Window On The World
Saturday, April 24 at 8:00 p.m.

Center Theater
California Center for the Arts, Escondido
340 North Escondido Boulevard

Palomar College Box Office
Noon - 5:00 p.m.
Tuesday through Friday
760-744-1150 ext. 2453
 

The Palomar College Chamber Singers
Dr. David Chase, Conductor
 

About Alice Parker

Composer, conductor and teacher Alice Parker says that she sang before she spoke. What an appropriate beginning for a career that has spanned almost six decades and has been devoted to the creation of works for the human voice.

She began composing at age five, and wrote her first orchestral score while still in high school. At Smith College and The Juilliard School she studied composition and conducting, beginning her long association with Robert Shaw. Their many settings of American folksongs, hymns and spirituals form an enduring repertoire for choruses all around the world. Through the years she has continued composing in all the choral forms from opera to cantata, from sacred anthems to songs on texts by distinguished poets. She has been commissioned by such well-known groups as Chanticleer, the Vancouver Chamber Singers and the Atlanta Symphony, as well as hundreds of community; school and church choruses. Her works are presented by numerous publishers including Carl Fischer, GIA Music and Jaymar.

In 1985 the singers and choral directors who had been fired by her talent and zeal for the remarkable sound of voices singing together, convinced her to start her own group. Melodious Accord, Inc. is focused on what is for her the heart of vocal music: the melody. The Musicians of Melodious Accord, a sixteen-voice professional chorus, present an annual concert series in New York City, and have recorded such albums as

Take Me To The Water ("these thirteen Spirituals ring loud and clear!"), Transformations (American hymns and folk songs) and Sacred Symphonies (from Schutz to Parker). As an organization, Melodious Accord has presented symposia, encouraged new composers, offered post-doctoral seminars, and created a network of like-minded musicians through the Melodious Accord Newsletter.

Alice Parker travels in the United States and abroad, conducting workshops, concerts and SINGS in which all participants, children or adults, professional or amateur, learn to make music with remarkable joy and clarity. Her techniques have encouraged a generation of music teachers and choral conductors to think about the music and the act of conducting in new ways. No less an authority than Robert Shaw himself has said of her that "she possesses a rare and creative musical intelligence".
Now a resident of western Massachusetts, Miss Parker has published books on melodic styles, choral improvisation and Good Singing in Church. Three videos have been released showing her work with hymnody. She is the recipient of four honorary doctorates and the Smith College Medal, as well as grants from ASCAP, the National Endowment for the Arts and the American Music Center. She is on the board of Chorus America.

About De Cormier

A graduate of Juilliard School of Music, Mr. De Cormier's other conducting engagements have taken him from Broadway and opera to numerous concert tours throughout the U.S. and Canada with his own professional group the Robert De Cormier Singers. He spent many years as conductor and arranger for Harry Belafonte and has been music director for the popular folk trio Peter, Paul and Mary for the past 20 years.

He has written several works ranging from choral to ballet to Broadway scores. His cantata, The Jolly Beggars, based on the poetry of Robert Burns, premiered in New York to critical acclaim. His ballet score, Rainbow 'Round My Shoulder, is in the active repertoire of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre. His choral works Legacy, Four Sonnets to Orpheus, Shout for Joy, and Under a Greenwood Tree, were premiered at Carnegie Hall by the New York Choral Society.

Mr. De Cormier's most recent recording, The Jolly Beggars, was released on the Arabesque label in May of this year. Other recordings include three Christmas albums on Arabesque, the Kodaly Missa Brevis and Vaughan Williams' Mass in G Minor on Vox Turnabout, Songs of Liberty for the Book-of-the-Month Club, as well as Carmina Burana for Newport Classics, Paul Alan Levi's Mark Twain Suite and De Cormier's Legacy and Four Sonnets to Orpheus for Centaur, and an album of Christmas music with Jessye Norman for Phillips.

In 2000 Mr. De Cormier established the eleven member professional vocal ensemble, Counterpoint. Following the groups' debut concert Jim Lowe, critic for the Times-Argus wrote " . . . a cohesive ensemble, able to perform a varied repertoire with style and understanding. If this is just the beginning, Counterpoint is truly a welcome addition to the Vermont music scene." He has served on the New York State Council on the Arts and been a member of the Choral Panel of the National Endowment of the Arts.

In 2002 the Vermont Arts Council awarded Mr. De Cormier the Governor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts, an honor bestowed upon a Vermont artist who has achieved national or international stature in his or her chosen art form. The ceremony, which was held in the State House Chambers, featured a tribute by his long-time friend and associate in the music publishing business, John McClure, former director of the Masterworks

About Enrique Ubieta

Enrique Ubieta was born in Havana, Cuba in 1934. After graduating in 1956 from the National Conservatory, he became a professor of music, and published his invention in musical notation, FONOCROMIA. Beginning in 1957, he wrote many musicological articles for the Cuban Press, while composing for the Fine Arts Theatre of Havana.

In 1959, Ubieta composed the music for several films, which were awarded prizes in international festivals. In 1964, after television performances of some of his serious works – two of which were composed in his new style, Bimodal Harmony – and the premiere of his musical Zarzuela, MEFISTOFELES, he left Cuba, going to live in Paris. There his music was broadcast, used in French films, and on television.

Since 1965, the composer has resided in the U.S.A., integrating himself into the culture of this country. Several concerts of his music have been performed in Town Hall, and Carnegie Recital Hall in New York City, receiving enthusiastic reviews.

Ubieta is a contributor to the Grove’s Dictionary of Music and Musicians, in its Sixth Edition.

THE CUBAN MASS was commissioned in 1968, by father Michael Feketis, a Roman Catholic priest of the large Cuban community in New Jersey. It was premiered at the Episcopal Cathedral Church of St. John The Divine, in the winter of 1973.

In form and orchestration, THE CUBAN MASS reflects the authentic character of popular Cuban music, while using the language of contemporary serious music. It is an eclectic work, combining the styles of various periods, sacred texts, and Gregorian chant developed symphonically within the framework of Cuban ethnic music.

About Eric Whitacre

An accomplished composer, conductor, and clinician, Eric Whitacre is one of the bright stars in contemporary concert music. Regularly commissioned and published, Whitacre has received composition awards from ASCAP, the Barlow International Composition Competition, the American Choral Directors Associatino, the American Composers Forum, and this spring was honored with his first Grammy nomination (contemporary classical crossover). This year he became the youngest recipient ever awarded the coveted Raymond C. Brock commission by the American Choral Directors Association; commercially he has worked with such luminaries as Barbara Streisand and Marvin Hamlisch.

Whitacre has already achieved substantial critical and popular acclaim. The American Record Guide named his first recording, The Music of Eric Whitacre one of the top ten classical albums in 1997, and the Los Angeles Times praised his music as “electric, chilling harmonies; works of unearthly beauty and imagination.”

Eric received his M.M. in composition from the Juilliard School of Music where he studied composition with John Corigliano.

About Roland Di Lasso

~1532-1594

Also known as Roland de Lassus, Orlando di Lasso is considered by many the most important composer of the 16th century. He was born in Mons, Belgium, around 1532 -nobody knows exactly- and belonged to the Franco-Flemish school of composers.

Lasso was a professional choirboy as a child and he was kidnapped three times by representatives of nobles that wanted Lasso to sing for them. He entered the service of a member of the Gonzaga family, which were hereditary dukes of Mantua. Then, at age eight, Lasso was admitted to the Chorister School of the Church of St. Nicholas at Mons. At twelve, Lasso entered the musical establishment of the viceroy of Sicily. He stayed in Italy for ten years, where he was an apprentice in Sicily, Milan, Naples and Rome. Later in 1553, he became maestro di cappella at the young age of twenty, which shows how talented he was. In 1556 Albert V, Duke of Bavaria, employed him in the Ducal Chapel. Since the Duke was deeply religious, Lasso composed mostly sacred music, but Lasso's activities were checked for a while after the Duke died. From 1564 until the end of his life, he was maestro di cappella at the court in Munich, where he died in 1594 as a wealthy and highly respected man.

Although Lasso received a knighthood from Emperor Maximillian, the Order of the Golden Spur from Pope Gregory XII, the Cross of Malta from the king of France, who became acquainted with Ronsard, the artist, while at the French court, and who was so talented and widely acclaimed, died insane of melancholia.

The important feature about Lasso's music is that, rather than piecing together liturgy, his song texts were connected to form a logical unit, which was an unusual technique for the time and musical genre. Because of this wonderful musical skill, he earned the names of "Orpheus de Belgique," and "Principe della Musica." One hundred and fifty of his French Chansons and a much smaller number of German Lieder include settings of Petrarch, Ariosto, Ronsard, and Marot (the artists).

Lasso was fluent in any style of his time: Villanella, Chanson (French part -songs), Motet, Madrigal, Lied (German part -songs), Hymns, and Lamentations. Lasso wrote sad songs of love, songs of the joys of life or satires. He also wrote a lot of sacred music, especially while he was employed by the Duke of Bavaria.

Lasso's Latin sacred music comprised masses and motets. His first book of motets appeared in Antwerp in 1556, and in 1604, his sons published 516 more, which include many of his finest works and reveal the wide range of mood already mentioned. His secular music include the chanson "Susanne un jour", which was internationally popular for decades. Over 2000 spiritual and secular works have survived to this day.