Malcolm J. Merriweather, conductor
This program reflects on the Civil War as seen through Whitman’s eyes. As a volunteer nurse in a Washington, D.C. military hospital, he was witness to the many horrors that wars inflict.
Rene Clausen’s Three Whitman Songs and Jeffrey Van’s A Procession Winding Around Me: Four Civil War Poems offers contemporary settings of Whitman’s poetry, the latter with guitar. British composers Stanford and Holst both set Whitman’s elegy on the death of Abraham Lincoln “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d” with full Victorian splendor. We also present the final installment (over three seasons) of Bach’s six motets, Der geist hilft unser Schwachheit auf. The motet, written for a funeral fits the theme of this program.
Pre-concert talk – 3:15 pm
Civil War Poetry of Walt Whitman
Dr. Karen Karbiener
A Procession Winding Around Me: Four Civil War Poems Jeffrey Van (b. 1941)
Der geist hilft unser Schwachheit auf, BWV 226 J.S. Bach (1685-1750)
Three Whitman Settings Rene Clausen (b. 1953)
Four Walt Whitman Songs Kurt Weill (1900-1950)
Whispers of Heavenly Death (premiere) Ian Sturges Milliken (b. 1984)
Ode to Death, H. 144, Op. 38 Gustav Holst (1874-1934)
Elegiac Ode, Op. 21 Charles Villiers Stanford (1852-1924)
Anne Matlack, conductor
Malcolm J. Merriweather, Jesus
Christopher Shepard, conductor
Malcolm J. Merriweather, baritone soloist
The final concert of the season, on the 200th anniversary of his birth, features several commissioned choral works that use the poetry of Walt Whitman. The concert begins with settings of Whitman’s poetry by twentieth century American composers Howard Hanson and Gregg Smith. Along with reprises of two Dessoff commissions from earlier in the season, the second half of the concert will offer two world premieres – a commissioned work by Eve Beglarian and Mathew Aucoin’s commissioned choral excerpts from his critically acclaimed opera, Crossing.
Pre-concert talk: 7:15 pm
Composers Writing to Whitman
Dr. Malcolm J. Merriweather along with
Eve Beglarian
Tania Leon
Douglas Geers
Mathew Aucoin
Song of Democracy Howard Hanson (1896-1981)
Quicksand Years Ian Sturges Milliken (b. 1984)
Whitman’s New York Gregg Smith (1931-2016)
WHITMAN PREMIERE Eve Beglarian (b. 1958)
WHITMAN PREMIERE Tania León (b. 1943)
WHITMAN PREMIERE Douglas Geers (b. 1968)
Crossing Matthew Aucoin (b. 1990)
Malcolm J. Merriweather, conductor
Malcolm J. Merriweather, clinician
Merriweather performs Three Dream Portraits by Margaret Bonds with organist, Nathaniel Gumbs. The program also includes chamber music for various instruments all in the splendor of the Church of St. Luke & St. Simon Cyrene.
Malcolm will be guest clinician and recitalist for the insittute. His seminars will focus on English/German Diction, solo singing, and choral conducting.
The Dessoff Choirs will join Roomful of Teeth in a performance of Eve Beglarian’s None more than you. The ensemble of Grammy Award-winning vocal titans led by Williams College professor Brad Wells, returned to its summer home at MASS MoCA creating new works and honing techniques. Teeth’s residency culminated in an unforgettable performance, which includrf Richard Beaudoin’s Another Woman of Another Kind featuring Claire Chase and a new arrangement of David Lang’s Little Match Girl Passion.
Merriweather will present the “Calamus Songs” of Gregg Smith with pianist, Nissa Kahle and flutist, Lish Lindsey.
