirations, but it's just been "one of those days."

Snake Oil Salesman

Thr(e.e. cummingS)ongs

Wing Over Wing

Three Nature Songs

It Isn't Music That ...

Concert IV Saturday, September II @ T30 p.m.

Ward Recital Hall

Michael Rainbow, tenor

Alexander Wolniak, tenor

Rosemarie Houghton, soprano

-Intermission•

Alexandra Phillips, soprano

Alexandra Phillips, soprano

Ian Dicke

Paul Siskind

Eric Nathan

Daniel Knaggs

Helena Michelson

About the Prograni

Great Noise Ensemble

Armando Bayolo, Artistic Director & Conductor Yeong Su Kim, Guest Conductor

*indicates guest performer

Rosemarie Houghton, soprano* Alexandra Phillips, soprano*

Emily Weber, soprano* Michael Rainbow, tenor*

Alex Wolniak, tenor*

Kat Whitesides, violin* DougJameson, cello*

Sacha Place, flute Katherine Kellen, clarinet & bass clarinet

Heidi Littman, horn Molly Orlando, piano

Eric Plewinski, percussion* Erik Sharar, guitar*

The music of American-born composer and singer/songwriter Ian Dicke (b. 1982) includes works for orchestra, chorus, chamber ensembles, and electronic media. Heralded by the San Francisco Classical Voice.- as "colorful, well-designed, and deftly scored," Dicke's works offer a unique social-political critique of contemporary popular culture. Writing on topics that range from the recent Wall Street financial meltdown to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Dicke's music is often characterized by a mix of pungent and triadic harmonies, dance-like rhythms, and layered ostinati. Dicke's works have been presented by many ensembles and festivals around the world, including the

ISCM World New Music Days, the Cabrillo Festival Orchestra under the direction of Marin Alsop, Music X, the Redshift Ensemble, Gamma-UT, Vax Novus, and the SCI National Conference. In 2007, Dicke was awarded a MetLife Creative.- Connections grant from the Meet the Composer Foundation. For more information on works in progress, upcoming performances, commissioning, and score rentals, please visit www.iandicke.com.

Progrrun Note: Snake Oil SalesmmL is a short work for male voice, bass clarinet, violoncello, and drum set. The collage-like text is assembled from dozens of famous slogans taken from the advertising canon. The work was commissioned by the Sissy-Eared Mollycoddles and premiered by them on December r3, 2009 at the Heaven Gallery in Chicago, Illinois.

Paul Siskind's music encompasses many genres, and has been performed across the country and abroad by renowned ensembles such as the Pittsburgh Symphony, Minnesota Orchestra, Arditti String Quartet, Dale Warland Singers, Continuum, Burklyn Ballet Theatre, and mezzo-soprano Stephanie Blythe. His work is published by G. Schirmer Inc., Cantando Musikkforlag, and Sweet Child Music , and has been recorded on the Innova, Albanyfrroy, New Ariel, Equilibrium, and ERM Media labels, among others. He has worked as a composer-in-residence for the Education Department of Minnesota Opera, Twin Cities Chapter Coordinator for the American

Composers Forum, Music Director of One Voice Mixed Chorus, and as an Auditor for the New York State Council on the Arts. Dr. Siskind is on the faculty of the Crane School of Music, SUNY-Potsdam.

Program Note: My Thr(e.e. cummingS)ongs was commissioned in the fal l of 2002 by Sweet, Fair, and Wise. Although I had previously written musical settings of poetry by a wide variety of modern poets, this was my first setting of poetry by E.E. Cummings. Attempting to set Cummings' work to music always seemed like a daunting challenge to me; like many people, I was only familiar with the famous quirky poems, the ones with fragmented grammar and twisted syntax. These had always struck me as not working well as texts for musical setting; the visual grammatical quirks would lose all of their meaning and charm when sung, rendering the poems merely unintelligible. However, as I looked for poems for this commiss ion, I discovered a side of Cummings ' work that I did not know: a highly lyrical style. I was very surprised to find that the famous quirky poems are really only a small example of his work, and that most of his work is immensely lyrical and romantic, including many rather traditional sonnets. The two outer songs reflect Cummings' lyrical style, while the middle song reflects the qui rky humor that Cummings is more known for.

Works by Eric Nathan (b. 1983) have been performed at music fest ivals including the Aspen Music Festival, Ravinia Festival, Tanglewood, Bantf Centre, Composers Now Festival at Symphony Space, and the Spark Festival of Electronic Music and Arts . His music has been performed by the Aspen Concert Orchestra, Daejeon Philharmonic Orchestra, Omaha Symphony Chamber Orchestra, Yale Symphony, Aspen Contemporary Ensemble, Damocles Trio, Society for New Music, and the Mirari Brass Quintet, among others. Nathan's mus ic has been recognized with awards including a Charles Ives

Scholarship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, Jacob Druckman Prize from the Aspen M usic Festival and School, American Composers Orchestra Underwood New Music Readings, William Schuman Prize in the BMI Student Composers Awards, two ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer Awards, and First Prize in the SCI/ASCAP Student Commission Competition. Nathan is a currently a doctoral student at Cornell University where he studies with Steven Stucky and Roberto Sierra. H e has studied at Indiana University (M.M.), Y~le College (B.A.), and TheJuilliard School Pre-College Division and has received fe llowships to the Tanglewood Music Center, Aspen Music Festival and the Wellesley Composers Conference.

Program Note: "Wing Over Wing" is a song cycle focused on a central theme of flight. The work reflects on different associations of the word, alluding not only to the physical movement of flying but also to flight as a journey through time. "Wing Over Wing" is also a memorial piece, written for two family members nearing the end of their lives during the composition of the piece. The title refers to the imagery in the Whitman poem, the two eagles tumbling wing over wing to the water below, and also the last line of my poem which concludes the fourth movement of the song cycle - "Sleep and sing, sleep and sing- Sleep, sing, fly, sleep, sing, fly and soar!" - an image of rising wing over wing to the sky. "Wing Over Wing" was commissioned by the Society of Composers Inc. and the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP).

Daniel]. Knaggs (b.1983), native of southeast Michigan, is a concert composer, arranger, producer, and vocalist working in a wide range of media and styles. He has lived in France, Mexico, and Nicaragua and these diverse cultures help to shape his

.. , music. He completed his Master in Composition at Bowling Green State University in 2009 as well as bachelor's degrees in voice performance and Spanish at the University of Michigan in 2007. His composition teachers inc.lude Bright Sheng, Marilyn Shrude, and Burton Beerman. Daniel has received awards from ASCAP, the Foundation for Sacred Arts, the Toledo Diocese Centenary Hymn Competition, and

the BGSU Graduate College. His work has been featured at the 2009 Electronic Arts and Music Festival in Miami, at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, at Roulette., in New York City, on a nationally-televised EWTN broadcast, and on the Mexican record label Corazon de Arpa. He is currently a full-rime Spanish teacher in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Program Note: In Three Nature Songs, replete with my transcriptions of American robin song, green tree frog chirping, and other animal sounds, I sought to set texts that portray nature as making music in some way Through the course of composing these songs, I came to appreciate the music that exists in nature-a music of simple yet profound beauty that even the finest conservatory or music school could never produce. This simple beauty speaks to me as a composer, but also as a human being. Thus, in addition to the idea of music in nature, Three Nature Songs has taken on a deeper philosophical meaning which would reflect the journey of human life in this three song schema reflecting early life., in the first song, the prime of fife., in the second, and the autumn., of life in the third.

Helena Michelson completed her undergraduate studies in Music at the University of California, Berkeley and holds a doctorate in composition and theory from the University of California, Davis. First trained as a pianist, she studied piano with Mack McCray at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and, in masterlasses, with Richard Goode and Awadagin Pratt. She has studied composition, among others, with Olly Wilson, Cindy Cox, Jeffrey Miller, Pablo Ortiz, and, in masterclasses, with Louis Andriessen, Martin Bresnick, Mario Davidovsky, Eric Chasalow, Philippe Leroux, Bernard Rands,Judith Shatin, and Joel Hoffman. She has been a participating composer in MusicX, a festival of new music at the University of Cincinnati College­

Conservatory of Music in 2003, 2005, and again, in 2007, an invited composer at Domaine Forget in Quebec (2004), a composition fellow at the Composer's Conference at Wellesley College (2003), Ernest Bloch Composers' Symposium (2004), and an invited composer at June in Buffalo (2009). Her music has been performed and recognized by such groups and organizations as San Francisco Contemporary Players, North/South Consonance, Berkeley Contemporary Players, Empyrean Ensemble, Le Nouveau Ensemble Moderne, Riverside and Berkeley Symphonies, as well as through commission from the American Composers Forum and Composer Assistance Program of the American Music Center. As a performer of her music, she has recently appeared at UAHuntsville New Music Festival 2010 and INNOVATION-­New Music Festival 2009 at University of Central Missouri at Warrensburg.

Program Note: The song cycle It Isn't Music That .. . (2004) is set to the poems by Paul Eluard (1895-1952), the great French Surrealist poet, and here translated by Richard M. Weisman. The poems come from the collection "Capital of Pain" (Capitale de la douleur) and more specifically, from "Repetitions" <Repetitions) written mostly in the early 1920s. The title of the song cycle is a reference to another poem, also from "Repetitions," "It Isn't Poetry That . . . ," but one I chose not to set to music. The poems were written early in the Surrealist movement, during Eluard's and the group's experiments with automatic writing and the unconscious. The poems themselves don't have specific theme, rather they offer visions and moods,

attempting to provoke an unmediated emotion independent of comprehension. For the surrealists, Eluard asserts, a word never fully explains an object; it only gives an idea. Language becomes most effective in suggestion through shock words . In my setting, I wanted to let the text direct the music; that is the music explicating the text. In the first movement, I have kept the poems faithfully intact, whereas in the second movement, I began to take liberties ·and repeat certain words and phrases. In keeping with the theatrical nature of the poems, I wanted to give each instrument a role to play, so that everyone is a part of this performance.

Special thanks to:

The Catholic University of America

The Benjamin T Rome School of Music Dean Wagstaff

former Dean Murry Sidlin

The faculty of the Composition Division Dr. Andrew Simpson

Dr. Steven Strunk Dr. Stephen Gorbos (SCI faculty advisor)

Great Noise Ensemble

Dominic Traino and the CUA production staff

and

All the musicians who graciously invested their time and talent in this festival

CUA

The Catholic University of America 620 Michigan Ave, N.E. Washington, DC 20064