Shakespeare a cappella
Saturday, February 13, 2016, 8:00 pm
Nichols Concert Hall
1490 Chicago Ave., Evanston
Saturday February 20, 2016, 8:00 pm
Pilgrim Congregation Church
460 Lake St., Oak Park
Sunday, February 14, 2016, 4:00 pm
Rockefeller Memorial Chapel
5850 S. Woodlawn Ave., Chicago
Sunday February 21, 2016, 4:00 pm
Wentz Concert Hall
171 E Chicago Ave., Naperville
Chicago a cappella
Megan Bell - Soprano
Kathryn Kamp - Soprano
Sarah Ponder - Mezzo-soprano
Emily Price - Mezzo-soprano
Matt Dean - Tenor
Trevor Mitchell - Tenor
Ryan Cox - Bass
Carl Frank - Bass
Woo Chan (Chaz) Lee – Bass
Performances by
Barbara Robertson
Greg Vinkler
Founder and Artistic Director
Jonathan Miller
Principal Music Director
John William Trotter
Writer/Director
Tom Mula
This program is generously supported by the Paul M. Angell Family Foundation,
the Elizabeth F. Cheney Foundation, and a grant from The Saints.
This program is generously supported by the Paul M. Angell Family Foundation, The Saints and the Elizabeth F.
Cheney Foundation. Chicago a cappella is partially supported by The MacArthur Funds for Arts and Culture at
the Richard H. Driehaus Foundation; The Gaylord and Dorothy Donnelley Foundation; the Arts Work Fund for
Organizational Development; the Oak Park Area Arts Council, in partnership with the Villages of Oak Park, Forest
Park and River Forest; a CityArts Grant from the City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events;
and the Illinois Arts Council Agency, a state agency. Media Sponsors: The Daily Herald, WBEZ, The Chicago Maroon
Shakespeare a cappella
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UPCOMING EVENTS
THE HISTORY OF ROCK AND SOUL
For decades, Radio Hall-of Famer Terri Hemmert has taught a college course called “The
History of Rock and Soul,” and now we bring it to musical life. From Louis Jordan and
Elvis to Motown, gospel, and R&B, we’ll trace the path of the 20th century’s popular music,
with Terri herself as onstage narrator and guide. This fascinating musical history lesson
will be the most fun you’ve ever had in school!
Oak Park
Friday, April 15, 8:00 pm
Pilgrim Congregational Church
Chicago
Sunday, April 17, 4:00 pm
Logan Center for the Arts
Evanston
Saturday, April 16, 8:00 pm
Nichols Concert Hall
Naperville
Sunday, April 24, 4:00 pm
Wentz Concert Hall
Gala Concert
GOOD VIBRATIONS: Music of the Beach Boys
Join us for a great evening of music as Chicago a cappella performs unforgettable
classics by the Beach Boys, celebrating the 50th anniversary of their iconic sound.
This year’s gala honors Michael Mitzen, Board President of Kol Zimrah, with our
Tribute Award and our Friend of the Year, Robert B. Linn.
Saturday, May 14, 2016
The Winter Garden at the
Harold Washington Library
400 S. State Street
Tickets and information: chicagoacappella.org or (773) 281-7820
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Chicago a cappella
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SHALL I COMPARE THEE?:
Choral Songs on Shakespeare Texts
This a unique celebration of texts by William
Shakespeare, all set to music by world-class
composers of our own time, includes the
recorded premieres of seven works and several
songs written especially for Chicago a cappella.
“[A] charming, beautifully sung collection….Chicago a cappella sings with
clarity, well-balanced tone, and deep emotional involvement.”
—Washington Post
“pure intonation, beautiful blend and clear diction”
—Cleveland Plain Dealer
“ a unique, unstuffy, beautifully sung enterprise.”
—American Record Guide
Coming up in QUIRE & PLACE V,
our signature concert series
directed by James Kallembach
MUSIC in the TIME of
BACH
SHAKESPEARE
St. John Passion
SATURDAY FEBRUARY 27
7:30 PM
Tallis and Byrd paired with Shulamit Ran
settings of Shakespeare: the world première
of her Sonnet 64
SUNDAY MARCH 20
3:00 PM
Sung by only nine voices, as in
Bach’s day, with acclaimed tenor
Matthew Dean as the Evangelist
Tickets $20 / free to students at rockefeller.uchicago.edu or at the door
Shakespeare a cappella
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PROGR A M
Summer Sonnet................................................................................................................Kevin Olson
*******
It was a lover and his lass...................................................................................................John Rutter
*******
Shall I compare thee?........................................................................................... Robert Applebaum
*******
My love is as a fever................................................................................................... Håkan Parkman
*******
Take, o take those lips away...................................................................................... Matthew Harris
*******
From Four Shakespeare Songs:..............................................................................Jaakko Mäntyjärvi
Lullaby
Full fathom five
Double, double, toil and trouble
INTERMISSION
Orpheus, with his lute...........................................................................................George MacFarren
*******
It was a lover and his lass........................................................................................... Matthew Harris
*******
Spring..................................................................................................................... Robert Applebaum
*******
And Will A’ Not Come Again?................................................................................. Matthew Harris
*******
From Four Shakespeare Songs:..............................................................................Jaakko Mäntyjärvi
Come away, Death
*******
Over Hill, over Dale*................................................................................. Ralph Vaughan Williams
*******
Blow, blow, thou winter wind...................................................................................Martha Sullivan
*******
The Cloud Capp’d Towers*........................................................................ Ralph Vaughan Williams
*First performance by Chicago a cappella
Latecomers will be seated at the discretion of the ushers. Unauthorized photography or sound
recording of any kind are strictly prohibited. Smoking is prohibited in all venues. Food and
beverage are not permitted in the audience seating area. Thank you for your cooperation.
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Chicago a cappella
F R O M T H E A R T I S T I C D I R E C TO R
When we go to experience Shakespeare, we trust fundamentally that
something will stir in us emotionally. How? Why? In our case, nine
singers and two actors walk onto a stage, with voices and hearts and
music and words to deliver—that alone does not guarantee art. The
material presented must be art, and the execution must transmit what
art transmits. What, then, does art do?
In his 1898 treatise What is Art?, the Russian novelist and critic Leo Tolstoy described art as
follows:
To evoke in oneself a feeling one has once experienced, and having evoked it in
oneself, then, by means of movements, lines, colors, sounds, or forms expressed in
words, so to transmit that feeling that others may experience the same feeling—
this is the activity of art.
The way that Shakespeare does this to us is, as he wrote, “rich and strange.” Shakespeare
transmits emotion to us by using language that Americans would never use in daily speech,
describing events far removed from our daily experience. And yet we flock to him. We come
back over and over, like thirsty elephants to the river, to be nourished and sustained by the
working (and re-working) in us of the feelings transmitted—and, yes, it is art.
Chicago a cappella’s first all-Shakespeare program took place in 2003, with composers
around the world responding to our “call for scores” by showering us with new music on
Shakespeare texts. The project was picked up soon thereafter as a recording by Jim Ginsburg
for Cedille Records, our first recording on that superb label. Much of that original material
appears on tonight’s concert, with some thoughtful changes coming from a team effort that
included Principal Music Director John Trotter and Tom Mula. Tom also masterminded and
compiled the delightful script that you will experience as told by Barbara Robertson and
Greg Vinkler, our lavishly talented and experienced actors.
With thanks to our stellar team, and with thanks to you for being here, I wish you a
wonderful experience of art and of the emotion that it carries. Enjoy the show.
Warmly,
Jonathan Miller
Founder and Artistic Director
Shakespeare a cappella
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F R O M T H E M U S I C D I R E C TO R
It was partly through Shakespeare that I first began to believe there was
such a thing as “human nature”. How else could I explain a complete
stranger’s ability to speak so clearly across the centuries, especially about
secrets we only half-understand ourselves?
Language itself is something of a miracle, though one we often take for
granted. Words develop and take hold because they reflect something of
lived experience. This is true on every scale, from individual words to memorable phrases to
complete works of literary art. When poets speak of the attributes of poetry, they often use
terminology like “meter”, “rhythm”, and even “music”. Likewise, musicians borrow language
from literary analysis to discuss compositions, speaking of “phrase”, “subject”, “answer”, and
even “argument”.
Many musicians love language, but we choral musicians must also love it “up close.” The
practice of lyric diction within an ensemble requires each of us to become deeply interested
in and sensitive to the very phonemes that make language up. When combined, these
somehow carry the mysterious freight of meaning, both denotation and connotation, to a
listener’s ear, and from there may even take root somewhere much deeper.
Many composers are drawn to Shakespeare’s language and strive to set it, often finding the
task more difficult than they first supposed! Since the company of appreciative creators
stretches not only “across the pond”, but also back through time, a piece by the venerable
George McFarren and two by Vaughan Williams add to the rich and varied menu of settings
by living composers (many of whom have written these works specifically for Chicago a
cappella) which make up the majority of the program. Whether you have come to join us
here because you love ensemble singing, or because you love Shakespeare, or both, I trust
you will find rich discoveries awaiting you.
—John William Trotter
F R O M T H E W R I T E R A N D D I R E C TO R
Victor Hugo said of Shakespeare, “In Shakespeare the birds sing, the
bushes are clothed with green, hearts love, souls suffer, the cloud
wanders, it is hot, it is cold, night falls, time passes, forests and
multitudes speak, the vast eternal dream hovers over all. Sap and blood,
all forms of the multiple reality, actions and ideas, man and humanity,
the living and the life, solitudes, cities, religions, diamonds and pearls,
dung-hills and charnel houses, the ebb and flow of beings, the steps of
comers and goers, all, all are on Shakespeare and in Shakespeare.” Laurence Olivier called
him, “The nearest thing in incarnation to the eye of God.”
Thank you, Chicago a cappella. I feel very lucky to have this opportunity to work with this
glorious music, these glorious words, these glorious musicians, and these glorious actors.
- Tom Mula
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N O T E S O N T H E M U S I C B Y J O N AT H A N M I L L E R
Kevin Olson: Summer Sonnet
Kevin Olson is an active pianist, composer, and member of the piano faculty at Utah State
University, where he teaches piano literature, pedagogy, and accompanying courses. In
addition to his collegiate teaching responsibilities, Kevin directs the Utah State University
Youth Conservatory, which provides weekly group and private piano instruction to more
than 200 pre-college community students. He composed this lovely bossa nova choral work
in response to our 2003 call for new scores on Shakespeare texts.
Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer’s lease hath all too short a date;
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimm’d;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance or nature’s changing course untrimm’d;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st;
Nor shall death brag thou wander’st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou grow’st:
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
—Sonnet 18
John Rutter: It was a lover and his lass
One of the most oft-performed living choral-music composers, John Rutter knows the choral
art inside and out. From 1975 to 1979 he was Director of Music at Clare College, whose choir
he directed in a number of broadcasts and recordings. After giving up the Clare post to allow
more time for composition, he formed the Cambridge Singers as a professional chamber
choir primarily dedicated to recording, and he now divides his time between composition
and conducting. In 2002 his setting of Psalm 150, commissioned for the Queen’s Golden
Jubilee, was performed at the Service of Thanksgiving in St. Paul’s Cathedral, London.
Penned in 1975, this light, breezy, jazzy song in five voice parts gives the feeling of a summer
wedding — after the vows are done and the happy couple skips down the aisle. In fact,
Chicago a cappella sang this piece on just such an occasion in 1993, the year in which we
were first formed.
It was a lover and his lass,
With a hey, and a ho, and a hey nonino,
That o’er the green corn-field did pass,
In the spring time, the only pretty ring time,
When birds do sing, hey ding a ding, ding;
Sweet lovers love the spring.
Between the acres of the rye,
With a hey, and a ho, and a hey nonino,
These pretty country folks would lie,
In the spring time, the only pretty ring time,
When birds do sing, hey ding a ding, ding;
Sweet lovers love the spring.
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N O T E S O N T H E M U S I C B Y J O N AT H A N M I L L E R
c o n t.
This carol they began that hour,
With a hey, and a ho, and a hey nonino,
How that life was but a flower
In the spring time, the only pretty ring time,
When birds do sing, hey ding a ding, ding;
Sweet lovers love the spring.
And, therefore, take the present time
With a hey, and a ho, and a hey nonino,
For love is crown`d with the prime
In the spring time, the only pretty ring time,
When birds do sing, hey ding a ding, ding;
Sweet lovers love the spring.
—As You Like It, Act V, Scene iii
Robert Applebaum: Shall I compare thee?
Bob Applebaum’s wrenchingly sad, yet exquisitely beautiful music reflects the darker side of
Sonnet 18. It was composed under tragic circumstances: the composer notes, “Sonnet 18 was
written in memory of our daughter Carolyn. She was a drama teacher at Wilmette Junior
High when she died suddenly of heart failure. She loved Shakespeare, and the sonnet was
read at her funeral service. I decided to set it about a month after that.”
The music is gently tonal, adding skillful flats where most poignantly appropriate, rounding
out a song of profound dignity. While many composers boldly breeze through the lines “Nor
shall Death brag thou wanderst in his shade,” Applebaum instead reflects on loss, reminding
us that “And every fair from fair sometime declines.” The score is dedicated to Carolyn: “This
gives life to thee.”
Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer’s lease hath all too short a date;
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimm’d;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance or nature’s changing course untrimm’d;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st;
Nor shall death brag thou wander’st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou grow’st:
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
—Sonnet 18
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Chicago a cappella
N O T E S O N T H E M U S I C B Y J O N AT H A N M I L L E R
c o n t.
Håkan Parkman: My love is a fever
His career cut tragically short by an accident, Håkan Parkman (1955–1988) left a few
gems for posterity and a great deal of unfulfilled promise. He directed several choirs in his
native city of Uppsala, Sweden, along with the town’s theatre orchestra. He taught choral
conducting and composed several works for soloist, choir, and instruments together. Among
his few published works is the lovely cycle of Three Shakespeare Songs, from which this
comes.
Parkman’s Sonnet 147 is dark, brooding, and somber. The piece has been recorded beautifully
on the album Nordisk vokalmusik by the vocal sextet Singer Pur. Its soprano solo line moves
in careful steps, up and down the scale, relentlessly charting the course of love’s feverish
movement. After moving into a bright major key for lines 9 through 12, Parkman repeats the
first eight lines yet again, underscoring the intensity of Shakespeare’s love-fever, only to turn
jarringly at the end to the words “hell” and “night.”
My love is as a fever, longing still
For that which longer nurseth the disease,
Feeding on that which doth preserve the ill,
Th’ uncertain sickly appetite to please.
My reason, the physician to my love,
Angry that his prescriptions are not kept,
Hath left me, and I desperate now approve
Desire is death, which physic did except.
Past cure I am, now reason is past care,
And frantic-mad with evermore unrest;
My thoughts and my discourse as madmen’s are,
At random from the truth vainly expressed:
For I have sworn thee fair, and thought thee bright,
Who art as black as hell, as dark as night.
—Sonnet 147
Matthew Harris: Take, O Take those lips away
New York-based composer Matthew Harris, a musicologist by training, is best known for
his five volumes of Shakespeare Songs for mixed chorus, in which this lovely song appears.
Harris chose to set “Take, O Take Those Lips Away” with “the fast, driving fury of a lover
scorned” instead of the more typical slow lament (or Parkman’s more lighthearted setting
earlier on this program). The boy who sings to Mariana to start Act IV of Measure for
Measure does not seem particularly distressed; nevertheless, the musical result here is a wellbalanced song of heartache. (In some modern productions, Mariana sings the words herself,
expressing her own misery.)
Take, oh take those lips away,
That so sweetly were forsworn,
And those eyes: the breake of day,
Lights that do mislead the Morn;
But my kisses bring again, bring again,
Seals of love, but sealed in vain, sealed in vain.
—Measure for Measure, Act IV, Scene I
Shakespeare a cappella
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N O T E S O N T H E M U S I C B Y J O N AT H A N M I L L E R
c o n t.
Jaakko Mäntyjärvi: Four Shakespeare Songs
Lullaby
Full fathom five
Double, double, toil and trouble
Finnish composer Jaakko Mäntyjärvi (b. 1963) is one of the leading writers of choral music
of his generation. He calls himself an “eclectic traditionalist,” a label that certainly fits this
cycle. He is harmonically adventurous but within a tonal language that choral singers
can readily grasp. Mäntyjärvi works as a translator between Finnish and English, and his
command of English is astounding.
Four Shakespeare Songs (1984) was dedicated to the Savolaisen Osakunnan Laulajat
student choir. The composer was studying English at a university when he composed the
cycle, which he describes as “varied and demanding.” The level of nuance and emotional
expression in these pieces is remarkable.
“Lullaby” is almost excruciatingly tender. Its open fifths and rocking meter quickly set a calm
tone, but the gently falling, chromatic melody in the middle hints at sinister things to come.
The slow, atmospheric “Full fathom five” sets a song from The Tempest; this is the song that
the shipwrecked Prospero asks the “airy spirit,” Ariel, to sing. Prospero wants Ariel’s song
to lure Ferdinand, son of Alonso, Duke of Naples, to the place where Prospero is waiting.
Ferdinand believes his father has drowned, a fear that Ariel’s song vividly illustrates. Musical
devices such as augmented triads lend a creepy, otherworldly flavor to the text, strengthening
the word images of Alonso’s body being turned into treasures of coral and pearls.
Full fathom five thy father lies,
Of his bones are coral made;
Those are pearls that were his eyes:
Nothing of him that doth fade,
But doth suffer a sea-change Into something rich and strange.
Sea-nymphs hourly ring his knell:
Ding-dong.
Hark! now I hear them, – ding-dong bell.
—The Tempest, Act I, Scene ii
Few choral pieces anywhere can match the ferocious enthusiasm of Mäntyjärvi’s “Double,
double, toil and trouble” The famous text from Macbeth meets music of like intensity.
Indeed, the tempo is marked Allegro non troppo ma feroce (“fast, not too much, but fierce”).
The song is cast in a relentlessly shifting and irregular meter, in which the witches’ manic
brewing takes gleeful, macabre flight. Most often, Mäntyjärvi gives the narrative voices of all
three witches to the entire chorus, magnifying the witches’ warped excitement.
First Witch
Thrice the brinded cat hath mew’d.
Second Witch
Thrice and once the hedge-pig whined.
Third Witch
Harpier cries ‘Tis time, ‘tis time.
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Chicago a cappella
Shakespeare a cappella
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N O T E S O N T H E M U S I C B Y J O N AT H A N M I L L E R
c o n t.
First Witch
Round about the cauldron go;
In the poison’d entrails throw.
Toad, that under cold stone
Days and nights has thirty-one
Swelter’d venom sleeping got,
Boil thou first i’ the charmed pot.
ALL
Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn, and cauldron bubble.
Second Witch
Fillet of a fenny snake,
In the cauldron boil and bake;
Eye of newt and toe of frog,
Wool of bat and tongue of dog,
Adder’s fork and blind-worm’s sting,
Lizard’s leg and owlet’s wing,
For a charm of powerful trouble,
Like a hell-broth boil and bubble.
ALL
Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn and cauldron bubble.
Third Witch
Scale of dragon, tooth of wolf,
Witches’ mummy, maw and gulf
Of the ravin’d salt-sea shark,
Root of hemlock digg’d i’ the dark,
Liver of blaspheming Jew,
Gall of goat, and slips of yew
Silver’d in the moon’s eclipse,
Nose of Turk and Tartar’s lips,
Finger of birth-strangled babe
Ditch-deliver’d by a drab,
Make the gruel thick and slab:
Add thereto a tiger’s chaudron,
For the ingredients of our cauldron.
ALL
Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn and cauldron bubble.
Second Witch
By the pricking of my thumbs,
Something wicked this way comes.
Open, locks,
Whoever knocks!
—Macbeth, Act IV, Scene i
INTERMISSION
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Chicago a cappella
2016 Gala Raffle
May 14, 2016
Raffle Grand Prize: $1,500 in cash
Raffle tickets are $20 or three for $50
The winner will be drawn at the “Beach Boys” Gala on May 14;
winner need not be present to win.
Tickets available in the lobby or at chicagoacappella.org
HELP US MEET THIS CHALLENGE!
Chicago a cappella has received an exciting challenge from the Gaylord and
Dorothy Donnelley Foundation. This season, the Foundation will match any new
gifts, increased gifts, or returning gifts up to $25,000!
• If you have never made a gift to Chicago a cappella, your contribution will
be matched dollar-for-dollar!
• If you made a gift last season, any increase of your
gift this year will be matched dollar-for-dollar!
• If you gave in previous seasons but not last year, your entire gift will be
matched dollar-for-dollar!
This is an incredible opportunity, and we need your help to make it happen.
To help us with this challenge:
• get a donation envelope in the lobby
• or donate online at chicagoacappella.org.
Thank you for your generous support!
Shakespeare a cappella
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N O T E S O N T H E M U S I C B Y J O N AT H A N M I L L E R
c o n t.
George MacFarren: Orpheus, with his lute
In his introduction to the volume English Romantic Partsongs, noted British conductor Paul
Hillier notes that George MacFarren was one of the leading musical figures in mid-19thcentury English life, writing and producing comic operas, symphonies, and chamber music.
MacFarren wrote a number of Shakespeare settings, which feature, in Hillier’s words, “an
adventuresome sense of texture and a spirited, fresh response to words.”
Orpheus with his lute made trees,
And the mountain tops that freeze,
Bow themselves when he did sing:
To his music plants and flowers
Ever sprung; as sun and showers
There had made a lasting spring.
Every thing that heard him play,
Even the billows of the sea,
Hung their heads, and then lay by.
In sweet music is such art,
Killing care and grief of heart
Fall asleep, or hearing, die.
—Henry VIII, Act III, Scene i
Matthew Harris: It was a lover and his lass
Every time that Chicago a cappella has performed this piece, audiences comment on its utter
charm and appeal. It works well as a processional, too. Matthew Harris has a gem of a song
on his hands here; one can easily visualize the couple walking in the springtime.
It was a lover and his lass,
With a hey, and a ho, and a hey nonino,
That o’er the green corn-field did pass,
In the spring time, the only pretty ring time,
When birds do sing, hey ding a ding, ding; Sweet lovers love the spring.
Between the acres of the rye,
With a hey, and a ho, and a hey nonino,
These pretty country folks would lie,
In the spring time, the only pretty ring time,
When birds do sing, hey ding a ding, ding;
Sweet lovers love the spring.
This carol they began that hour,
With a hey, and a ho, and a hey nonino,
How that life was but a flower
In the spring time, the only pretty ring time,
When birds do sing, hey ding a ding, ding;
Sweet lovers love the spring.
And, therefore, take the present time
With a hey, and a ho, and a hey nonino,
For love is crown`d with the prime
In the spring time, the only pretty ring time,
When birds do sing, hey ding a ding, ding;
Sweet lovers love the spring.
—As You Like It, Act V, Scene iii
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Chicago a cappella
N O T E S O N T H E M U S I C B Y J O N AT H A N M I L L E R
c o n t.
Robert Applebaum: Spring
Spring is the season of new love, but, as might have been said in the Bard’s time, we must
needs be careful for what we ask! This song evokes the cuckoo bird, long a symbol of
cuckoldry. The word “cuckold” refers to a man whose wife has, one might say, stepped out on
him, because of the cuckoo’s penchant for laying eggs in another bird’s nest.
At the very end of Love’s Labour’s Lost, the final entertainment of the play contrasts the songs
of the cuckoo and the owl. The playful call of the cuckoo (set here in the women’s voices)
warns the jealous husband that cuckoldry is near: “O word of fear / Unpleasing to a married
ear.” Armado refers to the cuckoo’s song as “the songs of Apollo,” and the play ends there.
I.
When daisies pied and violets blue
And lady-smocks all silver-white
And cuckoo-buds of yellow hue
Do paint the meadows with delight,
The cuckoo then on every tree
Mocks married men, for thus sings he,
Cuckoo;
Cuckoo, cuckoo: O, word of fear,
Unpleasing to a married ear!
II.
When shepherds pipe on oaten straws,
And merry larks are ploughmen’s clocks,
When turtles tread, and rooks and daws,
And maidens bleach their summer smocks,
The cuckoo then, on every tree,
Mocks married men, for thus sings he:
Cuckoo;
Cuckoo, cuckoo: O, word of fear,
Unpleasing to a married ear!
—Love’s Labour’s Lost
Matthew Harris: And Will A’ Not Come Again?
“And Will A’Not Come Again?” is Ophelia’s haunting lament for the death of Hamlet, her
father. She directs her final outburst at Laertes, a wail fueled by her outrage at her father’s
lack of a proper burial. In his setting, Harris makes skillful use of chained suspensions, a
classic 16th-century device also championed by Monteverdi. Harris also gently alternates
between major and minor versions of the same chord at the very end, for the words “God ha’
mercy on his soul”—a subtle nod to Ophelia’s overwrought state.
OPHELIA
And will a’ not come again?
And will a’ not come again?
No, no, he is dead:
Go to thy death-bed:
He never will come again.
His beard was as white as snow,
All flaxen was his poll:
He is gone, he is gone,
And we cast away moan:
God ‘a’ mercy on his soul.
—Hamlet, Act IV, Scene v
Shakespeare a cappella
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N O T E S O N T H E M U S I C B Y J O N AT H A N M I L L E R
c o n t.
Jaakko Mäntyjärvi: Come away, Death (From Four Shakespeare Songs)
In Twelfth Night, Feste the clown (or fool) is asked by the duke Orsino for a song. Feste
provides the following lyric. The sense of unrequited love given by Shakespeare’s fool is
strong, made stronger still in Jaakko Mäntyjärvi’s heartfelt musical setting. There is a sense of
deep loneliness in both lyric and music, such that the thought “Lay me, O, where / Sad true
lover never find my grave” seems to hang in air at a lonely point in time, where no lover ever
comes to seek out the one who has died for love.
FESTE
(sings)
Come away, come away, death,
And in sad cypress let me be laid;
Fly away, fly away, breath;
I am slain by a fair cruel maid.
My shroud of white, stuck all with yew,
O prepare it;
My part of death no one so true
Did share it.
Not a flower, not a flower sweet,
On my black coffin let there be strewn:
Not a friend, not a friend greet
My poor corpse where my bones shall be thrown:
A thousand thousand sighs to save,
Lay me, O, where
Sad true lover never find my grave,
To weep there.
—Twelfth Night, Act II, Scene iv
Ralph Vaughan Williams: Over Hill, Over Dale (From Three Shakespeare Songs)
Composer and conductor David Conte has written thoughtfully about this cycle and has
provided this background information: Vaughan Williams wrote his Shakespeare cycle in
1951 at the request of choral conductor Armstrong Gibbs, who had requested an a cappella
choral composition to be used as a “test piece” for the June festival of the Federation of Music
Festivals. “Over Hill, Over Dale” is the simplest of the three movements, setting a passage
from A Midsummer Night’s Dream. The lyric, uttered by one of Queen Titania’s fairies
(Titania herself being the fairy queen, wife of Oberon), evokes the spirit world. The soprano
line represents the fairy’s narrative voice at the opening, supported by the lower parts. The
ending has parallels with the ending of the composer’s Magnificat.
A wood near Athens. A Fairy speaks.
FAIRY
Over hill, over dale,
Thorough bush, thorough brier,
Over park, over pale,
Thorough flood, thorough fire,
I do wander every where,
Swifter than the moon’s sphere;
And I serve the fairy queen,
To dew her orbs upon the green:
The cowslips tall her pensioners be;
In their gold coats spots you see;
Those be rubies, fairy favours,
In those freckles live their savours:
I must go seek some dew-drops here
16
Chicago a cappella
N O T E S O N T H E M U S I C B Y J O N AT H A N M I L L E R
c o n t.
And hang a pearl in every cowslip’s ear.
Farewell, thou lob of spirits: I’ll be gone;
Our queen and all her elves come here anon.
— A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act II, Scene i
Martha Sullivan: Blow, blow, thou winter wind
Martha Sullivan is a New York-based soprano and composer of choral and vocal music,
whose prizes include winning the Dale Warland Singers’ commission competition. She
is flexible and comfortable as a performer, with musical styles ranging from medieval to
contemporary.
This music is angular and a bit jarring, actually quite effective at expressing the lyric. The
text comes from As You Like It. The composer writes: “The singer in the play is Amiens, one
of the courtiers of the exiled Duke Senior. He is called upon to sing over the dinner that the
Duke shares with the likewise exiled Orlando when they first meet in the forest of Arden. It
may be read as a commentary on Orlando’s and the Duke’s similar situations (both have been
exiled to the forest by their ambitious and jealous brothers), or perhaps it is a bit of catharsis.
Either way, I take the line ‘This life is most jolly’ as irony.”
Sullivan’s setting incorporates a wide combination of musical styles and influences, from
the Italian 14th century to Jethro Tull. An exotic, medieval flavor creeps in at a few phrase
endings. The refrain is a driving, Celtic-sounding chorus; here the composer asks the singers
to make the accents round and hearty, “like the swing of a pendulum (or a beer stein).”
Blow, blow, thou winter wind,
Thou art not so unkind
As man’s ingratitude;
Thy tooth is not so keen
Because thou art not seen,
Although thy breath be rude.
Heigh-ho! sing heigh-ho! unto the green holly:
Most friendship is feigning, most loving mere folly:
Then, heigh-ho! the holly!
This life is most jolly.
Freeze, freeze, thou bitter sky,
Thou dost not bite so nigh
As benefits forgot:
Though thou the waters warp,
Thy sting is not so sharp
As friend remember’d not.
Heigh-ho! sing heigh-ho! unto the green holly:
Most friendship is feigning, most loving mere folly:
Then, heigh-ho! the holly!
This life is most jolly.
—As You Like It, Act II, Scene vii
Shakespeare a cappella
17
N O T E S O N T H E M U S I C B Y J O N AT H A N M I L L E R
c o n t.
Ralph Vaughan Williams: The Cloud Capp’d Towers
Meaty and profound, this is one of the true masterpieces in the body of choral works on
Shakespeare texts. The choice of text is unusual: in these verses from The Tempest, Prospero
refers not only to the fleeting nature of human life but also to “the great globe itself,”
which many scholars feel is a reference to the Globe Theatre in London, where so many of
Shakespeare’s plays were presented. The most familiar line to modern ears is surely the last
one: “We are such stuff as dreams are made of; / And our little life is rounded with a sleep.”
The music is slow, marked Lento; still, the tonal center shifts continually, with half-step
motion in most voice parts creating the chord changes in a manner evocative of Debussy.
Even the final “sleep” has just a little motion inside of it.
The cloud-capp’d towers, the gorgeous palaces,
The solemn temples, the great globe itself,
Ye all which it inherit, shall dissolve
And, like this insubstantial pageant faded,
Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff
As dreams are made on, and our little life
Is rounded with a sleep.
—The Tempest, Act IV, Scene i
T H A N K YO U
Chris Baer
Ellyn Caruso, Caruso PR
Elizabeth Davenport, Rockefeller Memorial Chapel
Ken Hannah, Wentz Concert Hall
Criss Henderson, Rick Boynton, Doreen Sayegh, Laura Durham,
Keeley Haddad Null, Alida Szabo, and Sarah Laeuchli, Chicago Shakespeare Theater
Bill Hoban
Joan Hutchinson and Joycelin Fowler, Pilgrim Congregational Church
Jim Parks
Fiona Queen, Music Institute of Chicago
Thanks also to The Saints, Volunteers for the Performing Arts, for providing our house staff.
For information visit www.saintschicago.org or call 773-529-5510.
18
Chicago a cappella
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WAIT...WAITING FOR YOU.
Visit wbez.org/acappella
by March 1, 2016.
Shakespeare a cappella
19
Chicago a cappella Outreach
Chicago a cappella’s Educational Outreach Programs strive to promote and improve
the life-long performance, understanding and appreciation of a cappella vocal music
through programming, mentorship and collaboration with schools and community
organizations in Chicago and beyond.
Youth Choral Festival
The Youth Choral Festival is a day of workshops,
rehearsals, discussions and mentoring for area high
school ensembles. The students work with Chicago
a cappella’s artists, and the festival culminates in
a concert featuring all the groups and Chicago a
cappella. The fifth annual Youth Choral Festival was held on November 7, 2015, at the
Logan Center for the Arts on the University of Chicago campus.
High School Internship Program
Our High School Internship Program gives students
a full year of musical and administrative training
and mentoring with Chicago a cappella’s singers,
directors, board members, and arts administrators.
Selected through a comprehensive audition process,
nine talented and motivated students are serving as Chicago a cappella High School
Interns in 2015-16, forming their own a cappella ensemble and gaining skills to
further their musical ambitions
Customized Outreach
Other programs, such as master classes, choral
residencies, and youth concerts, are presented by
artists from Chicago a cappella’s professional roster
of singers and directors, and are customized for the
specific needs of each organization.
Learn more at
chicagoacappella.org/outreach.
20
Chicago a cappella
A B O U T C H I C AG O A C A P P E L L A
Claudia Divis, President
Gary Belkin, Vice President
David Perlman, Secretary
Stephen Shaw, Treasurer
William K. Flowers
Helen C. Gagel
Joyce Grenis
Board of Directors
Robert B. Linn
Jennifer Marling
James G. Massie
Monroe Roth
Maria T. Suarez
David G. Thompson
Barbara Volin
Staff
Founder & Artistic Director..................................................... Jonathan Miller
Executive Director..............................................................Matthew Greenberg
Box Office & Concert Manager....................................................... Deb Hoban
Marketing & Operations Coordinator........................................ Spencer Blair
Education Outreach Coordinator.............................................. Susan Schober
Production & Operations Intern..................................................... Jordan Tan
Music Librarian.....................................................................Ellen Marchessault
Marketing Intern...................................................................... Dylan Bissonette
Artistic Roster
Jonathan Miller.........................................................................Artistic Director
John William Trotter................................................. Principal Music Director
(Jewish Roots of Broadway, Shakespeare a cappella)
Benjamin Rivera................Guest Music Director, Bass (Holidays a cappella)
Patrick Sinozich....... Guest Music Director (The History of Rock and Soul)
Paul Langford..................................Guest Music Director (Good Vibrations)
Megan Bell....................................................Soprano (Holidays; Shakespeare)
Ryan Cox................................................................................Bass (Shakespeare)
Matthew Dean....................................................................Tenor (Shakespeare)
Carl Frank................................... Bass (Jewish Roots; Holidays; Shakespeare)
Ace Gangoso.....................................................Tenor (Holidays; Rock & Soul)
Matt Greenberg........................................... Bass (Jewish Roots; Rock & Soul)
Garrett Johannsen................... Tenor (Jewish Roots; Holidays; Rock & Soul)
Kathryn Kamp............... Soprano (Jewish Roots; Shakespeare; Rock & Soul)
Alexia Kruger...................................................................... Soprano (Holidays)
Joe Labozetta..............................Bass (Jewish Roots; Holidays; Rock & Soul)
Woo Chan (Chaz) Lee................................. Bass (Shakespeare; Rock & Soul)
Trevor Mitchell.......................................... Tenor (Jewish Roots; Shakespeare)
Cari Plachy...........................Soprano (Jewish Roots; Holidays; Rock & Soul)
Sarah Ponder.................................................................. Mezzo (Entire Season)
Emily Price.......................................................................Mezzo (Entire season)
Benjamin Rivera......................................................................... Bass (Holidays)
Shakespeare a cappella
21
BIOGR APHIES
Megan Bell, soprano
Since completing
apprenticeships with
Central City Opera
and Dayton Opera,
soprano Megan Bell
has performed with
Chicago-area companies
such as the Chicago Symphony Chorus,
Grant Park Music Festival Chorus, Light
Opera Works, Main Street Opera and
Lakeside Singers. She received her Bachelor
of Music degree from the Eastman School
of Music and her Master of Music degree
from Bowling Green State University. Ms.
Bell is an award winner and member of
The Musicians Club of Women. She loves
to perform recitals, especially chamber
music recitals with her father, Richard
Bell, a cellist in Kansas City. She also sings
weekly as the soloist for the First Church
of Christian Scientists in Barrington. Ms.
Bell teaches private voice and piano lessons
out of her home in Elgin, Illinois, where she
lives with her husband Marc. Please visit
mebell.musicteachershelper.com for more
information.
Ryan Cox, bass
Ryan Cox has been a
professional member of
the Chicago Symphony
Chorus and Grant Park
Choruses since 2003. He
was the baritone soloist
in William Schuman’s
A Free Song for Grant Park Music Festival’s
“Pulitzer Project,” recorded by the Cedille
label. In addition to serving as bass soloist
cover for several works with the Chicago
Symphony Orchestra, he sang Schubert
lieder on the CSO Chamber Music Series,
and has been featured on the Music Now
series, singing the Chicago premiere of
Mason Bates’ Sirens. He made his debut with
the Chicago Ensemble singing Fauré’s La
bonne chanson. Additional solo appearances
include Haydn’s Lord Nelson Mass, Handel’s
Messiah, the Fauré, Brahms and Mozart
22
Chicago a cappella
Requiems, Bach’s St. Matthew Passion, and
several Bach cantatas. Operatic roles include
Guglielmo in Cosi fan tutte, the Count in La
Nozze di Figaro and the title role in Gianni
Schicchi. As a boy soprano, Ryan was the
soloist in Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms
with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra
under Michael Tilson-Thomas. A graduate
of Millikin University, Ryan is the music
director at First Congregational Church in
LaGrange, Illinois.
Matthew Dean, tenor
A tenor “setting the
tone” (Pittsburgh Music
Alliance) with “affecting
line” (Boston Classical
Review), Matthew Dean
anchors Midwest vocal
chamber projects and
performs nationally as an oratorio soloist. He
has served as artist in residence at Chicago’s
Rockefeller Chapel since 2005, where the
Tribune’s John von Rhein praised his “firm
vocalism, beautiful timbre, and stirring
declaration.” Matt draws on his academic
background in medieval art in developing
programs with the Schola Antiqua, The
Newberry Consort, and Minnesota treasure
The Rose Ensemble. He sings regularly with
Bella Voce, The Oriana Singers, and King
Solomon’s Singers, and can be heard on the
Naxos, Discantus, and Permelia labels. A
founding member of Golosá Russian Choir,
he has chased folksongs and chickens around
southern Siberia. An arts management
leader, Matt heads the Sounds of Faith
initiative for Harran Productions Foundation
and co-directs The Rookery men’s choir.
Carl Frank, bass
Carl Frank, baritone, has
received praise for his
“compelling”, “spirited”
and “charming”
performances of a wide
range of repertoire
spanning opera and
oratorio. Mr. Frank has appeared with the
BIOGR APHIES
c o n t.
Florentine Opera Company and Arbor
Opera Theater, and been a featured soloist
with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra,
the Elgin Symphony, the Community
Chorus of Detroit, and the Lakeview
Symphony. Favorite operatic roles include:
Count Almaviva (Le Nozze di Figaro),
Doncairo (Carmen), Sid (Albert Herring),
Guglielmo (Cosi fan tutte), John Brooke
(Little Women), and Gianni Schicchi (Gianni
Schicchi). Also an active ensemble singer,
Mr. Frank performs with Chicago a cappella,
Music of the Baroque, Bach Collegium-Ft.
Wayne, The William Ferris Chorale, Bella
Voce, Schola Antiqua of Chicago, and Musik
Ekklesia. Mr. Frank received his Master’s
degree from the University of Michigan
and his Bachelor’s degree from DePauw
University. He currently resides in Chicago
with his wife, mezzo-soprano, Lindsey
Adams and their dog Fiona.
Kathyrn Kamp, soprano
From the stages of
Chicago’s Pritzker
Pavillion and Chicago
Shakespeare Theater to
Frank Lloyd Wright’s
concert hall at Taliesen
and Muddy River Opera
Company in Southern Illinois, Kathryn
Kamp has created a career spanning oratorio,
opera, operetta and music theater. Her
performance of John Corigliano’s Fern
Hill with the Grant Park Music Festival
was described both “meltingly sung” and
“beautifully sung.” Her Despina (Cosi fan
Tutte) was “… a display of immense charm
and humor…she bounced about the stage
with a lightness and relish that seemed the
incarnation of mischievous delight…a fine
soprano voice.” Other credits include: Kathie
(The Student Prince), many Gilbert and
Sullivan ingenues, and Sondheim’s Anne
Egerman (Muddy River Opera) and Mrs.
Segstrom (Chicago Shakespeare Theater).
Concert performances include a staged
version of Bach’s Coffee Cantata, Mabel and
Yum-Yum (Pirates of Penzance and Mikado)
at the Grant Park Music Festival, and more
Messiahs than she can count. However, no
experience tops that of being a member of
Chicago a cappella.
Woo Chan (Chaz) Lee,
bass
Woo Chan (Chaz) Lee
is honored and excited
to be singing with
Chicago a cappella.
Born in Korea and
raised part-time in
the United States, Chaz currently resides
in Hyde Park where he studies musicology
at the University of Chicago. His research
explores the interplay between Romantic
aesthetics and neoliberal political economy
in contemporary instrumental soundtracks
and easy listening. Parallel to his life as an
instructor and student at the University, he
has performed with a variety of ensembles
as a conductor, pianist, percussionist, and
vocalist. As a choral musician, Chaz has
sung with the Rockefeller Chapel Choir and
Decani, the Oriana Singers, and the Rookery
Men’s Choir. In between dissertation-writing
and rehearsals, Chaz can be heard singing
along to Disney movies, Peter, Paul, and
Mary, and the Backstreet Boys, which form
the solid bedrock of his musical education.
Trevor Mitchell, tenor
Best known for his
work in oratorio and
early music, Trevor
Mitchell sings a wide
range of classical music.
Recently a critic wrote,
“Simply the most
uniquely beautiful and easily produced
tenor instrument most people will ever
hear.” Scheduled works this season include
Bach’sMagnificat, Actus Tragicus, Ein feste
Burg, Christmas Oratorio and B-Minor
Mass, Telemann’s Cantata # 161, Handel’s
Messiah, Mozart’s Requiem, Schubert’s Der
Hirt auf dem Felsen, a recording of Mozart’s
Coronation Mass as well as recitals. This
fall Mr. Mitchell toured Italy as tenor soloist
with a concluding performance at Vatican
Shakespeare a cappella
23
BIOGR APHIES
c o n t.
City. Known for his superb musicianship
and interpretive skills, Mr. Mitchell, though
concentrated in early music, is equally at
ease in other musical periods. A native of
Chicago, Mr. Mitchell’s singing engagements,
both as a soloist and an ensemble member,
have taken him virtually all over the U.S. as
well as Italy, England, Austria, Ukraine and
other places in Europe. Mr. Mitchell is a
regular soloist at St. John Cantius in Chicago,
and divides his time between Chicago a
cappella and solo engagements.
Sarah Ponder, mezzo
Sarah Ponder, mezzosoprano enjoys a busy
career as a soloist and
ensemble singer in
Chicago. Hailed as
“Deeply expressive”
(Chicago Sun Times)
and a “first-class soloist” (Chicago Classical
Review), some of Sarah’s recent favorite
performances include two featured solo
appearances with the Grant Park Music
Festival, starring as Julia Child in Lee Hoiby’s
one-woman opera, Bon Appétit!, and a
rousing trio rendition of “Row, Row Your
Boat” with Yo-Yo Ma at Children’s Memorial
Hospital as part of her ongoing work with
the Citizen Musician Initiative. Through her
outreach at Chicago Symphony Orchestra,
Sarah has also “beguilingly” (Chicago
Tribune) performed several solo concerts
with famed Maestro Riccardo Muti at the
piano. A passionate educator, Sarah holds
a teaching position at Loyola University
and maintains a large private studio in
addition to supporting young composers
in workshops throughout the city. She also
recently finished recording works from
Carnegie Hall’s Lullaby Project partnered
with the CSO, assisting young mothers to
create original lullabies.
24
Chicago a cappella
Emily Price, mezzo
Mezzo-soprano Emily
Price is a graduate of
Northwestern University
and enjoys performing
in opera, choral
and musical theater
productions. In Chicago
she sings with the Grant Park Chorus,
Music of the Baroque and Lyric Opera.
Internationally, she has performed in over
35 countries as a soloist with the Voices of
Baha International Choir in venues such as
Carnegie Hall, the Vienna Konzerthaus, and
the National Theaters of Spain, Catalonia,
and India. She has also performed with
the Czech National Symphony, Budapest
Symphony Orchestra, and the Warsaw
Philharmonic. Favorite theater productions
include the premiere of RESPECT! A
Musical Journey of Women (Cuillo Center/
CCPA) and Rona in The 25th Annual
Putnam County Spelling Bee (Drury Lane
Watertower). She can be heard on a number
of recordings, including The Voices of Baha
at Carnegie Hall, RESPECT! The Original
Cast Album, and a solo album to be released
entitled Songs of the Nightingale with the
Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra.
Barbara Robertson,
actor
Barbara E Robertson
is honored to be back
on stage with Chicago
a cappella. In 2012,
collaborating with Betsy
Grizzell, Barbara penned
and performed the text for “All About the
Women”. She most recently played in The
Tempest at Chicago Shakespeare Theatre
where she has also appeared in Julius Caesar,
Hamlet, A Winter’s Tale, Kabuki Lady
Macbeth, King Lear, Antony and Cleopatra,
as well as Gypsy and A Little Night Music.
Barbara has played on many other stages in a
wide variety of roles, and has garnered more
than twenty awards and nominations for her
work in theatres such as: Writers’ Theatre,
Goodman Theatre, Broadway Playhouse,
BIOGR APHIES
c o n t.
the Oriental, the Cadillac, Steppenwolf
Theatre Company, Court Theatre, Marriott
Theatre, Peninsula Players, Mercury, Victory
Gardens, Royal George, and the Kennedy
Center. Her film credits include Robert
Altman’s: The Company and David Lynch’s
The Straight Story, as well as Hunter After
Christmas, and LOL.
Greg Vinkler, actor
Greg Vinkler has
performed over fifty
Shakespearean roles
thus far in his career.
Thirty-four of those
productions have
been with Chicago
Shakespeare Theater, where he has been seen
as King Lear, King John, Malvolio, Polonius,
Jaques and especially Falstaff, among many
others. He has appeared on most of Chicago’s
professional stages and been acknowledged
for his work with three Joseph Jefferson
Awards (thirteen nominations), two
Artisan Awards and an After Dark Award.
He recently directed the Jeff-nominated
The Rose Tattoo for Shattered Globe. Greg
appeared in the Tony Award-winning revival
of West Side Story on Broadway and has been
seen regionally at Milwaukee Rep, Paper Mill
Playhouse, Fulton Theatre, Pittsburgh Public
Theater and BoarsHead Theater. Across
the oceans he has performed at the RSC in
Stratford-upon-Avon, London’s Barbican
Theatre, Singapore Rep, and Vienna’s English
and International Theatres. Greg also serves
as the Artistic Director of Peninsula Players
Theatre in Door Ct., WI.
Jonathan Miller,
Founder and Artistic
Director
Jonathan Miller
created Chicago a
cappella in 1993 to
give accomplished
ensemble singers an
experience of performing eclectic and
exciting repertoire and to share the resulting
beauty with the world. A champion of
innovative programming, Jonathan has been
the group’s driving artistic force through more
than 300 performances and nine commercial
CD releases, work which was recognized with
the 2008 Louis Botto Award for Innovative
Action and Entrepreneurial Zeal from Chorus
America. When Jonathan was a teenage bass
in the Chicago Children’s Choir, he was bitten
hard by the choral bug. He was fortunate to
be exposed to a wide range of repertoire by
a remarkable group of mentors, including
Christopher Moore, Lena McLin, Max
Janowski, Howard Mayer Brown, Richard
Proulx, John Nygro, and Anne Heider. Eager to
learn research tools for choral music, Jonathan
earned his doctorate in historical musicology
at UNC-Chapel Hill. After returning to the
Chicago area, Jonathan led the choir at Unity
Temple in Oak Park for nine years and began
composing new choral music while serving
there. He has written more than 75 choral
works in a variety of genres and languages, on
the poetry of such writers as Mark Jarman,
Peter Watson Jenkins, and Leonard Cohen;
his music has been sung at venues including
St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City, the
Lincoln Memorial, and the Pentagon. His
mashup “Jingle Bells Hallelujah (Chorus)” is a
minor hit, and his series of Wacky Christmas
Carols continues to mix words and tunes in
new combinations. He also is a leading figure
in Jewish choral music, active as composer,
cantor, conductor, and producer. He serves as
high-holiday cantor at Congregation Rodfei
Zedek in Chicago’s Hyde Park neighborhood.
He conducted the Janowski Centenary Concert
at KAM Isaiah Israel Congregation, also in
Hyde Park, in 2012; he received the Perelmuter
Award at KAMII in 2013; and he was Scholarin-Residence at Lakeside Congregation
(Highland Park, IL) in 2014. He is the host for
the new broadcast, “A Chanukah Celebration
with Chicago a cappella,” on the WFMT Fine
Arts Network. An enthusiastic auctioneer for
charity events, Jonathan serves as Director of
Choral Catalog (and in-house choral arranger)
at Musicnotes.com and is a former board
member of Chorus America.
Shakespeare a cappella
25
BIOGR APHIES
c o n t.
John William Trotter,
Principal Music Director
John William Trotter
is a rapidly rising
conductor on today’s
concert music stage. His
work from the podium
has been recognized
internationally through numerous prizes,
grants, and guest conducting invitations. To
date, he has conducted more than a dozen
professional orchestras and choirs in seven
countries. Trotter earned the Doctor of
Musical Arts degree in Conducting from
the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor).
He was awarded honors from the American
Choral Directors Association and the
Canada Council for the Arts before joining
the Vancouver Chamber Choir, Canada’s
most active professional choir, as a full-time
conductor in 2009. Over three seasons, he
led the ensemble in more than twenty-five
performances throughout Canada, Taiwan,
and Japan. His performance of the Vivaldi
Magnificatwas hailed by the Vancouver
Sun as “a radiant performance of this work
that overstated nothing and brought out all
of its freshness and charm.” In 2011, his
season-opening concert with the ensemble
was broadcast nationally by CBC Radio. In
the course of his work with the professional
ensemble, Trotter became recognized for
establishing and enhancing education,
outreach, and engagement programs
for composers, conductors, singers, and
audiences. In 2012, he was appointed to the
Wheaton College Conservatory of Music
as Assistant Professor, where he teaches
conducting and leads the Wheaton College
Concert Choir, the Conservatory’s select
SATB ensemble. Trotter’s current musical
activities range from traditional choral/
orchestral repertoire, new music, jazz, and
film score recording to work as a consultant,
clinician, writer, speaker, composer/arranger,
and leader of improvisation workshops.
(www.johnwilliamtrotter.com)
26
Chicago a cappella
Tom Mula, Writer/
Director
Tom Mula is
delighted to be part
of “Shakespeare a
cappella!” Tom’s acting
credits include Hot
Mikado at Drury Lane,
for which he received a Joseph Jefferson
Award; the Fool in King Lear; Richard
III, Caliban, Bottom, Feste, Malvolio, and
Prospero; another award-winning solo turn
in The Circus Of Dr. Lao; and seven seasons
(over 400 performances) as Goodman
Theatre’s Scrooge. His directing credits
include Jeff nominations for Porch and A
Life, and seven seasons as Artistic Director
of the Oak Park Festival Theatre. Tom has
spent 21 seasons acting, directing, and
writing at Peninsula Players in Door County.
In addition, Mr. Mula has been a faculty
member at Columbia College since 1986. He
is also the proud author of the bestselling
book/award-winning play Jacob Marley’s
Christmas Carol. His latest book is Hackers
of Oz, available through Amazon and Barnes
and Noble.
Matthew Greenberg,
Executive Director
A founding ensemble
member of Chicago a
cappella, Matt has served
as the organization’s
Executive Director
since 1995. Combining
a career in arts management with that of a
professional singer, he has been an active
member of the Chicago arts community
for over 25 years. Matt has led workshops
for Chorus America’s national conference
and for the Arts and Business Council
of Chicago. He has sung with Chicago a
cappella since the groups inception in 1993,
and has performed in musical theater and
with many of Chicago’s other leading choral
ensembles, including the Chicago Symphony
Chorus, Music of the Baroque, William
Ferris Chorale, and the Grant Park Chorus.
SUPPORT CHICAGO A CAPPELLA
Chicago a cappella is a creative enterprise devoted to furthering the art
of singing together without instruments. Founded in 1993, our classical
vocal ensemble of professional singers moves the heart and spirit with
fun, innovative concerts. Through our Chicago-area subscription series,
guest appearances both locally and on tour, CD recordings and broadcast
appearances, and educational and community outreach programming, we
strive to enrich lives through music.
DONATE
Make a gift today! Ticket sales cover only a portion of our costs. In fact,
as a not-for-profit organization, our single largest source of revenue is
the generosity of individual donors like you! Your tax-deductible gift
supports our educational and artistic work and allows it to thrive and
grow. Join our family of supporters by donating in the lobby, or online at
chicagoacappella.org/support.
VOLUNTEER
Give the gift of time and talent! We often seek volunteers for office
work and events, as well as for specialized skills such as music librarian,
photography and videography, and more. To receive periodic emails about
volunteer opportunities, contact Spencer Blair at sblair@chicagoacappella.
org or call 773-281-7820.
BOARD SERVICE
Our Board members are passionate individuals committed to guiding
Chicago a cappella to its next stage of success. Each brings a unique skill,
professional expertise, and personal and professional network, and all are
deeply supportive of our mission. To learn more contact Matt Greenberg
at [email protected].
CONNECT
Sign up for our e-newsletter at chicagoacappella.org.
Find us on Facebook at facebook.com/chicagoacappella.
2936 N. Southport Ave., Room 226 | Chicago, IL 60657
Phone (773) 281-7820 | Fax (773) 435-6453
[email protected] | www.chicagoacappella.org
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27
DONORS
THE ACCOMPANISTS
Chicago a cappella is honored to acknowledge members of The
Accompanists, a group of donors who make three-year pledges in support
of Chicago a cappella’s educational and artistic programs.
Gary Belkin and Ed Tuder
Claudia and Timothy Divis
William and Jeanetta Flowers
Helen Gagel
Marina Gilman
Douglas and Christine Kelner
Joyce Grenis and Michael Koen
Lawrence Hamilton and Ann Hicks
Hank and Becky Hartman
Howard and Jane Hush
Tom and Margaret Huyck
Murray Kopelow and Cathy Bachman
Leslie Lauderdale
Dan and Cari Levin
Robert and Fleury Linn
Jennifer Marling
Mary Miller
James G. and Christine Massie
Ruth Oberg
David and Carole Perlman
Bette Sikes and Joan Pederson
Monroe and Elaine Roth
Steve and Priscilla Shaw
Ann Stevens
Maria T. Suarez
Barbara Volin
Dee Dee Whipple
KEEP THE MUSIC GOING
You can help ensure the ongoing success of our musical and educational programs
by including Chicago a cappella as part of your estate plan. Your commitment
provides an opportunity for continued financial support without a current cost.
Including Chicago a cappella in your estate planning can be done through any
number of vehicles, including bequests, retirement plans, and life insurance.
For more information contact Matt Greenberg at (773) 281-7820 or
visit chicagoacappella.org/support.
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Chicago a cappella
DONORS
c o n t.
We offer our deep gratitude to our contributors who made gifts and pledges to Chicago
a cappella since January 1, 2015. We regret that we are unable to list the many thoughtful
contributors who made gifts under $50. If this list contains an error, please accept our
apologies and kindly let us know so that we may correct it.
CORPORATE, FOUNDATION, AND GOVERNMENT SUPPORT
$10,000+
Paul M. Angell Family
Foundation
The Arts Work Fund for
Organizational Development
The MacArthur Funds for Arts
and Culture at the Richard H.
Driehaus Foundation
$5,000-$9,999
City of Chicago Dept. of Cultural
Affairs and Special Events
Elizabeth F. Cheney Foundation
The Gaylord and Dorothy
Donnelley Foundation
Illinois Arts Council Agency
The Saints
$1,000-$4,999
Community Bank of Oak Park
River Forest
Oak Park Area Arts Council
Pierce Family Charitable
Foundation
Up to $999
Amazon Smile Foundation
First Bank and Trust Evanston
Musicnotes.com
Northern Trust
Press America
Staver Law Group
Matching Gifts
AT&T
JP Morgan Chase Foundation
Nuveen
Charles Schwab
Media Sponsors
91.5 WBEZ
Chicago Maroon
The Daily Herald
WFMT 98.7 FM
INDIVIDUAL CONTRIBUTORS
VISIONARY ($10,000 or
more)
Maureen Schoenbeck and
Robert Asher
Klaff Family Foundation
Joyce Grenis and Michael
Koen
Dee Dee Whipple
PATRON ($500 or more)
Bonnie Benson
Laura and Gary Cooper
BENEFACTOR ($1,000
Jim and Ellen Dalton
or more)
Marina and Sander
Bill and Jeanetta Flowers
Gilman
Helen Gagel
Terri Hemmert
Joan and Guy Gunzberg
Jim and Lois Hobart
Hank and Becky Hartman Karen Hunt
UNDERWRITER ($5,000 Dick Hewitt
Thomas and Linda Kamp
or more)
Douglas and Christine
Lindy Lauderdale
Claudia and Timothy
Kelner*
Dan and Cari Levin in
Divis
Murray Kopelow and
Memory of Tom Huyck
Lawrence Hamilton and
Cathy Bachman
David Thompson and
Ann Hicks
Jay and Jackie Lauderdale
Beatriz Medwecky
Vreni Naess*
Leslie Lauderdale
Jonathan Miller and
Maria Suarez
Bob and Fleury Linn
Sandra Siegel Miller
Frank and Gertrude
Richard and Cindy Pardo
GRAND BENEFACTOR
Dunlop Fund
Dale and Donna Prest
($2,500 or more)
Jennifer Marling
Norman and Patricia Sack
Alex and Rosemary
Dietra and Tony Millard
Carolyn Sacksteder*
Cudzewicz
Mary Miller
Linda Mast and Bard
Louise Holland
Alice and David Osberg*
Schatzman
Howard and Jane Hush
Doris Roskin
Quenten Schumacher and
James G and Christine
Kris Swanson
Steve Geiermann
Massie
Richard Tribble
Rockwell C. Vance
Ruth Oberg
Gary Belkin and Edward John and Eileen Sterling
David and Carole Perlman
Tuder
John and Marie Trotter
Monroe and Elaine Roth Lance and Stephanie
Frank Villella*
Steve and Priscilla Shaw
Wilkening
Joan Ward and Joe
Bette Sikes and Joan
Chandler
Pederson
Duain Wolfe
Ann Stevens*
Barbara Volin
SPONSOR ($250 or
more)
Dr. Diane Altkorn
Tom Andrews
Marguerite Bloch
Paul Boulis
Ann and Roger Cole
Harvey and Arlene
Coustan
Bonnie Forkosh
Howard and Judy Gilbert
Don and Joanna Gwinn*
Nancy and Arthur Hirsch
Elizabeth J Hurtig
Emily Troxell Jaycox
and Lonnie Jaycox in
Memory Of Ephraim
Miller
Susan Kamp
Charles Katzenmeyer
Rae Kendrick*
Shirlene Ward and Kevin
Kipp*
Joan Davis Levin
Robert and Laure Mineo
Corinne Morrissey
Drs. Donald and Mary
Ellen Newsom*
Dr Kathleen A Occhipinti
Sanford Greenberg and
Betsy Perdue
John and Gail Polles
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29
DONORS
c o n t.
Diane Rasmussen
Michael Reed
Ellen Romberg
Suzanne and Tim
Schoolmaster
Jennifer and Warren
Schultz*
Jeri and Richard Skelton
Gordon and Evelyn Straw
Gary and Beth Wainer
Anne Heider and Steve
Warner
Tom and Denise
Whennen
Joanne Whitmore
Paul Winberg and Bruce
Czuchna
Lori Yokoyama
Mark Greenberg
Nina Hallquist-Sykes
Bill N Hensley
Ann Hewitt*
Munn and Bonnie
Heydorn
Terry Hodges
Arnold Hoffman and
Janet Jacobson
Joe Jania
Mark and Amy Jarman
Margaret and Gary
Kachadurian
Peter P. Kezon and
Barbara Jacobs
George Klippel
Colleen Labozetta
Ivan and Jasna Lappin
Helen Lauderdale
SUPPORTERS ($100 or
in Honor of Leslie
more)
Lauderdale
Maurice Fantus and Judith Stephen and Lisbeth
Aiello in Honor of
Lerner
Helen Gagel
Barbara and Martin
Paul and Mary Altman
Letscher
Jovito M. Alvarez
Virginia and William
Ellen Jorstad-Stein and
Lloyd
Dr. Adam Stein
Christine Nicole Martin
Dian and David Barth
Robert E McKenzie
Susan Beal*
David Miller and Mary
Marie Beckman
Ellen McNish
Marolin Bellefleur
Cheryl and Tom
Allan and Jan Bergman
McRoberts
Blumenthal and
Glen and Monique Meade
Associates
Sharon Meltzer
Jonathan Bourne
Sandi and Mike Miller
Norm and Mary Jo
Alice E. Moss
Bowers
Karen Murphy
Anne Bowhay and Jeff
Cathy and Paul Newport
Hanneman
Carolyn and Peter Pereira
Donna Brazulis in Honor Marianne and Bernard A
of Walter and Dorothy
Phelan
Brazulis
Larry and Judy Pitts
Sigrid Brooks
Jane Ann Prest
Arlene Bunis
Mary Quigg
Jennifer Burrus
Wendy Anker and Edward
Martrice Caldwell
Reed
Maria K Carrig
Virginia Russell
Thomas and Sally Coyle
Lowell Sachnoff
Theodore and Ann Doege Marianne Schapiro
Ron and Judy Eshleman
Scott and Brooke Schwarz
Terry and Judy Feiertag
Leonard and Lisa Servedio
Dale and Marilyn Fitschen Laura Smith
Susan and Larry Frank
Les and Bev Smulevitz
Barbara Butz and Robb
Gene and Mindy Stein
Geiger
Amelia J Stone
30
Chicago a cappella
Geri Sztuk
Cindy Tomei
Dave and Carolyn Utech*
Paul and Sara Vandeberg
Janneke and Jeff WaalFowers
Eileen and Dirk Walvoord
Tracy and Tony Weisman
Fred Wellisch and Edie
Canter
Betsy Meisenheimer and
Richard W. Westerfield
Monica and Alexander
Williams
William Wilson
Virginia Witucke
Robert Wolff
Dimis J. Wyman
Penelope Yunker
Joel and Frances Zemans
FRIEND ($50 or more)
Carole Baumgart
Janene Bergen and Lori
Neblung
Brad Berlage
Charles and Roberta
Bernstein
Jennifer Biegel
Sally Birger
Richard Brunot
Dan and Amy Burke
Ioanna and Robert
Chaney
Henry and Ellen Criz
Bruce Kuehl and Mary
Jane Cross
Jeanne Crowe
Lynn and Jim Denton
Lora Drozd
Jim Fancher
Norma Felbinger*
Jerry Smith and Dottie
Fugiel
Jo-Ann and Stanley
Gaynor
Felix and Faith Germino
Katie Frankle and David
Goldman
Sharon and Elliot
Goldman
Pauline and Thomas
Grippando
Barbara Hofmaier and
David Heim
Mari Jo and David
Higgins
Karl and Janice Hobart
James Hoover
Valerie Humowiecki
Linda Kraft
David and Darlene
Landsittel
Marshall and Laurie
Levine
Thomas Lipsmeyer
Frank Brockway and
Margaret Lonquist*
Mary and Steven Magnani
Ann C. Mallow
Ellen and Richard
Marchessault
Kathy and Jack Mattox
Karen Maurer
Elizabeth McCabe Postell
Robert and Marjorie
McCommon
Don McKay
Daniel Melamed
Jim Ginsburg and Patrice
Michaels
David and Janet Midgley
Belverd and Marian
Needles
Shelby Parchman
Marjorie Pentland
Bonnie Poole
Jonathan and Joy Rosner
Iris and Gerald Rudnick
Robert Sacks
Howard and Roberta
Siegel
Dennis and Patricia Smith
Larry and Margaret
Sondler
Trent and Rachel Sparrow
Sara Stiefel
Dorothy and Casmir
Szczepaniak
Bernard Szeszol
Anonymous
Tricia Teater
Willard Thomen
Steven Warkentin
Waring and Ellen Webb
Cheryl Wollin
Deety Zbaraz Winograd
and Bruce Winograd
*Sustaining donor
DONORS
c o n t.
IN KIND CONTRIBUTIONS (SINCE JANUARY 1, 2015)
About Face Theater
AV Chicago
Ballroom Dance Chicago
Bella Voce
Big City Swing
Bike and Roll Chicago
Bollywood Groove
Broadway in Chicago
Eric Buchholz
Cheryl Wollin
Chicago Bears
Chicago Botanic Garden
Chicago Dramatists
Chicago Gay Men’s Chorus
Chicago Modern Orchestra
Project
Chicago Opera Theater
Chicago Shakespeare
Theater
Chicago Sinfonietta
Chicago Sky
Chicago Symphony
Orchestra
Chicago White Sox
Chicago Zoological Society
City Lit Theater Company
Comedysportz Theater
Copper Art Designs
Corepower
Dailey Method
Dance Spa
Dee Dee Whipple
DePaul Merle Reskin
Theatre
Devon Seafood Grill
Claudia Divis
East Bank Club
Edgewater Fitness Club
Emerald City Theatre
Ensemble Español Spanish
Dance Theatre
Evanston Symphony
Orchestra
Fairgrass LLC
Fat Willy’s BBQ Shack
Field Museum
First Folio Theatre
Five Point Holistic Health
Flavour Cooking School
Fox Valley Repertory
Frank Lloyd Wright Trust
French Pastry School
Jennifer Girard
Harris Theater for Music
and Dance
Ann Hewitt
Hotel Felix
Howl at the Moon
Jane Hush
Joffrey Ballet Chicago
Kingston Mines
Koval Distillery
Jim and Archana Lal-Tabak
Lifeline Theatre
Lou Malnati’s
Lyric Opera Chicago
Mara Karzen Jeweler
Designs
Margaret Kachadurian
Mariano’s
Jennifer Marling
May I Have This Dance
Merit School of Music
Metropolis Performing
Arts Center
Michael Kors
Mindy’s Hot Chocolate
Miss Motley Photography
Mity Nice
Moksha Yoga Center
Morton Arboretum
Museum of Science and
Industry
Music Institute of Chicago
Music of the Baroque
Music Box Theater
Norbert Shimkus Designs
North Central College
Northlight Theater
Nuns 4 Fun Entertainment
Old Town School of Folk
Music
Om on the Range
Open Door Theater
Orange Shoe Personal
Fitness
Owen & Engine
Cindy Pardo
Perennial Virant
Porchlight Music Theatre
Press America
Ravinia Festival
Redhead Piano Bar
Remy Bumppo Theatre
Company
Shedd Aquarium
Shiraleah
Sips on Sherman
Six Flags
Sketchbook Brewing Co.
Steep Theater
Ann Stevens
Strawdog Theatre
Company
Swedish American
Museum
Swedish Bakery
Symphony of Oak Park and
River Forest
Target
The Second City
Timeline Theatre Company
Treasure Island
U of C Presents
Up Comedy Club
Victory Gardens Theater
Barbara Volin
Yogaview Lincoln Park
Zanies Comedy Nite Club
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Chicago a cappella