Thursday, March 10, 2022 • 7:30 P.M.
KING AVENUE CHURCH
299 King Avenue
Columbus, OH 43201
WOMEN'S GLEE CLUB
Jordan Saul, conductor
Casey L. Cook, associate conductor and accompanist
Bram Wayman, graduate conductor
OHIO STATE CHORALE
Robert Bode, conductor
Lee Thompson, piano
Colin Knoth, graduate teaching associate
We wish to express our deep gratitude for the help of our neighbors in producing tonight's concert:
Chris McManus
Amy Ashburn
King Avenue Church
Columbus Pride Bands
Jeanne Norton
Susan Powell
PROGRAM
WOMEN'S GLEE CLUB
Tundra
Ola Gjeilo (b. 1978)
Text by Charles Anthony Silvestri
Wide, worn and weathered,
Sacred expanse
Of green and white and granite grey;
Snowy patches strewn,
Anchored to the craggy earth,
Unmoving;
While clouds dance
Across the vast, eternal sky.
We Pray to Be at Peace
from Missa Gaia
Libby Larsen (b. 1950)
Text by M. K. Dean
Bram Wayman, conductor
Mother, sister, blessed, honored,
Life of the water, life of the flower,
Grant that we do not hurt ourselves with vanity.
Help us to feel and not to feel.
Teach us to care.
Teach us to be at peace with [what] will.
Teach us to care for all we touch
And let my prayer be heard by Thee.
Ave Maris Stella
Joseph Gabriel Rheinberger (1839–1901)
Anonymous Christian hymn to the Virgin Mary
Ave, maris stella, Dei Mater alma,
Atque semper Virgo, felix caeli porta.
Sumens illud Ave Gabrielis ore,
Funda nos in pace, mutans Evae nomen.
Monstra te esse matrem
sumat per te preces,
Qui pro nobis natus tulit esse tuus.
Virgo singularis, inter omnes mitis,
Nos culpis solutos, mites fac et castos.
Vitam praesta puram, iter para tutum,
Ut videntes Jesum, semper collaetemur.
Hail, star of the sea, loving Mother of God,
and also always a virgin,
Happy gate of heaven.
Receiving that Ave from Gabriel’s mouth
confirm us in peace, reversing Eva’s name.
Show yourself to be a mother,
May he accept prayers through you,
he who, born for us, chose to be yours.
O unique virgin, meek above all,
Make us, absolved from sin,
Gentle and chaste.
Keep life pure, make the journey safe,
So that, seeing Jesus,
We may always rejoice together.
Ave Maria
David MacIntyre (b. 1952)
Christian prayer
Ave Maria. Hail Mary.
OHIO STATE CHORALE
Alleluia
Elaine Hagenberg (b. 1979)
Text by Saint Augustine
Colin Knoth, conductor
All shall be Amen and Alleluia.
We shall rest and we shall see.
We shall see and we shall know.
We shall know and we shall love.
Behold our end which is no end.
Deep River
arr. Roy Ringwald (1910–1995)
African-American spiritual
Robert Bode, conductor
Deep river: my home is over Jordan.
Deep river — I want to cross over into campground.
Oh, don’t you want to go to that Gospel feast,
That promised land where all is peace?
Chichester Psalms
Leonard Bernstein (1918–1990)
Text from the Hebrew Bible
Translation by Robert Alter
Movt. i — Psalms 108 and 100
Movt. ii — Psalm 23 and 2
Movt. iii — Psalm 131 and 133
Jillian Davis, Josephine Davis, harp
Hannah Moore, Erin Rybinski, percussion
Ray Nagem, organ
Samantha Sayar, treble
Sophia Longo, soprano
Caitlin Boyle, alto
Zach Irwin, tenor
Colin Knoth, bass
Bram Wayman, conductor
Words from the conductor: Chichester Psalms
The stories that stay with us, the stories that people repeat generation after generation, are about more than their plots and people. The Tempest isn’t really about Prospero: it’s about power, humility, and discovery. The Book of Psalms is about all of our lives, its narrator stumbling with us through fear and anger and joy. That six different poems from two eons ago could make one coherent tale is a master stroke from a master storyteller: Leonard Bernstein, who composed the Chichester Psalms as a commission by England’s Chichester Cathedral for a choral festival in 1965.
The Chichester Psalms is a story about the search for the right way to live. Told in triptych, the piece is made up of scenes from archetypal lives. Its first movement could be a religious festival or holiday, some monumental event, heralded with a choral fanfare — “I would waken the dawn!” — and culminating in an uproarious dance — “Come into His gates in thanksgiving… for the Lord is good!” The people, the characters in this chapter, believe and celebrate together: they echo each other’s exultations, they complete each others’ sentences in poetic volleys, and they sing their loudest when they sing as one. The second movement begins with the boy-king David, playing his harp, composing the twenty-third Psalm: “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.” He sings of repose and fulfillment, but the echoes of his song in the treble choir root his words in gratitude. The horrors of war shatter the scene, as the tenors and basses whisper and mutter, then shout, amongst themselves: “Kings of the earth take their stand… He Who dwells in the heavens will laugh.” There is a cruel confidence here, a certainty in a God that kills to win, heightened by the music’s terrible juxtaposition with David’s simple psalm when the two begin to sound at the same time.
The final movement begins with an instrumental nightmare, as the characters in the story — all of us — wake up to the world we have made, the ease with which we have turned celebration to tribalism and plenteousness into greed. Bernstein leads us to an unusual resolution by selecting the 131st Psalm for his finale: “Lord, my heart has not been haughty… not have I striven for… things too wondrous for me.” Humility, simplicity and smallness — not any grand, sweeping conviction from a moral high ground — are the first steps to reconciliation. After a lullaby rich and deep enough to rock all the world’s children to sleep, Bernstein concludes the Chichester Psalms with a timeless Judaic prayer: “Look, how good and how pleasant is the dwelling of brothers together.”
Program notes © 2022 Abraham Wayman
Raymond Nagem is Music Minister at The Brick Presbyterian Church in New York City, and a member of the organ faculty at Manhattan School of Music, where he teaches organ literature, service playing and improvisation. He completed his DMA at The Juilliard School in 2016, where he was a student of Paul Jacobs. Prior to joining Brick Church, he served as Associate Director of Music and Organist at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine under Kent Tritle.
A native of Medford, Massachusetts, Dr. Nagem attended the Boston Archdiocesan Choir School and began organ lessons there with John Dunn. He earned his BA from Yale University in 2009, studying the organ with Thomas Murray, and his MA in 2011 from Juilliard. Dr. Nagem has led the music program at Brick Church since 2021, where he conducts music in service and concert and oversees the church’s singers and organists. At St. John the Divine, Dr. Nagem had primary responsibility for service playing and choral accompaniment, and frequently conducted the cathedral’s choral ensembles.
Since the COVID-19 pandemic began, Dr. Nagem has started a weekly online recital series, “Tuesdays at 6.” These recitals from home are streamed over Facebook and YouTube, and feature a diverse range of music covering the entire organ repertoire. Dr. Nagem’s album Divine Splendor is available on the Pro Organo label.
Psalm texts/translations
Mvt. i
PSALM 108, V. 2 [3]
Urah, hanevel, v’chinor!
A-irah shaḥar!
Awake, O lute and lyre.
I would waken the dawn.
PSALM 100
Hariu l’Adonai kol haarets.
Iv’du et Adonai b’simḥa.
Bo-u l’fanav bir’nanah.
D’u ki Adonai Hu Elohim.
Hu asanu, v’lo anaḥnu.
Amo v’tson mar’ito.
Bo-u sh’arav b’todah,
Ḥatseirotav bit’hilah,
Hodu lo, bar’chu sh’mo.
Ki tov Adonai, l’olam ḥas’do,
V’ad dor vador emunato.
Shout out to the LORD, all the earth,
worship the LORD in rejoicing,
come before Him in glad song.
Know that the LORD is God.
He has made us, and we are His,
His people and the flock He tends.
Come into His gates in thanksgiving,
His courts in praise.
Acclaim Him, bless His name.
For the LORD is good, forever His kindness,
and for all generations His faithfulness.
Mvt. ii
PSALM 23
Adonai ro-i, lo eḥsar.
Bin’ot deshe yarbitseini,
Al mei m’nuḥot y’naḥaleini,
Naf’shi y’shovev,
Yan’ḥeini b’ma’aglei tsedek,
L’ma’an sh’mo.
Gam ki eilech
B’gei tsalmavet,
Lo ira ra,
Ki Atah imadi.
Shiv’t’cha umishan’techa
Hemah y’naḥamuni.
Ta’aroch l’fanai shulchan
Neged tsor’rai
Dishanta vashemen roshi
Cosi r’vayah.
Ach tov vaḥesed
Yird’funi kol y’mei ḥayai
V’shav’ti b’veit Adonai
L’orech yamim.
The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not want.
In grass meadows He makes me lie down,
by quiet waters guides me.
My life He brings back.
He leads me on pathways of justice
for His name’s sake.
Though I walk
in the vale of death’s shadow,
I fear no harm,
for You are with me.
Your rod and Your staff —
it is they that console me.
You set out a table before me
in the face of my foes.
You moisten my head with oil,
my cup overflows.
Let but goodness and kindness pursue me
all the days of my life.
And I shall dwell in the house of the LORD for many long days.
PSALM 2, VV. 1–4
Lamah rag’shu goyim
Ul’umim yeh’gu rik?
Yit’yats’vu malchei erets,
V’roznim nos’du yạhad
Al Adonai v’al m’shiḥo.
N’natkah et mos’roteimo,
V’nashlichah mimenu avoteimo.
Yoshev bashamayim yis’ḥak,
Adonai yil’ag lamo’!
Why are the nations aroused,
and the peoples murmur vain things?
Kings of the earth take their stand,
and princes conspire together
against the LORD and against His anointed.
“Let us tear off their fetters,
Let us fling away their bonds!”
He Who dwells in the heavens will laugh,
the Master derides them.
Mvt. iii
PSALM 131
Adonai, Adonai, lo gavah libi,
V’lo ramu einai,
V’lo hilachti big’dolot
uv’niflaot mimeni.
Im lo shiviti v’domam’ti,
Naf’shi k’gamul alei imo,
Kagamul alai naf’shi.
Yaḥel Yis’rael el Adonai
Me’atah v’ad olam.
LORD, my heart has not been haughty,
nor have my eyes looked too high,
nor have I striven for great things,
nor for things too wondrous for me.
But I have calmed and contented myself
like a weaned babe on its mother —
like a weaned babe I am with myself.
Wait, O Israel, for the LORD,
now and forevermore.
PSALM 133, V. 1
Hineh mah tov, umah nayim,
Shevet aḥim gam yaḥad.
Look, how good and how pleasant
is the dwelling of brothers together.
We are much indebted to Robert Alter’s translation of the Hebrew Bible, which made a difference in our interpretation of the Chichester Psalms.
The above translations are from his publication: Alter, Robert. The Hebrew Bible: A Translation with Commentary. Volume 3, The Writings (Ketuvim). New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2019.
ROSTERS
Women’s Glee Club
Ariel Alvarado ^
Molly Beetem
Audrey Brill
Katie Callow
Skylar Cinch
Taylor Clark
Grace Cooper*
Ella Cope
Ema Davis
Emma Edwardson
Grace Ermie
Kathleen Fink
Katelyn France
Bella Gabriel
Anna Giametta *
Kaitlynn Gilbert *
Lee Hahn
Olivia Haines
Ayla Hoermann *
Elizabeth Holup
Molly Hornberger
Mia Huber
Caroline Karbowski
Jenna Keller
Emma Kelley
Brenna Kitchen
Lauren Klosterman
Linnaea Long
Leah Mattas #
Liz McDermott
Alyssa McGraw
Grace McNeil
Amanda Meng
Morgan Miller
Madison Mitchell
Molly Molina
Delaney Murray
Jessie Murray
Bri Nutter
Ruth Peart
Abby Place
Stephanie Ranallo
Lydia Robertson
Janayia Rodgers
Gabriella Stauffer
Megan Waldfogel *
Maddie Wittman
Yifei Zhang
Celina Zhao
^ graduate conductor
# president
* Executive Board Member
Ohio State Chorale
SOPRANO
Molly Beetem
Lindsey Bertin
Ashley Boldt
Jordan Drinnon
Corinne Gorgas
Abigail Haffey
Jenna Keller
Sophia Longo
Natalie Mahalla
Paige McHenry
Lexi Moore
Isabella Parks
Ruth Peart
Samantha Sayar
Leigha Schumaker
Laura Zalewski
ALTO
Ariel Alvarado
Caitlin Boyle
Aria Cadeau
Sarah Gibson
Sarah Julien
Rebecca Lisi
Mo Majekodunmi
Kait Newcomb
Karenna Peterson
Anabella Petronsi
Abby Place
Stephanie Ranallo
Delaney-Rose Ramsey
Gabriela Sanchez
Xin Su
Cece Vasey
Katerina Warner
TENOR
Ryan Armstrong
Matt Burns
Bennet Emrick
Brennan Harlow
Zach Irwin
Matt Kinnear
Indigo London
Nick Madama
Logan Keevins
Nick Sanchez-Zarkos
Vincent Stepien
Colby van Gorp
Bram Wayman
BASS
Luke Bornhorst
Nick Denino
Noah Friedman
Brandon Harvey
Tristan Hejl
Hayden Hostetler
Seiji Kawakami
Logan Keevins
Colin Knoth
Paul Kokora
Andrew McDaniel
Luke Peart
David Ricci
Jason Tisl
Roman Wentzel
Jared Yoder
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