University of Louisville New Music Festival Faculty Chamber Music

Monday, November 6, 2023

Comstock Concert Hall

8:00 p.m.

University of Louisville

New Music Festival

Faculty Chamber Music

University Choirs

( 2 )

Chihuly Redux (2019) Marc Satterwhite (b. 1955)

I. Ikebana

II. Blue Neon Tumbleweed IV

Nathan Fischer, guitar

Stephen Mattingly, guitar

Outlines (2021) Tanner Porter (b. 1994)

I: 2’50”

II: 2’40”

Matthew Nelson, clarinet

Kamil Pędziwiatr, sound engineer

Up or Down? (2020) Gabe Evens (b. 1972)

Craig Wagner, guitar

Gabe Evens, piano

The Light is the Same (2017) Reena Esmail (b. 1983)

Leanne Hampton, ute

Jennifer Potochnic, oboe

Matthew Nelson, clarinet

Francisco Joubert Bernard, bassoon

Devin Cobleigh-Morrison, horn

Spires (2010) Eric Nathan (b. 1983)

Reese Land, trumpet

Alex Schwarz, trumpet

Devin Cobleigh-Morrison, horn

Brett Shuster, trombone

Clinton McCanless, tuba

From the Source (2021) Alex Berko (b. 1995)

Leanne Hampton, ute

Matthew Nelson, clarinet

Geoffrey Herd, violin

Paul York, cello

Fred Speck, conducting

BREAK

PROGRAM

( 3 )

PROGRAM

Collegiate Chorale

Kent Hatteberg, Director

Deus Magnus (2022) Dariusz Zimnicki (b. 1975)

Whispers (2002) Steven Stucky (after William Byrd)

(1949 – 2016) (1543 – 1623)

Spring in War-Time (2023) Benjamin Carter (b. 2000)

Premiere

Cardinal Singers

Kent Hatteberg, Director

Jubilate Deo (2015) Ivo Antognini (b. 1963)

Abigail Mires,

LaKyya Washington,

Calvin Ramirez,

Troy Sleeman,

solo quartet

Quae est ista quae ascendit per desertum (2023) Grzegorz Miśkiewicz (b. 1969)

Premiere

Geoffrey Herd, violin

Paul York, cello

Ang Tren (The Train) (2015) Saunder Choi (b. 1988)

( 4 )

PROGRAM NOTES

Marc Satterwhite - Chihuly Redux

The Kupiski duo (Ewa Jabłczyska and Dariusz Kupinski) were in Louisville

for over a year in 2018-19, working on a project of discovering and recording guitar music

by composers who had won the Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition, which I

direct. One of the fruits of their research was a CD of some of their discoveries. Given

my connection to the award, they graciously included a work of mine, performed by my

University of Louisville colleague, Stephen Mattingly. Chihuly Redux was written for them,

of course.

Dale Chihuly is certainly the most famous glass artist in the world, probably the

most famous artist ever. Although you could argue that he is perhaps a bit overexposed

(and I imagine other glass artists might certainly feel so), I still nd myself fascinated

whenever I am around his work, and I have composed several pieces now inspired by it.

His Ikebana is a series of works based, of course, on the Japanese art of ower arranging.

I attempt to capture some of the subtle mystery of these works, but with some of the

intensity and power one senses in even the gentlest of them, as well. Blue Neon Tumbleweed

IV is the fourth piece, or movement from a longer piece, prompted by a stand-alone work

of his. To quote myself from earlier notes for those pieces: Blue Neon Tumbleweed is housed

in the Chihuly Collection of the Morean Arts Center in St. Petersburg, Florida. It is exactly

what you might think: very, very blue and bursting with light and energy. It doesn’t move,

but as someone who grew up around tumbleweeds, I could easily imagine it rolling along

the plains, blown here and there unpredictably by the constantly shifting Texas Panhandle

winds. I have tried to capture that unpredictability with appropriately swirling motives,

sudden changes of dynamics and register, and a momentum that lets up only occasionally

and briey. Although this is not at all a transcription of any of the earlier pieces inspired

by this sculpture, I do use some of the same melodic material in each of them.

Tanner Porter - Outlines

“Outlines” speaks to a drive through a gray and rainy afternoon, and the moment

when you realize your windshield has fogged over, the world outside slipping into bleary

shapes and outlines. As you move to defog the glass, you try to make sense of the forms on

and alongside the road, which have lapsed in their familiarity, but still exist as you knew

them just beyond your line of sight. The heater kicks in, the fog creeps to the edges, the

landscape recovers familiarity, and you continue to drive.

“Outlines” was written for clarinetist Wesley Warnhoff as a part of the ANTiCX Entry

Points of Empathy concert, and was premiered at the Mizzou International Composers

Festival in July 2021. Recording courtesy of MICF. Performance by Wesley Warnhoff.

Fixed Media recorded by Tanner Porter.

Gabe Evens - Up or Down?

Up or Down? was written during the lead-up to the 2020 presidential election

with the intention of a performance after knowing the results. The piano plays quick, un-

even note groupings to underpin a lazy melody on the guitar. Contrasting shades of modal

harmony ow through moments of consonance and dissonance. Two moments of open

improvisation allow the performers to express the mood of the moment.

Reena Esmail - The Light is the Same

Religions are many

But God is one

The lamps may be different

But the Light is the same

Rumi

PROGRAM NOTES

( 5 )

Reena Esmail continued:

Like many of us, I spent the last half of 2016 trying to make sense of what was

happening in our country and in our world. In my search for texts for my oratorio, This Love

Between Us, which I was writing concurrently, I came across these wise words from the 13th

century Su mystic poet, Rumi. He states so beautifully that, even if our methods for searching

for meaning and happiness look very different, the things we seek are so similar.

This piece uses two Hindustani raags: Vachaspati and Yaman. The bhav, the aesthetic of these

raags are so different: Vachaspati is dark, brooding, complex and dense. Yaman is light and

innocent. And yet, practically speaking, only one note is different between them. The melodies

they generate and the way they move makes them feel worlds apart, and yet their notes are al-

most exactly the same. The piece begins in Vachaspati, in desolate, spare melodic lines. Slowly,

as Yaman peeks through the dense harmonies, the two raags begin to weave together into a

seamless composite.

Eric Nathan - Spires

“Spires” was inspired, in part, by Julie Mehretu’s artwork “Berliner Plätze” (2008-09), a

drawing using ink and acrylic on large canvas depicting a web of layered architectural blueprint

drawings of buildings in Berlin as seen from different viewpoints. The result is an obscured

grey texture with varying areas of intense density, with recognizable elements of the buildings

occasionally jutting out in these parts from the web-like background texture.

“Spires” for brass quintet is inspired by the textures and concepts of Mehretu’s art-

work. Spires are architectural structures rising from the top of buildings that jut into the sky.

Just as spires reach from a building into the sky, key pitches and elements of the piece emerge

to the foreground from a chaotic musical texture of trills. Like the architectural drawings of

Mehretu, the music is continually rotated and viewed from different vantage points. As the

piece continues, the music begins to depart from the Mehretu drawing as textures change, trills

unravel and scaffolding textures fall away leaving real buildings standing in a city, weathered

by time, lived in, and alive with people’s dreams and aspirations, spires reaching ever more

earnestly for the sky and beyond.

Alex Berko - From the Source

For better or for worse, because of all of the time spent indoors and on my devic-

es this past year, I have become infatuated with the news and how people interpret it. I am

obsessed with the New York Times podcasts ‘The Daily’ and ‘The Argument’ and consume NPR

on my commutes. I go down rabbit holes of articles in ‘The Atlantic’ and observe heated Face-

book debates.

One main theme from everything that has been in the news cycle this past year seems

to be the emphasis on source material: Who said that? Is that true? Where is that article from?

Can we trust the results of the election? Did Carol Baskin kill her husband? Did the royal family

really say that about Meghan Markle’s future child? With all of this confusion and speculation, I

thought it would be interesting to explore these ideas musically.

As a way of capturing all of the chatter, I decided to craft somewhat simple musical

gestures that were cloudy or distorted in some way, such as breathy ute sounds, string har-

monics, and tight canonic gures. I was interested in all of the little ways that details of a story

are changed when retold over time. There is an inexactness, a messiness, about how we retell

events which inevitably leaves out certain details. It also seems today that with every further at-

tempt to uncover the truth, there is an equally strong force attempting to do just the opposite.

PROGRAM NOTES

( 6 )

Selections by the Collegiate Chorale

Deus Magnus – Dariusz Zimnicki

This is exactly how I imagine God. Powerful, almighty, but also merciful and

loving. His faces are countless. Harsh - he hurls thunder, joyful - he motivates, entertains

and brightens gloomy days. He is just, patient and, despite his majestic solemnity, he

often smiles. This two-chorus motet uses both modern rhythms and historical antiphonal

dialogue native to Venice. It has clear, not always predictable harmonies and wide-ranging

melodic lines.

- Dariusz Zimnicki

Deus magnus et potens et terribilis

Deus deorum et Dominus dominatum

qui personam non accipit nec munera quia

Dominus Deus vester ipse est Deus deorum.

God is great and mighty and terrible,

God of gods and Lord of lords,

who is not partial, and takes no bribes,

for the Lord your God is God of gods.

Deuteronomy 10:17

Whispers – Steven Stucky (after William Byrd)

Whispers was conceived as a companion piece to my 1979 composition Drop,

Drop, Slow Tears (published by Merion Music, 342-40187), a work that Chanticleer sings

beautifully. That earlier work is constructed around a reminiscence of the music of the

Elizabethan composer Orlando Gibbons. Similarly, Whispers recalls fragments of William

Byrd’s famous motet Ave verum corpus (published 1605), surrounding those fragments with

my own setting of lines from Walt Whitman’s Whispers of Heavenly Death (1868). In both

the Whitman and the Byrd, thoughts and images of death are so transmuted by the power

of great art that the result is not sadness, but instead a kind of mystical exaltation. This is a

blessing that we need more than ever in our own time, and one that the superb singing of

Chanticleer has delivered to listeners (and composers) for a quarter-century. Inspired as

much by Chanticleer’s own artistry and style as by Byrd or Whitman, then, this little piece

is offered in celebration of those twenty-ve wonderful years.

- Steven Stucky

Whispers of heavenly death murmur’d I hear;

Labial gossip of night – sibilant chorals;

Footsteps gently ascending – mystical breez-

es, wafted soft and low;

Ripples of unseen rivers – tides of a current

owing, forever owing

[(Or is it the plashing of tears? the measure-

less waters of human tears?)]

I see, just see, skyward, great cloud-masses,

Mournfully, slowly they roll, silently swelling

and mixing;

With, at times, a half-dimm’d, sadden’d, far-off

star,

Appearing and disappearing.

[(Some parturition rather – some solemn immor-

tal birth;

On the frontiers, to eyes impenetrable,

Some Soul is passing over.)]

- Walt Whitman (1819 – 1892)

PROGRAM NOTES

( 7 )

Spring in War-Time – Benjamin Carter

In February 2022 during the onset of the war in Ukraine, I was in Raleigh, North Car-

olina at a regional American Choral Directors Association convention. In addition to my shock

at what the world was witnessing, I’d never felt more powerless in my desire to be part of recti-

fying the wrongs of the world and manifesting a future for humanity worth living in. Now, over

a year and a half later, as Ukraine continues to ght for its survival as a democratic nation with

little end in sight, I feel the world beginning to shrug. When wars grow long, we grow numb

to the human toll of every waking hour. This desensitizing only serves Russia’s imperialist

ambitions, and if condemnation turns to indifference, Ukraine is as good as gone. In this poem,

written in the middle of WWI, Sara Teasdale takes the earth to task for harboring the gall to

showcase natural beauty at a time when the war was extracting a cost felt around the world,

ultimately claiming over 11 million lives by the time the war ofcially concluded. Through her

poetry, Teasdale sought to deny the world the chance to look away or turn to other distractions.

In many ways, I seek to do the same thing with this piece. I resent that the world offers so

much to grieve about, but I am rmly grounded in the belief that art’s continual insistence that

humanity not look away from what ails it plays an extraordinarily valuable mission in creating a

world worth ghting for.

In October of 2022, the University of Louisville Cardinal Singers were participating

in a competition in Magdeburg, Germany. Part of the event was a friendship concert with a

local boys’ choir in a Magdeburg church. Sharing our music with an international audience

was a gift, and after the last piece, I remember thinking that it might’ve been the best choral

concert I’d ever been a part of to date. Then, after the concert, a woman holding the hand of a

young child walked up to my signicant other. She said, in limited English, “I came here from

Ukraine six months ago. I had no hope, but you gave me hope.” Never believe for a second that

art doesn’t matter. In the grand scheme of the world, art is how we change hearts and remind

humanity of the future it is called to create. Whenever I feel numb to the chaos in the world, I

think of that woman and her child and remember that what I do makes a difference. May ev-

eryone who hears or performs this piece be reminded of their ability and calling to bring about

a better world, and may that woman and her son one day be able to return home.

Slava Ukraini,

Benjamin Carter.

Ave verum corpus, natum de Maria Virgine:

vere passum,

[immolatum in cruce pro homine cujus latus

perforatum,]

unda uxit sanguine:

[Esto nobis praegustatum mortis in

examine.]

O dulcis, O pie, [O Jesu Fili Mariae.]

miserere mei. [Amen.]

(Text in square brackets is omitted.)

Hail, true Body, born of the Virgin Mary,

truly you suffer,

[offered in sacrice on the cross for man; from

whose pierced side,]

owed the water and the blood:

[May we have tasted of you when we come to the

hour of death.]

O gentle, loving [Jesus, Son of Mary.]

have mercy upon me. [Amen.]

Wispers continued:

PROGRAM NOTES

( 8 )

Selections by the Cardinal Singers

Jubilate Deo – Ivo Antognini

I had the great honor of working with the Slovenian Philharmonic Choir in No-

vember 2015. I was commissioned to write a new piece for them for a concert in Ljubljana

(the capital of Slovenia) dedicated to my choral music. I knew that I wanted to write a

highly energetic and challenging work for this professional choir.

The inspiration for Jubilate Deo came to me at the JFK airport in New York, just

before boarding the plane that would take me to Salt Lake City for the ACDA National

Convention. The airbus was crowded – full of people and bags – and not the ideal ambi-

ence for inspiration. Luckily, the piece had already formed itself in my mind and in my

heart. You never know when inspiration will hit!

The world premiere was performed under the baton of Matjaž Šček, an excellent

conductor and a good friend. Jubilate Deo is not necessarily an easy piece, but it is not as

complex as it may seem at rst glance or rst listen. The text, Jubilate Deo universa terra,

is from the Offertory for the Second Sunday after Epiphany and also the Fourth Sunday

after Easter. But the motet is suitable for general use when a festive work is needed.

- Ivo Antognini

Jubilate Deo universa terra.

Psalmum dicite nomini eius.

Venite, et audite, et narrabo vobis,

omnes qui timetis Deum quanta fecit Do-

minus animae meae,

alleluia.

Shout to God, all those on earth.

Sing a psalm to his name.

Come and listen, and I shall tell

all those that fear the Lord

what great things he hath done for my soul,

alleluia.

Quae est ista quae ascendit per desertum – Grzegorz Miśkiewicz

In the textual layer, I have been looking for extracts from the Old Testament with

pleasure for several years. The Song of Solomon (Canticum Canticorum) is an allegory of the

love that God shows to man. It is a wonderful allegory because it allows us to imagine love

in an object that is available in our dimension. The musical layer, through the use of two

of the most beautiful instruments, violin and cello, combined with choral voices, creates a

new dimension in color and aesthetic. These sounds complement each other, giving a new

quality while maintaining appropriate acoustic conditions. I used a similar technique in

one of my previous pieces, Psalm 13, in which the cello plays the leading role.

- Grzegorz Miśkiewicz

I feel the Spring far off, far off,

The faint far scent of bud and leaf--

Oh how can Spring take heart to come

To a world in grief,

Deep grief?

The sun turns north, the days grow long,

Later the evening star grows bright--

How can the daylight linger on

For men to ght,

Still ght?

The grass is waking in the ground,

Soon it will rise and blow in waves--

How can it have the heart to sway

Over the graves,

New graves?

Under the boughs where lovers walked

The apple-blooms will shed their breath--

But what of all the lovers now

Parted by death,

Gray Death?

- Sara Teasdale (1884 – 1933)

PROGRAM NOTES

( 9 )

Canticum Canticorum

3.6 Quae est ista quae ascendit per deser-

tum sicut virgula fumi ex aromatibus

murrae et turis, et universi pulveris pig-

mentarii?

4.1 Quam pulchra es amica mea, quam

pulchra es oculi tui columbarum absque eo

quod intrinsecus latet capilli tui sicut gre-

ges caprarum quae ascenderunt de monte

Galaad.

4.2 Dentes tui sicut greges tonsarum quae

ascenderunt de lavacro, omnes gemellis

fetibus et sterilis non est inter eas.

4.9 Vulnerasti cor meum soror mea sponsa,

vulnerasti cor meum in uno oculorum

tuorum. . .

4.10 Quam pulchrae sunt mammae tuae. . .

4.11 Favus distillans labia tua. . .

4.12 Hortus conclusus soror mea sponsa,

4.16 Surge, aquilo, et veni, auster: perhor-

tum meum, et uant aromata illius.

5.1 Veniat dilectus meus in hortum suum, et

comedat fructum pomorum suorum. Veni

in hortum meum, soror mea, sponsa; mes-

sui murram meam cum aromatibus meis. . .

Song of Solomon

Who is this that cometh out of the wilder-

ness like pillars of smoke, perfumed with

myrrh and frankincense, with all powders

of the merchant?

Behold thou art fair, my love, behold, thou

art fair; thou hast doves’ eyes within thy

locks: thy hair is as a ock of goats,

that appear from mount Gilead.

Thy teeth are like a ock of sheep that

are even shorn, which came up from the

washing; whereof every one bear twins, and

none is barren among them.

Thou hast ravished my heart, my sister, my

spouse; thou hast ravished my heart with

one of thine eyes. . .

How fair is thy love, my sister. . .

Thy lips, O my spouse, drop as the honey-

comb. . .

A garden inclosed is my sister, my spouse,

a spring shut up, a fountain sealed.

Awake, O north wind; and come, thou

south;

Blow upon my garden, that the spices

thereof may ow out.

I am come into my garden, my sister, my

spouse:

I have gathered my myrrh with my spice;

I have eaten my honeycomb with my hon-

ey; I have drunk my wine with my milk: eat,

O friends; drink, yea, drink abundantly, O

beloved.

- Song of Solomon 3:6, 4:1-2, 9-12, 16, 5:1

Ang tren (The Train) – Saunder Choi

Ang Tren (The Train) is a setting of Filipino literary giant José Corazón de Jesús’s

poem about Philippine commuter culture. The piece is playful, and uses a lot of onomato-

poeic textures that imitate the chug and drive of a railroad train from the pre-World War

II days, creating a bed of images for the text setting. The poem ends on a sentimental

note, as de Jesús likens the train’s journey to the traveling heart. This piece was commis-

sioned by the Cultural Center of the Philippines for the 2015 Andrea O. Veneracion In-

ternational Choral Festival, specically to be used as the obligatory piece in the chamber

choir category.

- Saunder Choi

PROGRAM NOTES

(10)

Tila ahas na nagmula

sa himpilang kanyang lungga,

ang galamay at palikpik, pawang bakal,

tanso, tingga,

ang kaliskis lapitan mo’t

mga bukas na bintana.

Ang rail na lalakara’y

nakabalatay sa daan,

umaaso ang bunganga at maingay na maingay,

sa Tutuban magmumula’t patutungo sa

Dagupan.

O, kung gabi’t masalubong

ang mata ay nagaapoy,

ang silbato sa malayo’y dinig mo pang

sumisipol

at hila-hila and kanyang kabit-kabit

namang bagon.

Walang pagod ang makina,

may baras na nasa r’weda,

sumisigaw, sumisibad, humuhuni ang pita-

da,

tumetelenteng ang kanyang kainpanada sa

tuwina.

“Kailan ka magbabalik?”

“Hanggang sa hapon ng Martes.”

At tinangay na ng tren ang naglakbay na

pag-ibig, sa bentanilya’y may panyo’t may

naiwang nananangis.

-José Corazón de Jesús (1896 – 1932)

Like a snake coming from

its barracks, its den,

its tentacles and ns, like metal, copper,

lead,

its scales, with a closer look,

appears to be open windows.

The rail it treads upon

lays itself on the road.

Its mouth reeks of smoke, and is very noisy,

going all the way from Tutuban to Da-

gupan.

When night comes,

its eyes shine bright like ames,

you can hear the sound of its whistle from

afar,

as it restlessly chugs and pulls its interlock-

ing wagons.

The tireless machine

has dents on its wheels,

its horn shouts, rushes, whistles,

relentlessly making noise in the distance.

“When is it coming back?”

“Not ‘till Tuesday afternoon.”

As the train carried away a wandering love,

it left behind a handkerchief by a window

full of sobs.

The Train continued

ARTIST BIOGRAPHIES

Marc Satterwhite

Composer and bassist Marc Satterwhite is a native of Texas and studied at Michi-

gan State University (BM) and Indiana University (MM and DM). He was for several years

a part of the diaspora of (mostly) young American musicians playing in symphony orches-

tras in Latin America, a transformative experience, musically, personally, and po- litically,

before refocusing his career on composition. His music has been performed in diverse

venues in the US, Latin America, Europe, Asia, Australia and South Africa. There are ve

CDs devoted exclusively to his music on the Centaur label, with two more in the works,

and his music is recorded by numerous performing artists on their own projects.

He has been on the faculty of the University of Louisville School of Music since 1994

where, in addition to his teaching duties, he is the Director of the Grawemeyer Award for

Music Composition.

In his retirement (looming) he plans to pursue a BA in Spanish along with get-

ting reacquainted with his bass and possibly attending bartending school.

For more information see www.MarcSatterwhite.com

Tanner Porter

Tanner Porter is a composer-performer and songwriter. In her “original art songs

that are by turns seductive and confessional” (Steve Smith, The New Yorker), Tanner

explores her passion for storytelling, often framing her work within the imagery of the

California coast she grew up on. Tanner’s orchestral music, described as “drop-dead gor-

geous” (Jim Munson, Broadway World), has been commissioned by the Albany Symphony

Orchestra, the New York Youth Symphony and Nu Deco Ensemble, among others.

Music as a vehicle for the mingling of multiple artistic mediums is at the heart of Tan-

ner’s work, stemming from a reverence for theatrical productions, and a deep love of song

arrangement. She is thrilled to have collaborated with choreographer Claudia Schreier

on two new ballets: Slipstream, for the Boston Ballet, and Kin, commissioned by the San

Francisco Ballet and hailed as “a total-stage spectacle” (Rachel Howard, SF Chronicle). Re-

cently, Tanner’s short opera Boughs was commissioned and premiered by Barnard College

and Columbia University’s New Opera Workshop.

As an arranger, Tanner orchestrated Grammy award-winning songwriter Aoife

O’Donovan’s America, Come for premiere with the Orlando Philharmonic, and co-arranged

Holst’s The Planets for the Bridgeport Symphony and Dance Heginbotham with music

direction by Eric Jacobsen.

She was a 2022 Early Career Musician in Residence at Dumbarton Oaks, and has

been a fellow of the Aspen Music Festival, Djerassi Resident Artists Program, Gabriela

Lena Frank Creative Academy of Music, Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, and the Next

Festival of Emerging Artists. Her works have been presented at Carnegie Hall, the New

World Symphony’s New World Center, the Prototype Festival, the Miami Light Box, the

Mizzou International Composers Festival, New Music Detroit’s Strange Beautiful Mu-

sic, New Music Gathering, and the American Composers Orchestras Connecting ACO

Community virtual series. She was a 2019 recipient of the American Academy of Arts and

Letters Charles Ives Scholarship. Her most recent album of songs, The Summer Sinks, was

recorded with LA-based studio Oak House Recording and can be heard on all streaming

platforms. Tanner holds degrees in composition from the University of Michigan’s SMTD

(BM) and the Yale School of Music (MM). She is a member of ANTiCX collective.

(11)

ARTIST BIOGRAPHIES

Gabe Evens

Gabe Evens is the Associate Professor of Jazz Piano, Composition and Arrang-

ing at the University of Louisville Jazz Studies Program. He has performed throughout

the United States and in Malaysia, Singapore, Spain, and France and has played with the

Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra, the Louisville Orchestra, the Miami City Ballet Or-

chestra, the University of North Texas Symphony and Concert Orchestras, the UNT One

O’Clock Lab Band, and the University of Miami Concert Jazz Band.

As an arranger and composer, Evens has released seven CDs of original music, written

commissions for Sheena Easton and Kate McGarry with the Cape Symphony Orchestra,

and for Nneena Freelon with the John Brown Big Band. He has had numerous compo-

sitions performed by chamber and large ensembles including the Louisville Orchestra,

Orquestra Sinfónica de Loja, the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra, and the UNT One

O’Clock Lab Band.

Evens is a certied teacher of the Alexander Technique, holds an MA in Jazz Piano Perfor-

mance from the University of Miami, and a DMA in Performance, major in Jazz studies

(composition emphasis) from the University of North Texas.

Reena Esmail

Indian-American composer Reena Esmail works between the worlds of Indian

and Western classical music, and brings communities together through the creation of

equitable musical spaces. Esmail’s life and music was proled on Season 3 of PBS Great

Performances series Now Hear This, as well as Frame of Mind, a podcast from the Metro-

politan Museum of Art. Esmail divides her attention evenly between orchestral, chamber

and choral work. She has written commissions for ensembles including the Los Angeles

Master Chorale, Seattle Symphony, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and Kronos Quar-

tet, and her music has featured on multiple Grammy-nominated albums, including The

Singing Guitar by Conspirare, BRUITS by Imani Winds, and Healing Modes by Brooklyn

Rider. Many of her choral works are published by Oxford University Press. Esmail is the

Los Angeles Master Chorale’s 2020-2025 Swan Family Artist in Residence, and was Seattle

Symphony’s 2020-21 Composer-in-Residence. She also holds awards/fellowships from

United States Artists, the S&R Foundation, the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and

the Kennedy Center.

Esmail holds degrees in composition from The Juilliard School (BM’05) and

the Yale School of Music (MM’11, MMA’14, DMA’18). Her primary teachers have included

Susan Botti, Aaron Jay Kernis, Christopher Theofanidis, Christopher Rouse and Samu-

el Adler. She received a Fulbright-Nehru grant to study Hindustani music in India. Her

Hindustani music teachers include Srimati Lakshmi Shankar and Gaurav Mazumdar, and

she currently studies and collaborates with Saili Oak. Her doctoral thesis, entitled Finding

Common Ground: Uniting Practices in Hindustani and Western Art Musicians, explores the

methods and challenges of the collaborative process between Hindustani musicians and

Western composers.

Esmail was Composer-in-Residence for Street Symphony (2016-18) and is cur-

rently an Artistic Director of Shastra, a non-prot organization that promotes cross-cul-

tural music connecting music traditions of India and the West.

She currently resides in her hometown of Los Angeles, California.

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ARTIST BIOGRAPHIES

Eric Nathan

Eric Nathan’s (b. 1983) music has been called “as diverse as it is arresting”

with a “constant vein of ingenuity and expressive depth” (San Francisco Chronicle),

and “thoughtful and inventive” (The New Yorker). A 2013 Rome Prize Fellow and 2014

Guggenheim Fellow, Nathan has garnered acclaim internationally through performances

by Andris Nelsons and the Boston Symphony Orchestra, National Symphony Orchestra,

Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, Scharoun Ensemble Berlin, Dawn Upshaw, Jennifer

Koh, Stefan Jackiw, and Gloria Cheng. His music has been featured at the New York Phil-

harmonic’s 2014 and 2016 Biennials, Carnegie Hall, and the Aldeburgh, Tanglewood, and

Aspen festivals.

Recent projects include three commissions from the Boston Symphony Orches-

tra. Opening (2021), co-commissioned by the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra and Serge

Koussevitzky Music Foundation at the Library of Congress, was premiered by the MSO

and broadcast nationally on PBS. He has received commissions from the New York Phil-

harmonic, Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Barlow Endowment, Fromm Music

Foundation, Tanglewood Music Center, and Aspen Music Festival, and has been honored

with a Goddard Lieberson Fellowship and Charles Ives Scholarship from the American

Academy of Arts and Letters.

Nathan has completed residencies at Yellow Barn, Copland House, and American

Academy in Rome, and is a 2022 Civitella Ranieri Foundation fellow.

Nathan’s most recent album, Missing Words, was released in 2022 on New Focus

Records. He serves as Associate Professor of Music at Brown University and is currently

the New England Philharmonic’s Composer-in-Residence. He received his doctorate from

Cornell. www.ericnathanmusic.com.

Alex Berko

The “stirring” (New York Times) and “intoxicating” (Philadelphia Inquirer) mu-

sic of American composer Alex Berko (b. 1995) is characterized by a balance of intimacy

and power, a keen sense of lyricism and emotional sensitivity, and a love of narrative.

Berko’s work often poses questions about our personal environments and relationships to

one another, and he is interested in weaving listeners through intimate stories and per-

spectives with universal values.

Berko’s music has been commissioned and performed throughout the US and

abroad by ensembles and artists such as the Louisville Orchestra, Monterey Symphony,

Cape Symphony, Plymouth Philharmonic, Bloomington Symphony, New York Youth

Symphony, Donald Nally, The Crossing, Craig Hella Johnson, Conspirare, Stare at the Sun,

Constellation Men’s Ensemble, Cathedral Choral Society, Miró Quartet, Del Sol String

Quartet, Boston New Music Initiative, Arabic/jazz artist Nai Barghouti and jazz/folk duo

Kate McGarry and Keith Ganz.

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COMPOSER BIOGRAPHIES

Ivo Antognini

Swiss composer Ivo Antognini graduated in piano performance in 1985

in Lucerne, studying rst with Roberto Braccini and later with Nora Doallo, at the

school that would later become the Conservatorio della Svizzera Italiana. A self-

taught composer, he has composed and improvised at the piano since childhood.

From 1990 to 1991 he studied at the Swiss Jazz School in Bern, an experience that

led him to publish three CDs as both composer and performer. From 1990 to 2004,

Antognini collaborated with a number of lmmakers for whom he composed several

soundtracks. In 2006, he began a collaboration with the Calicantus Choir in Locarno

and its founder/director Mario Fontana; this adventure inspired Ivo to devote himself

almost exclusively to composing choral music. In a short time, his works spread

internationally and were published by numerous publishers including Alliance Music

Pub., Walton Music, Hal Leonard, G. Schirmer, Peters, Boosey & Hawkes and many

others. Ivo Antognini is regularly invited as a juror at national and international cho-

ral and composition competitions and has presented his music in Switzerland, Italy,

Hungary, Ireland, Slovenia, Greece, the USA and Japan. Antognini’s pieces have been

performed in over 50 countries by the world’s most renowned choirs. In March 2016,

a concert entirely dedicated to his a cappella works entitled “Vocal Colors” took place

at New York’s Lincoln Center. Three months later, in Carnegie Hall, his oratorio “A

Prayer for Mother Earth received its world premiere, conducted by Andrew Crane. In

2020, Antognini received the prestigious Raymond W. Brock Memorial Commission

Award from the American Choral Directors Association. In April 2023 the Trinity Col-

lege Choir of Cambridge (Stephen Layton, conductor) released a full-length album of

Ivo’s works on the Hyperion Records label. Antognini currently teaches ear training

and piano at the Conservatorio della Svizzera italiana in Lugano. He lives in Aranno

with his wife Patrizia, also a piano teacher at the Conservatorio, and his two children,

Eleonora and Milo.

Benjamin Carter (b. 2000)

is a composer, conductor, pianist, and vocalist who is currently pursuing an

M.M. in Choral Conducting at the University of Louisville. Carter received his B.M.

in Music Composition from the University of Louisville in 2023, and his primary

instructors included Drs. Marc Satterwhite and Steve Rouse in Composition, Dr. Anna

Petrova in piano, and Prof. Erin Keesy in voice. Currently, his primary master in-

structors include Drs. Won Joo Ahn and Kent Hatteberg in Choral Conducting and a

continuation of studies with Prof. Erin Keesy in voice. At the University of Louisville,

Benjamin also works as a Music Theory Graduate Teaching Assistant, serving as the

instructor of record for multiple theory courses offered by the School of Music.

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COMPOSER BIOGRAHPIES

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Carter’s compositions have been premiered by a variety of professional

ensembles, university ensembles, high school ensembles, and even church choirs. In

2021, his choral piece A Winter Night was recognized as the most outstanding com-

position from a collegiate student by the Kentucky Music Educators Association, and

his vocal music is featured in North Star Music’s Modern Music for New Singers: 21st

Century American Art Songs, an anthology dedicated to curating leading vocal music

by contemporary American composers. Carter is also in demand as an accompanist

and solo pianist, regularly accompanying vocalists and playing in churches as well as

concert halls, where he has a particular afnity for performing music by fellow living

composers. Carter is a proud member of the internationally-renowned Cardinal Sing-

ers under the direction of Dr. Kent Hatteberg, where he has sung baritone since 2019.

Carter also regularly sings in the Christ Church United Methodist Chancel Choir

under the direction of Dr. Dan Blosser, and occasionally lls in on piano and leads

sectionals from the conductor’s podium.

Saunder Choi

is a Los Angeles-based Filipino composer and choral artist whose works have

been performed internationally by various groups including Conspirare, the Philip-

pine Madrigal Singers, Santa Fe Desert Chorale, Los Angeles Master Chorale, Pacic

Chorale, World Youth Choir, Brightwork New Music, People Inside Electronics, and

many others. As an arranger and orchestrator, Saunder has written for Tony-Award

winner Lea Salonga, Singapore Symphony Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony

Orchestra, Orquestra Filarmónica Portuguesa, Gay Men’s Chorus of Los Angeles, San

Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus, etc.

As a choral artist, he sings with Pacic Chorale, L.A. Choral Lab, HEX Vocal

Ensemble, as well as in lm scores such as the soundtrack of Disney’s The Lion King

(2019), Mulan (2020), Turning Red (2022), Nope (2022), Avatar: The Way of the Wa-

ter (2022), etc.

Saunder believes in music as advocacy, using the media as a platform for di-

versity, equity, inclusion, justice. His compositions are focused on narratives and con-

versations surrounding immigration, racial justice, LGBTQ+ advocacy, climate justice,

and representations of his identity as a Filipino-Chinese. He is currently Director of

Music at Unitarian Universalist Community Church of Santa Monica and a teaching

artist with the Los Angeles Master Chorale.

Grzegorz Miśkiewicz

was born on March 12, 1969 in Jordanów (Poland). He studied organ with

Prof. Zbigniew Indyk at the High School of Music in Cracow from 1984 to 1988. Be-

tween 1989 and 1992 he continued his studies at the Liturgical Institute by the Faculty

of Theology at the Pontical University of John Paul II in Cracow. He also graduated

with honors from the Faculty of History at the same university. He received his PhD

in humanities in 2013.

COMPOSER BIOGRAPHIES

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Grzegorz Miśkiewicz has received numerous awards in composition con-

tests, including:

2007 – honorable mention for Panis angelicus for a cappella mixed choir in the Na-

tionwide Composers Competition for Eucharistic Motet in Warsaw;

2008 – honorable mention for Venite exultemus Domino for a cappella women’s choir

in the Nationwide a Cappella Choral Work Composers Competition in Legnica; 2009

honorable mention for Laudate Dominium psalm for a cappella women’s choir in the

same contest;

2009 – the second prize for Missa brevis for mixed choir a cappella in the IV Nation-

wide Composers Competition for Liturgical Choral Song in Bydgoszcz;

2010 – the rst prize for Miserere mei, Deus for mixed choir a cappella in the V Na-

tionwide Composers Competition for Choral Passion Song in Bydgoszcz;

2011 – the third prize for Contemini Domino, Gaudeamus Omnes in Domino i Vidi

aquam in the International Composers Competition Within The Musica Religiosa

Olomunc Festival Czech Republic;

2012 – the third prize in the V Nationwide Composers Competition for Choral Pas-

sion Song in Bydgoszcz for De profundis.

2017 – Nationwide a Cappella Choral Work Composers Competition in Legnica, hon-

orable mention for work Do św. Józefa.

2022 – Nationwide a Cappella Choral Work Composers Competition in Legnica, the

1st place for work Ciebie chwalę, Boże mój.

Steven Stucky

was a Pulitzer Prize-winning composer. He had an extensive catalogue of

compositions ranging from large-scale orchestral works to a cappella miniatures

for chorus. He was also active as a conductor, writer, lecturer and teacher, and for

21 years he enjoyed a close partnership with the Los Angeles Philharmonic. In 1988

André Previn appointed him composer-in-residence of the Los Angeles Philharmon-

ic, and later he became the orchestra’s consulting composer for new music, working

closely with Esa-Pekka Salonen. Commissioned by the orchestra, his Second Concer-

to for Orchestra brought him the Pulitzer Prize in music in 2005.

Steven Stucky taught at Cornell University from 1980 to 2014 and served

as Given Foundation Professor of Composition. He was permanently employed as

Composer-in-Residence at the Aspen Music Festival and School . He was a Visiting

Professor of Composition at the Eastman School of Music and at Temple University,

and the Ernest Bloch Professor at the University of California (Berkeley). He joined

the faculty of the Juilliard School in 2014. Among his honors are a Guggenheim Fel-

lowship, a Bogliasco Fellowship, the Goddard Lieberson Fellowship of the American

Academy of Arts and Letters, the ASCAP Victor Herbert Prize, and fellowships from

the National Endowment for the Arts, the American Council of Learned Societies,

and the National Endowment for the Humanities. A world-renowned expert on

Lutoslawski’s music, he is a recipient of the Lutoslawski Society’s medal. He was a

frequent guest at colleges and conservatories, and his works appear on the programs

of the world’s major orchestras.

COMPOSER BIOGRAPHIES

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Dariusz Zimnicki

was born in Sejny, Poland. He founded his rst vocal group at the age of

16. At that time he also took his rst steps as a composer. He is a graduate of the

Vilnius Conservatory (choir conducting class of Juozas Talžunas) in 1997 and

the Fryderyk Chopin Academy of Music in Warsaw (class of Professor Ryszard

Zimak). As a student he gained experience as an active chorister, performing at

numerous international competitions in Europe. He is a laureate of the national

Competition for Young Conductors in Pozna (2002).

After graduation he began working at the Warsaw Chamber Opera as an

assistant conductor, for two seasons preparing choral parts of romantic operas. In

2004 he began working as the conductor and artistic director of the Choir of the

Warsaw Archcathedral and a few months later of Warsaw University of Technol-

ogy Choir. In 2011, on the initiative of Father Tadeusz Sowa (parish priest at that

time) he founded the Chamber Choir “Tibi Domine” at the Blessed Saviour parish.

Since 2020 he has been the director of the Mixed Choir of the FCUM and the ar-

tistic supervisor of the Faculty Vocal Ensemble. As a conductor he has performed

in over a dozen countries around the world. He is extremely active in the compe-

tition arena, and has won over 50 awards and distinctions at national and interna-

tional choral competitions. Together with choirs he stood on the highest podiums

in such competitions as Legnica Cantat, Polish Choral Grand Prix, International

Festival of Orthodox Music in Białystok.

He holds a postdoctoral degree in arts. His domain is exploring the

secrets of efcient work with a vocal ensemble. He has conducted workshops and

master classes in China, the United States, and Europe. He was a long-time juror

of the famous Llangollen International Musical Eisteddfod. He has directed four

editions of the Vivat Academia festival of student choirs, and is the originator and

organizer of the International Conference on the Personality of the Conductor,

devoted to issues of choir directing, at which over 30 speakers from all over the

world have appeared in ve editions.

He is passionate about composing. He is the author of about 40 choral

works (music performed around the world) and numerous choral arrangements of

carols, church and folk songs, as well as popular music.

CHORAL ENSEMBLES

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University of Louisville

Collegiate Chorale

Kent Hatteberg, Conductor

Soprano 1

Kylie Bennett

Maddie Carbary

Julia Clements

Lana Finley

Minji Kim*

Emily Minnis

Abigail Mires

Bella Spencer

Soprano 2

Sarah Givens

Emily Grace Gudgel

Sarah Moser*

Kaylee Norman

Kiki Pastor-Richard

Reilly Ray-Hudson

Alto 1

Madalyn Cull

Olivia Damm

Amelia Glikin

Allie Hughes

Jeena Jang*

Caitlyn Kirchner

Carol Kittner

Kylie McGuffey

Martha Ottaviano

Alto 2

Reagan Davidson

Zyla Dortch

Corinne Lonergan

Ashton Murphey

Caroline O’Mahoney

Jenna Proft

LaKyya Washington

Tenor 1

Ethan Burr

Isaac Butler

Simon Conn

Trexler Cook

Nick Metry*

Joey Partin

Jackson Scott

Tenor 2

Alex Barton

Liam Buchanan

Dawson Gorby

Dawson Hardin

Jeremy Metcalf

Calvin Ramirez

Connor Sandman

Owen Strunk

Baritone

Benjamin Carter*

Walter Cooper

Anthony Hernandez-Greenwell

James Layton*

Michael Merritt

Luke Skorija

Nathaniel Tooley

Jacob Van Metre

Austin Walsh

Bass 2

Depp Alexander

Cooper Haywood

Troy Sleeman

Austin Smith

Noah VanRude

*graduate student

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CHORAL ENSEMBLES

University of Louisville

Cardinal Singers

Kent Hatteberg, Conductor

Soprano 1

Julia Clements

Minji Kim*

Abigail Mires

Bella Spencer

Soprano 2

Won Joo Ahn +

Carol Kittner

Molly Melahn

Reilly Ray-Hudson

Alto 1

Trisha Eedarapalli

Hannah Gibson

Amelia Glikin

Allie Hughes

Jeena Jang*

Martha Ottaviano

Alto 2

Madalyn Cull

Caroline O’Mahoney

Jenna Proft

LaKyya Washington

Soa Wu

Tenor 1

Isaac Butler

Benjamin Horman

Jackson Scott

Matthew Sharpensteen

Tenor 2

Dawson Gorby

James Layton*

Nick Metry*

Calvin Ramirez

Connor Sandman

Baritone

Benjamin Carter*

Walter Cooper

Michael Merritt

Luke Skorija

Nathaniel Tooley

Jacob Van Metre

Bass 2

Depp Alexander

Cooper Haywood

Jerry Rutkovskiy

Troy Sleeman

Austin Smith

Spencer Smith

Noah VanRude

+faculty

*graduate student

PROGRAM

UPCOMING EVENTS

All events are held at the School of Music on the University of Louisville Belknap Campus and

are free and open to the public, unless otherwise noted.

Events are subject to change. Scan the code below for a full list.

Keep up-to-date with the School of Music for announcements, news, and more

by following us on social media @uomusic.

Vist our website at www.louisville.edu/music

SHOP

Show your pride and support and Shop at the School of Music online store for cool gear!

All proceeds go to support the School of Music's general scholarship fund.

www.uomusicstore.com

Welcome to the University of Louisville!

We hope you enjoy the concert this evening.

› Smoking is not permitted in the School of Music building.

In the unlikely event of a re or other emergency, please walk to the nearest exit.

› The use of recording devices and ash photography is strictly prohibited.

› Please silence cell phones & other electronic devices.

Thank you.

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