meditations

The human capacity to worship, that is, to feel beyond the self into something powerful, other, and encompassing, reveals a unique insight into human consciousness. Possibly one of humanity’s greatest evolutionary advantages, consciousness creates the capacity for people to know that they exist, and, consequently, to wonder why. Meditation opens portals into understanding, helping, through the power of reflection and imagination, to carve neural pathways that can lead to peace, transcendence, and strength. The pieces on this program celebrate those who have chosen meditation in response to tragedy and elation. They share the common reflection of feeling thrust beyond a typical state of being, or, as Alex’s poem says, “For sometimes our breath becomes more than the stories we tell ourselves.” Although meditation isn’t limited to religion, the conduit of transcendental release through meditation on this concert tends to be religious in nature. Frank’s settings of Hildegard’s ecstatic poems reveal the closest tie to Christianity. Hildegard - celebrated in Christian history for her capacity to convey spiritual ecstasy in verse - offered texts that serve as a potent vehicle for Frank’s colorful and gripping settings. Allen’s use of Jeremiah’s “Lamentations” to focus a searching lens on contemporary governance and Ethan’s transformation of key verses from the death mass text to honor those whose lives were taken by an act of fear masked as power reveal religion - even when wrenched out of its original context - as a representative of the question of “who am I?” Harry’s, in setting a common Buddhist chant whose meditative power reminds worshippers that others before them have achieved enlightenment, creates an important bridge between meditation and community. The joyful, celebratory nature of this setting speaks volumes about the profound nature of meditation and its capacity to not only connect individuals with their own consciousnesses, but also, through that deeper connection, their capacity to find joyful communion with one another.
~David Harris

Kyrie - ethan gans-morse

cond. David Harris
Alina Roitstein, soloist

In the fall of 2001, following the traumatic events of September 11, the American landscape was ablaze with blame, shock, and hatred. Amidst the mixed outpourings of hope and fear, community gatherings and crazed finger-pointing, and the genuine efforts to comfort and rebuild, it seemed that one all-important emotional activity had been overlooked; grief. Before life could go on, we had to stop and feel the pain. Grief is the first step to healing. Kyrie was written as a meditation on the pain and loss and the cycle of grief and recovery.
- Ethan Gans-Morse

Text
Kyrie eleison
Dona eis requiem
Et lux perpetua luceat eis

Translation
Lord have mercy
Grant them rest
And let perpetual light shine upon them

About the composer: Ethan Gans-Morse is a critically-acclaimed composer, producer, and ensemble director based in Oregon. His works have been heard around the US, in Mexico, Italy, Taiwan, and South Africa, and have been performed by numerous ensembles, including the Portland Vocal Consort (winner of the 2010 Composer Competition), Chorus Austin, the American Creators Ensemble, the Quartetto Indaco, the Fireworks Ensemble, and the Eugene Contemporary Chamber Ensemble. Ethan’s work brings together his love of Renaissance and Baroque music with his passion for new, socially relevant works of art that inspire a sense of human connection. He holds a master’s degree in music composition from the University of Oregon and a bachelor’s degree in music and linguistics from Macalester College.

Seven line supplication to guru rinpoche - harry einhorn

cond. Diana Woolner

The Seven Line Supplication to Guru Rinpoche is a traditional Tibetan prayer invoking Padmasambhava, the Tantric Buddhist master who helped establish Buddhism in Tibet sometime in the 8th Century and gave numerous teachings which are still being discovered today. This prayer is said to clear outer, inner, and secret obstacles on the path to full, complete, awakening.

Contained within is a sacred text still practiced and revered by many people around the world. In Himalayan culture and Buddhist practice in general, it is customary that such texts are not placed directly on the ground, stepped on or stepped over, and secret obstacles on the path to full, complete, awakening.

For those who wish to learn more about Padmasambhava and his activities, one place to start could be the book Crazy Wisdom by Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche.

This piece is dedicated as an offering to the Karmapa, Orgyen Trinle Dorje, head of the Karma Kagyu school of Tibetan Buddhism.

Text
orgyen yul gyi nub jang tsampema gesar dongpo la
yatsen chok gyi ngodrub ne
pema jungne she su drak
kor du khandro mangpo kor
kye kyi jesu dak drub khi
jinji lob chir shek su sol
Guru pema Siddhi hum

Translation
In the northwest of the land of Udiyana
on a blooming lotus flower.
You have attained supreme wondrous Sidhi,
you are renowned as Pad Ma Kara.
Surrounded by your retinue of many dakinis,
we practice following your example.
Please approach and grant your blessing,
Guru pema Sidhi hum.

About the Composer: Harry Einhorn is a composer and inter-disciplinary performing artist based in New York City. His creates musical and dance works based on Buddhist themes, including Heart Sutra, which has been performed in the Rubin Museum and The Cell, and Samaya, a multimedia piece based on a series of Buddhist texts in Tibetan, Sanskrit, and English, which premiered in Williamsburg in June, 2012. His is an active theater writer, director, performer and producer, and his pieces have been seen throughout the New York Area, including the Brooklyn Lyceum, Littlefield, the Robert Moss Theater, and The Cell. He is a proud member of Dangerlion Productions with Lia Tamborra and Balint Varga, with whom he created and performed the original musical Dangersparkle and the Lion, winner of Outstanding Musical, Actor, and Actress in the Planet Connection Festivity Awards. He has worked on theatrical productions in India where he regularly travels to study Tibetan, has had a series of travel vlogs featured in the Rubin Museum galleries, and is currently deepening his study of Hindustani classical vocal music with Pt. Sanjoy Banerjee. He also loves collaboration! Feel free to contact him at [email protected]. www.dangerlionproductions.com

Tes Presvies - Nicholas reeves

Alina Roitstein, Diana Woolner, Alexandra Grabarchuk, Morgan Woolsey

This is the first movement of Nicholas Reeves's 2004 song cycle Triptych, based on the Greek Orthodox triumvirate of Mary, Jesus, and John the Baptist. Each movement represents one of the figures shown on the panels. "Tes Presvies" comes from the Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom, and invokes the help of the Virgin Mary, who intercedes with Christ on our behalf.

Text
Ταις πρεσβείας της Θεοτόκο,
Σωτερ σώσον ημάς

Translation
Through the intercessions of the Mother of God, O Savior, save us.

About the composer: Nicholas Reeves brings together classical, sacred, and popular influences in well-crafted music that is gaining attention in New York City and beyond. His work has been performed by The New York Virtuoso Singers and Canticum Novum Singers under the direction of Harold Rosenbaum, the Winds of Laesø Art Festival in Denmark, and in masterclass with Pierre Boulez during the IRCAM residency at Manhattan School of Music. Reeves is a first prize recipient of the New York Virtuoso Singer Competition for his composition In Memoriam Dmitri Shostakovich. In March 2015, the GKCAGO Schola Cantorum presented Reeves’ The Light of the World, a multi-media work for chamber ensemble juxtaposing video testaments of survivors from the Pitești prison in Romania with a musical setting of The Sermon on the Mount. His much anticipated first opera, Vicious, has been workshopped at the Oslo Opera Festival and continues to receive subsequent readings before its premiere.

Holy - David rentz

cond. Nate Widelitz

In November of last year, inspired by this group’s outstanding fall concert cycle, as well as a hybrid poetry-songwriting project I had assigned one of my music theory classes at Chaffey College, I sent the following message to the C3LA listserv:

“I've got the urge to write something for the group… but don't have any particular ideas at the moment. If any of you have any texts that you think might be good for choral setting (original or otherwise) that you don't want to reserve for yourself, please send them my way—I'd be happy to outsource that element of inspiration…”

A number of my colleagues replied with thoughtful, unexpected, and outright hilarious suggestions. Some sent their own work, and I found myself drawn to Alexandra Grabarchuk’s untitled poem, which she had recently written as a gift for her husband. Its flares of vivid imagery, its subtle playfulness, and the musicality and rhythm of the words themselves seemed to cry out for setting. A conversation with Alex about the poem and her broader artistic passions and influences suggested a connection to the Sanctus from the Messe de Nostre Dame of Machaut; that work is quoted at the end of my piece, and also supplied its title.
-David Rentz

Text - by Alexandra Grabarchuk
or I could listen to the heartbeat of my loverfree, and freely given.

here is a thing that seems the most!
so let it let it let it take flight;

I will (not) give chase.
For sometimes

our breath becomes more

than the stories
we tell ourselves.

About the composer: David Rentz is Associate Professor of Music at Chaffey College. He also serves as artistic director of the Orchestra Collective of Orange County and choral director at the First Congregational Church of Riverside. David has received fellowships and grants from the Yale alumniVentures program and the National Endowment for the Humanities, and, in 2015, was named guest professor at Xiamen University (China). B.Mus., Washington University in Saint Louis; M.M, University of Wisconsin-Madison; M.M.A. and D.M.A., Yale University School of Music.

deer proud of our climbs - molly pease

“deer proud of our climbs” and “my son my one” are settings of my father, Randall Pease’s poetry. They are selections from his recent poetry series entitled “Inner Astronomy”. The poems are an account of my father’s path to recovery as he looks at meditation, religion and self-reflection as means to finding inner peace. Written throughout the past three or four years, they are a testament to his strength as he’s battled severe depression and dementia, and has been in and out of hospitals throughout.

About the composer: Molly Pease is an eclectic vocalist and composer with a BA from The New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music. Currently pursuing her MFA at California Institute of the Arts, Molly leads experimental rock band ACKLAND, and creates works for voices, strings and other combinations. Molly toured internationally with the Sacramento Children’s Chorus, won two DownBeat Awards as lead soprano of the ARC Vocal Jazz Ensemble and performed at ACDA in Chicago with acclaimed contemporary vocal ensemble Vox Musica.

Text
But two turned love
Around. One lives
As I turns to O,
Other turns too.
But then she turns
As father burns,
As the joy she knew now
Passed through him.
Children turn fallen
Parents to parental
Lovers, physical
Turning spiritual.

A lover's complaint - james lark

cond. Matthew Brown
Nate Widelitz, soloist

Written for an appeal in aid of the Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham, A Lover’s Complaint combines two poems associated with the Shrine: one, usually credited to Sir Walter Raleigh, related the eponymous lover’s complaint to a pilgrim returning from the shrine, while the second is the final stanza of The Pynson Ballad, an anonymous 15th-century text giving the full account of the vision that led to its founding. The Raleigh text is sung by a solo countertenor (accompanied by a bass soloist in the middle section) as the Pynson Ballad, initially distant, gradually grows in intensity in the choral parts, mirroring the poet’s move towards a more spiritual frame of mind and leading the tortured protagonist to a tranquil conclusion.

Text

As you came from the holy land
Of Walsinghame,
Mett you not with my true love,
By the way as you came?

She is neither white nor browne,
But as the heavens fayre;
There is none hath a forme so divine
In the earth or the ayre.

She hath lefte me here all alone,
All alone, as unknowne,
Who sometymes did me lead with her selfe,
And me lovde as her owne.

I have lovder her all my youth,
But now oulde as you see;
Love likes not the falling frute
From the wythered tree.

Know that love is a careless chyld,
And forgets promysse paste;
He is blynde, he is deaff when he lyste,
And in faythe never faste.

His desire is a dureless contente,
And a trustless joye;
He is wonn with a world of despayre,
And is lost with a toye.

Of women kynde such indeed is the love
Or the word love abused,
Under which, many chyldish desyres
And conceytes are excusde.

But true love is a durable fyre,
In the mynde ever burnynge,
Never sycke, never ould, never dead,
From it selfe never turnynge.

O gracyous Lady, glory of Jerusalem,
Cypresse of Syon and Joye of Israel,
Rose of Jeryco and Sterre of Bethleem,
O gloryous Lady, our askynge nat repell,
In mercy all wymen ever thou doste excell,
Therefore, blissed Lady, graunt thou thy great grace
To all that the devoutly visyte in this place.

About the composer: James Lark (b. 1979) has written music for the choir of Westminster Abbey, Graham Johnson with The Songmakers’ Almanac at the Wigmore Hall, Guy Bovet, James Bowman, and for the service in King’s College Cambridge celebrating the university’s 800th anniversary. His work has been performed by English Voices, Vivamus and the choirs of St Paul’s Cathedral and Trinity College Cambridge, with recordings by the choirs of Girton and Selwyn and the chapel choir of Bedford school. He has also written and directed music for numerous theatrical productions, including Io Theatre Company’s adaptations of A Christmas Carol and The Snow Spider, their realisation of J. M. Barrie’s A Well Remembered Voice and their forthcoming production The Confessions of Fanny Cradock. He wrote the new musical Miracles at Short Notice (MusicalTalk‘s pick of the 2011 Edinburgh Fringe) and the award-winning 2007 total Fringe sell-out show Tony Blair – the Musical, and performed in 2006 one-man musical The Rise and Fall of Deon Vonniget. Other productions, as both a composer and musical director, include Peter Pan: the Revenge of Captain Hook, Theophilus Scatterdust’s Magical Gift, The Borrowers, With Blacks, Lysistrata, NewsRevue and a setting of new words by Andrew Motion for Bush Theatre’s Sixty-Six Books at Westminster Abbey. Short film scores include Death Sentence, The Ghost of Kirkton Fell, A Hand in the Bush and Savage Mountain. He was composer-in-residence at Bedford School and is Director of Music at Westminster Abbey Choir School.

my son my one - molly pease

Text
As if the sun
Disguised by clouds
Its sight not found
By an addict
To his sunset
Since visual
Only what’s real.
Invisible
Impossible.
Him all alone
No heart known.
Buried in skin,
Dark cloud blinds him,
Makes permanent
Spirit absence.
Willing prayer
Under layers
Of disbelief.
God set me free
From material
To spiritual.

About the composer: Molly Pease is an eclectic vocalist and composer with a BA from The New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music. Currently pursuing her MFA at California Institute of the Arts, Molly leads experimental rock band ACKLAND, and creates works for voices, strings and other combinations. Molly toured internationally with the Sacramento Children’s Chorus, won two DownBeat Awards as lead soprano of the ARC Vocal Jazz Ensemble and performed at ACDA in Chicago with acclaimed contemporary vocal ensemble Vox Musica.

Five laments for a divided nation - allen w. menton

cond. David Harris

In times of national division and distress, composers over the centuries have been drawn repeatedly to the Lamentations of Jeremiah, as a text expressing the despair of a citizen seeing his nation in peril: composers of the English Renaissance, seeing their country torn apart by religious extremists of different factions; German composer Ernst Krenek, seeing his country fall under the sway of a madman who led his country into war; Russian composer Igor Stravinsky, seeing his country under the heel of the demagogue Stalin.  Composers have been attracted by the vivid imagery of the texts, along with the complex and austere musical traditions that have arising around them.

The Biblical book of Lamentations consists of five chapters, each an independent poem depicting the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians in 586 B.C.  Although traditionally attributed to the prophet Jeremiah, these poems are most likely by five different authors.  Nevertheless, they all share the same acrostic structure.  Within each chapter, the verses are arranged so that the initial letters of each line occur in alphabetical order.  For example, the first word of the first verse begins with the letter A (in Hebrew, Aleph), the first word of the second verse begins with B (Beth), etc.

In the fourth century, A.D., when Jerome translated the Hebrew Bible into Latin, he did not write his Latin verses in acrostic.  However, to echo the original form, he spelled out the names of the Hebrew letters (i.e., Aleph, Beth, etc.) and added them as headings for each verse.  Portions of the Lamentations were then included in the plainchant liturgy of the Offices — prayers marking the hours of the day.  The most important of these are Matins (before sunrise) and Vespers (at sundown).  The scriptural portions of the offices are known as lessons.  Selections from the Lamentations of Jeremiah were chosen as the lessons for Matins on Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday (the three days before Easter Sunday).  Each day calls for three lessons from Lamentations, while each lesson in turn comprises several biblical verses.

A characteristic common to the entire Book of Lamentations is the lack of narrative development.  The verses do not seem to be in any particular order.  Rather, each verse presents a mini-drama of its own, which is evoked by the musical setting of each verse.  The text begins with verse six, describing the cowardice of the city’s leaders, who fled at the sight of danger.  The music reflects the profound shock that accompanies the realization of abandonment.  Verse seven describes the sense of loss that is rendered more painful by the mocking of the victors; the music reflects anger and bitterness, giving way to despair in the women’s parts, while the men continue with the angry motif.  The eighth verse compares the city to a fallen woman, who regrets both the iniquity of her past behavior (Jerusalem’s apostasy) and the further defilement to which it led; the music evokes both the licentiousness of the past and the abjection of the present.  The ninth verse returns to anger, bitterness, and then despair, at the triumph of the enemy and the absence of supporting friends.

Jerome’s decision to preface each verse with the spelled-out Hebrew letter inspired a special music treatment in the plainchant musical settings of the Lamentations.  In the plainchant, these Hebrew words are given ornate melismatic settings, contrasting with the more syllabic setting of the Biblical verse which follows.  Centuries later, English composers in the Renaissance period (Thomas Tallis, William Byrd, Robert White) were especially drawn to the Lamentations, and they were inspired by the plainchant to set each Hebrew word with a florid melismatic setting as a preface to each verse.  That tradition inspired the musical settings for this modern version.

Text
Vau.  Et egressus est a filia Sion omnis decor ejus; facti sunt principes ejus velut arietes non invenientes pascua; et abierunt absque fortitudine ante faciem subsequentis.

Zain.  Recordata est Jerusalem dierum afflictionis suae et praevaricationis, omnium desiderabilium suorum, quae habuerat a diebus antiquis, cum caderet populus ejus in manu hostili, et non esset auxiliator: viderunt eam hostes, et deriserunt sabbata ejus.

Heth.  Peccatum peccavit Jerusalem, propterea instabilis facta est: omnes, qui glorificabant eam, spreverunt illam, quia viderunt ignominiam ejus: ipsa autem gemens conversa est retrorsum.

Teth.  Sordes ejus in pedibus ejus, nec recordata est finis sui: deposita est vehementer, non habens consolatorem: vide, Domine, afflictionem meam, quoniam erectus est inimicus.
Jerusalem, convertere ad Dominum Deum tuum (Hosea 14:1)

Translation
Six.  From the daughter of Zion has departed all her majesty.  Her princes have become like harts that find no pasture: they fled without strength before the pursuer.

Seven.  Jerusalem remembers in the days of her affliction and bitterness all the precious things that were hers from days of old.  When her people fell into the hand of the foe, and there was none to help her, the foe gloated over her, mocking at her downfall.

Eight.  Jerusalem sinned grievously, therefore she became filthy; all who honored her despise her, for they have seen her nakedness; yea, she herself groans, and turns her face away.

Nine.  Her uncleanness was in her skirts; she took no thought of her doom; therefore her fall is terrible, she has no comforter.  “O Lord, behold my affliction, for the enemy has triumphed!”
Jerusalem, return to your true God.

About the composer: Allen W. Menton teaches Composition and Theory in the Music Department at California State University, San Bernardino. As a choral singer, he has performed with many conductors, including Dana Maiben, William Dehning, Lynn Bielefeld, Joseph Huszti, John Alexander, and Esa-Pekka Salonen.

the hildegard motets (I, II, III, Vi) - frank ferko

cond. Alexandra Grabarchuk (I, VI) & David Rentz (II, III)
Saunder Choi, Diana Woolner, Kevin Dalbey, soloists

Frank Ferko's Hildegard Motets (1996), choral works of varying voicings, are set to the original Latin texts from Hildegard's opus of over seventy sacred poems entitled Symphonia celestium revelationum. They comprise a cycle of nine choral motets for various seasons in the Christian liturgical calendar. Today, you will hear four excerpts from this cycle.

Movement I: O verbum Patris
The image of light is one of two primary symbols found in 'O verbum Patris.' In the second line of text, God's Word is portrayed as the "light of first dawn." The association of God with the light (birth) of a new day is clearly intentional. Hildegard also frequently used the image of a wheel in her writings, and such imagery -- a classic symbol of eternity -- is found here. At the center of the wheel stands a human being, preeminent among created things. The harmonic atmosphere of this movement is created using the Phrygian mode, which structures the opening and closing countertenor solo. Ferko echoes and expands this gesture by adding tone clusters in the women's voices as an ethereal harmonic undercurrent to the haunting melody.

Movement II:
In "O splendidissima gemma," Ferko captures Hildegard's ecstatic praise of the Virgin Mary, and her place in God's plan for the salvation of humankind. She is described as both "jewel" and "fountain," and the piece opens with a lilting melody evocative of the flowing water of a fountain. Repeated syncopated gestures - sometimes loud, sometimes soft - flash like light off the different facets of a gem. Halfway through the piece, however, when the Word ("verbum") arrives on the scene, all motion seems to cease. This stunning moment captures vividly the shift in tone and perspective from the first to the second verse of the poem, and heralds the arrival of the alto and countertenor soloists, who seem to represent the place of the individual in the realm of the universal. Note also Ferko's interpolation of the incipit of the Magnificat (the Canticle of Mary); he interposes it with the text chastising Eve for her role in the fall of man.

Movement III:
The short text of "Hodie aparuit" heralds the opening of the "gate" of salvation - it having been slammed shut as a result of the serpent's tempting of Eve, and now open once again, thanks to "the Flower from the Virgin Mary." After a brief introduction, and until the last seven measures of the piece, Ferko focuses on the misdeed of the "serpens" and its evil act ("suffocavit"). All of the sections sing dissonant, pulsating, sometimes slithering lines, with moments of silence that are as menacing as the music. Then, at the very end, the Virgin and the Flower appear, quietly shimmering, to open the gate of salvation to humanity.

Movement VI: Laus Trinitati
The form of "Laus Trinitati" is based on the idea of the Trinity, playing on the three different incarnations of the Deity (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) exemplified in the motet by using three contrasting formal units. The opening treble-voice motif has a prominently rhythmical characteristic reminiscent of the second medieval rhythmic mode, and is stated three times -- another possible symbolic reference to the Trinity. The second section, introduced by the men's voices, is more lyrical and homorhythmic in nature. The climax of the motet occurs toward the end, where the A and B themes are restated with Soprano 1 voices floating above the compound texture with material from a contrasting third section, C. After the culmination of all three themes, the final two measures closes the motet with the pivotal words "vita est" (life in all things). Unlike earlier sections where melodic range is fairly limited, these final two measure are a dramatic exception, containing drastic melodic leaps.

Text

O verbum Patris
O verbum Patris,
tu lumen prime aurore
in circulo rota es,
omnia in divina vi operans.

O tu prescientia Dei,
omnia opera tua previdisti,
sicut voluisti,
ita quod in medio potencie tue latuit
quod omnia prescivisti,

et operatus es
quasi in similitudine rote
cuncta circueuntis,
que inicium non accepit
nec in fine prostrata est.

O splendidissima gemma
O splendidissima gemma
et serenum decus solis
qui tibi infusus est,
fons saliens de corde Patris,
quod est unicum Verbum suum,
per quod creavit
mundi primam materiam,
quam Eva turbavit.

Hoc Verbum effabricavit tibi
Pater hominem,
et ob hoc es tu illa lucida materia
perquam hoc ipsum Verbum exspiravit
omnes virtutes,
ut eduxit in prima materia omnes creaturas.

Hodie aperuit
Hodie
aperuit nobis clausa porta
quod serpens in muliere suffocavit,
unde lucet in aurora
flos de Virgine Maria.

Laus Trinitati
Laus Trinitati
que sonus et vita
ac creatrix omnium
in vita ipsorum est,
et que laus angelice turbe

et mirus splendor archanorum,
que hominibus ignota sunt, est,
et que in omnibus vita est.

O verbum Patris
O Word of the Father,
you are the light of first dawn
in a circular wheel,
working your divine power in all things.

O, foreknowledge of God,
you foresaw all your works as you willed them
in such a way that it lay hidden in the midst of your potency
for you know all things from the beginning,

and you acted
in likeness to a wheel
which encompasses all,
having no beginning
nor destroyed by any end.

O splendidissima gemma
O most splendid jewel
and calm beauty of the sun
which flowed into you,
a fountain leaping up from the Father's heart,
which is his only Word,
through whom he created
the first substance of the world,
whose waters Eve muddied.

For your sake the Father made
this Word to be Man:
wherefore you are that bright matter
through whom this very Word exhaled
all the virtues,
as he brought forth from this first substance all the creatures.

Hodie aperuit
Today
for us there opens a gate which had been closed,
which the serpent stifled in the Woman;
whence there shines in the dawning
the Flower from the Virgin Mary.

Laus Trinitati
Praise to the Trinity
which is sound and life
creator of all beings
in their very life,
and which is the praise of the angel throng

and wondrous splendor of arcane mysteries,
which are unknown to humankind,
and which is life in all things.

About the composer: Frank Ferko has been recognized by critics as a master of text setting and a composer for a cappella vocal ensembles. A highly sought after composer of new choral music, his works have been performed by some of the most highly regarded choral ensembles, organists, and vocal soloists of our time.

Mr. Ferko's compositions based on his research on Hildegard von Bingen have gained international attention, and during the summer of 1998 Mr. Ferko was invited to perform his Hildegard Organ Cycle at the Holland Festival Oude Muziek in Utrecht (Netherlands), a performance which marked the European premiere of the work. Ferko's Hildegard Motets have been performed by professional and college choirs across America, and his articles about the music of Hildegard and her influence on present-day composers have appeared in the British music journal Choir & Organ.