Notre Père, Op. 14

Maurice Duruflé (1902-1986) was an outstanding French composer, organist, and teacher at the Paris Conservatoire. Most of his published works are tied to liturgical themes and texts, and although his influence has been far-reaching and his legacy lasting in the classical field, he only published a handful of works, most notably his gorgeous Requiem Op. 9. His small compositional output results from sharp self-criticism and frequent revision. “I work slowly, and I throw a lot away,“ he noted. 

“Notre Père” is a sacred motet by Duruflé. It is a setting, in French, of the Lord’s Prayer for four-part a cappella choir, published in 1978 and dedicated to his wife, Marie-Madeleine Duruflé. Duruflé, who was director of the Gregorian Institute of Paris, was passionate about reviving Gregorian chant in his work. This influence can be seen in many of his compositions. Thus, “Notre Père” is set in a chantlike manner, and its opening notes contain the same pitches as the original chant melody. Duruflé sets the piece in alternating triple and duple meter, to most appropriately set the text in a given measure.

Give You Rest

Come to me, all who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.
-Matthew 11:28

Saunder Choi (b. 1988) is a Los Angeles-based Filipino composer and choral artist whose works have been performed internationally by various groups including Conspirare, the Philippine Madrigal Singers, Santa Fe Desert Chorale, Los Angeles Master Chorale, Pacific 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, Orquestra Filarmónica Portuguesa, Gay Men’s Chorus of Los Angeles, San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus, and others. 

From the composer: “In setting the words from Matthew 11:28, I wanted the words of Jesus Christ to take a more humanist approach outside the realm of organized religion. ‘Come to me, all who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest’ is an act of kindness and welcome that should extend to all humans, regardless of gender, belief, orientation, race, class, immigration status, etc. ‘Give You Rest’ is part of a set called Songs of Welcome, my personal and continuing musical reflections on being an immigrant in this country.” (www.saunderchoi.com) 

Ave Maria

A self-taught musician who grew up singing in choir, Javier Busto (b. 1949) was born in Hondarribia, part of Spain’s Basque Country. He earned a medical degree from the University of Valladolid, specializing in cardiology. During his days as a university student, he met conductor Erwin List, from whom he took his first classes in choral conducting. From 1971 to 1976, Busto conducted the Ederki Basque Students’ Choir in Valladolid. In 1978, he founded the Eskifaid Choir, which he conducted until 1994. In 1995, he founded the Cantemus Women’s Choir. He has won numerous competitions and prizes, taught choral conducting, and been a juror of competitions for choruses and composers, and actively works as a family doctor in Lezo (Gipuzkoa). 

This setting of “Ave Maria” by Javier Busto was published in 1992 and was composed for SATB chorus. The work is calm and reflective, with note clusters and subtle rhythmic patterns. Largely homophonic, Sopranos/Altos and Tenors/Basses conduct a short dialogue at the text, ‘benedicta tu et mulieribus.” Busto gives the Bass section the melody and has the rest of the choir chanting softly in triplets and duplets at the text ‘ora pro nobis…’ as an expression of exceptional contrast.

For You I Will Be an Island

Jennifer Lucy Cook (b. 1988) is a composer and lyricist based in Los Angeles, California. Jen specializes in music for the stage and screen, choral work, and pop songwriting. Recent choral commissions include Phoenix Chorale, Cantorum Chamber Choir, and Choral Arts Ensemble in Minnesota. She is the recipient of the Chorus Austin Composition Prize, the Cantus Emerging Composer Award, the HerVoice Female Composer Prize, and the Edwin Fissinger Composition Prize. She is an alumnus of the Johnny Mercer Foundation Writer’s Grove with Goodspeed Musicals, and her theater commissions include Full House Theatre Co., British Youth Musical Theatre, and Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre in London. She earned a master’s degree in musical theater Writing from Goldsmiths University in London and a bachelor’s in media music from Brigham Young University. (jenniferlucycook.com)

From the composer: “‘For You I Will Be an Island’ was written while in quarantine, when the greatest act of love that one person could show to another was to keep a healthy distance. This strange phenomenon stood in stark contrast to the tangible way I normally prefer to show love: with hugs, kisses, and closeness. Quarantine felt to me very similar to other rare times when distance means love, like when a relationship seems to have run its course, or when love isn’t returned in kind. When all that’s left to do is to keep a flame and wish them well from afar: ‘find me where love collides with letting go.’ In the piece you’ll hear waves humming all the words left unsaid, the voices dividing with the widest intervals possible before coming back together for clusters, and long phrases that stretch for miles. It is my hope that ‘For You I Will Be an Island’ can evoke the strange beauty in loneliness, in whatever form it shows up for you.” (jenniferlucycook.com)

Tuba

Michael Joseph Barrett (b. 1983) is the Director of Choral Activities at the University of Pretoria (South Africa), the conductor of the renowned Tuks Camerata and a Senior Lecturer in Choral Conducting in the Department of Music. His compositions and arrangements have been performed throughout the world, and his arrangements of traditional South African songs are especially popular. 

Tsonga (Xitsonga) is a Bantu speaking language from the southern part of Africa. Like most traditional music from South Africa, “Tuba” is based on a simple harmonic and melodic structure that is repeated several times. A baritone soloist presents the initial melody, which is then echoed by the larger group, in the style of singing known as “call-and-response”. Throughout, the choir builds the harmonic structure in rhythmic excitement. “Tuba” (literally meaning “A dove”) references the biblical story of Noah and the dove that brought back an olive branch after the great flood, as a symbol that the worst was over. This South African song is believed to have originated during the difficult Apartheid years and performed as a peaceful protest song. We sing these words as acknowledgment of the potential for peace ahead, both locally and globally, realizing that the work is not yet finished, and that this goal is worth working toward.

Dr. Angela Batey is recognized as a prominent conductor, clinician, adjudicator and teacher whose wide variety of experience encompasses professional, university, high school, community and church choruses. Dr. Batey served ten years as Associate Dean in the College of Arts and Sciences and is currently Associate Dean in the Natalie L. Haslam College of Music, Director of Graduate Studies, Director of Choral Activities, and James Cox Professor of Music. She conducts the Chamber Singers and teaches conducting courses at the graduate levels. Dr. Batey is also Director of Music at Farragut Presbyterian Church.

She is a Past-President of the Tennessee American Choral Directors Association and is currently serving on the Executive Board of Southern Division ACDA. Batey has been Associate Conductor of Schola Cantorum of Florida, a professional chorus and Associate Music Director of the Florida Ambassadors of Music, and Festival Director of the International Cathedral Music Festival.

Dr. Batey has appeared as a clinician for the American Choral Directors Association, South Carolina Music Educators Association, Florida Vocal Association, East Tennessee Vocal Association, West Virginia Vocal Association, Georgia Vocal Association, and is a frequent adjudicator, clinician and guest conductor of choral festivals, honors choirs and educational workshops. Her concern for excellence in education is the focal point of her teaching career.

Dr. Batey holds two degrees from Birmingham-Southern College in Music Education and Musical Theatre, a master's degree from The Florida State University in Music Education and the Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Choral Conducting from the University of South Carolina. In addition, she has studied Conducting with Hugh Thomas, Joseph Flummerfelt, Robert Shaw, Colleen Kirk, Clayton Krehbiel, Andre Thomas, Don V Moses and Larry Wyatt.

Dr. Laura Leigh Spillane is the Interim Associate Director of Choral Activities, Adjunct Assistant Professor, and Lecturer of Music Education at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville Haslam College of Music. At UT, Dr. Spillane teaches courses in music education, choral conducting, and graduate choral literature, and conducts the Concert Choir. Prior to joining the faculty at Tennessee, she taught courses and led ensembles at Saddleback College and the consortium of Claremont Colleges in southern California. She is the founding artistic director of Summit Choral Collective, a nonprofit community choral organization based in Knoxville, Tennessee.

A conductor, music educator, and soprano from Atlanta, Georgia, Dr. Spillane previously served as a choral director at the middle and high school levels in the Fulton and Gwinnett County School Districts in Georgia and has served in professional church music for over a decade. She was honored as the inaugural recipient of the GA American Choral Directors Association Young Director Award in 2019. She maintains an active schedule as a clinician and adjudicator.

Dr. Spillane holds the Doctor of Musical Arts in Choral Music from the University of Southern California, where her fields of study were Musicology, Vocology, and Instrumental Conducting. Her dissertation research examined how trends in written range and tessitura impact vocal stamina in mixed-voice choral ensembles. She also holds the Master of Music degree in Conducting from the University of Georgia, where she was a Carl Hoveland Fellow and graduate assistant, and the Bachelor of Music Education degree from Reinhardt University, where she was a summa cum laude graduate. Her conducting teachers and mentors include Cristian Grases, Tram Sparks, Larry Livingston, Jo-Michael Scheibe, Nick Strimple, Daniel Bara, J.D. Burnett, and Martha Shaw. She is an active member of ACDA, ETVA, TnMEA, NAfME, and NCCO.

Professor Andrew Skoog made his New York debut at Carnegie Hall as tenor soloist in Handel's Messiah conducted by John Rutter, internationally acclaimed composer and conductor. He returned to Carnegie Hall in 2005 as tenor soloist in Orff’s Carmina Burana, with Andrew Litton and the Dallas Symphony Orchestra. Since that time, Skoog has sung with orchestras all over the world, including the American Symphony Orchestra in Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center. Skoog made his international debut in 2006 singing Carmina Burana in Bergen, Norway. Critics hail him as ideal in Carmina Burana because of his "full, lyric delivery in the demanding, high tessitura," which he has performed all over the world, in excess of forty engagements. Additionally sought after for Handel’s Messiah, Skoog has performed this work throughout the United States.

Other performances include Rachmaninoff’s The Bells, Mendelssohn’s Die Erste Walpurgisnacht and Elijah, Berlioz’ Requiem, Britten’s Saint Nicolas and Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings, Brahms’ Liebeslieder Waltzes, Mozart’s Requiem and Coronation Mass, Ramirez’s Misa Criolla, Dvorak’s Stabat Mater and Mass in D, Franck’s Die Sieben Worte Jesu am Kreuz, Rossini's Stabat Mater and Petite Messe Solonnelle, Beethoven's Christus am Ölberge and Mass in C Major, Bach's St. Matthew Passion (Evangelist), Verdi's Requiem, Beethoven's Symphony No. 9, and Bruckner's Te Deum. Mr. Skoog’s passionate, artistic performances of Benjamin Britten works have attracted attention, with praise for his performances.

Twice a Metropolitan Opera regional finalist, Skoog made his professional operatic debut as Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly. His operatic credits include Sam Polk in Susannah, Alfred in Die Fledermaus, Camille in The Merry Widow, Tamino in Die Zauberflöte, Pong in Turandot, Satyavan in Savitri, The Prince in The Love for Three Oranges, The Teapot in L’Enfant et Les Sortileges, as well as roles in Carmen, The Pirates of Penzance, Rita, and Werther. An alumnus of the Des Moines Metro Opera Apprentice Program, Skoog was a finalist in the Dallas Opera Career Development Grant Auditions, and coached in master classes with John Wustman and the late Jerry Hadley.

Skoog is a Sandra G. Powell Excellence Professor at the University of Tennessee. In 2011, he was the recipient of the School of Music Distinguished Faculty Award in Teaching awarded by the student body of the UT School of Music. Before his appointment at Tennessee, Skoog was the Director of Choral Activities at Tyler Junior College in Tyler, Texas. During his tenure there, his choirs performed in Carnegie Hall, Westminster Hall in London, England and for the MTNA National Conference in Dallas, Texas.

Dr. Jeffrey Pappas is the Natalie L. Haslam Founding Dean of the College of Music and co-director of UT Singers. Prior to his appointment at UT, he was the Chair of the Department of Music at Marshall University in Huntington, West Virginia, and the Director of Choral Activities and Coordinator of Ensembles and Conducting at Ball State University where he conducted the Chamber Choir, taught upper-level undergraduate conducting, master’s and doctoral level choral literature and conducting, and administrated the choral area. He has also served as the Director of Choral Activities at Mississippi State University and at Clarke College in Dubuque, Iowa and on the music faculty at Otterbein College in Westerville, Ohio.

His choirs have performed throughout the Midwest, in Southern California, Colorado, Atlanta and New Orleans, and in prestigious venues in Ireland, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Austria, France and Italy. Pappas has presented at the International Vocal Symposium on three occasions and is frequently called on to be a guest conductor, clinician, and adjudicator at choral festivals, workshops, and competitions. A proponent of all styles of music, Pappas is particularly proud of the new works he has commissioned and/or conducted.  

Pappas has also been active in the American Choral Directors Association, serving as Repertoire and Standards Chairperson for 4-Year Colleges and Universities in Iowa and Mississippi, Membership Chair and President-Elect in Mississippi, the Repertoire and Standards Chair for Music and Worship for the Indiana Choral Directors Association and the Membership Chair for the Central Division. As a tenor soloist, his concert and/or opera performances have included Mozart’s Cosi fan tutte, Massenet’s Herodiade, Handel’s Messiah, Bach’s Mass in B Minor, Mendelssohn’s Elijah, Beethoven’s 9th Symphony and Stravinsky’s Les Noces.

He holds a Bachelor of Music degree in vocal performance from Northern Kentucky University, a Master of Music degree in choral conducting from the University of Illinois, and the Doctor of Musical Arts degree in choral conducting and pedagogy from the University of Iowa. His conducting teachers have included William Hatcher, Don Moses, Chester Alwes and James Dixon.

Professor Andrea Markowitz Gantte co-directs the UT Singers vocal ensemble. She is a founding member and co-director of Summit Choral Collective, a nonprofit community choral organization based in Knoxville, Tennessee. In addition to teaching, she arranges music for contemporary choral ensembles and performs as a collaborative pianist for the Natalie L. Haslam College of Music at the University of Tennessee, St. Mark United Methodist Church, Tennessee Valley Players, and many schools and organizations across the East Tennessee region.

Gantte previously served as professor of music at Walters State Community College, Director of Choral Activities at Seymour High School, and Director of Music and Worship at St. Mark United Methodist Church. She has also performed as a vocal soloist and ensemble member in Knoxville and Chattanooga-based choral ensembles. 

As a Knoxville native, Gantte dreamed of attending the University of Tennessee and is a proud alumna of the UT College of Music. She holds the Master of Music degree in music education, where she was a graduate teaching assistant and taught functional piano for music education majors, and a Bachelor of Music degree in vocal performance, where she received the prestigious Grace Moore vocal scholarship and was offered the national piano scholarship. Gantte graduated magna cum laude and was awarded the College of Music’s Outstanding Graduate Senior in Vocal Performance. She is a member of NAfME and ACDA.

Professor Shawn Turner is an alumnus of the Natalie L. Haslam College of Music, having completed a degree in Studio Music and Jazz. He has experience teaching in middle and high school levels and is the lead male vocalist in Pinky Ring and Aftah Party, local professional entertainment bands performing classic and modern R&B, Funk and Soul musics. He is also Artist in Residence at the Old City Performing Arts Center. Professor Turner has over twenty years of experience in church music ministry and currently serves as the Choir Director at Sevier Heights Baptist Church. He is excited to have joined the Choral Area of the Natalie L. Haslam College of Music in Fall 2023 as Director of Gospel Choir.

Sarah Kitts is a second-year Graduate Teaching Assistant from Seymour, Tennessee pursuing her master’s degree in Choral Conducting. She is a 2023 summa cum laude graduate from the University of Tennessee with her bachelor’s degree in Vocal Music Education. Ms. Kitts studied voice with Dr. Kimberly Roberts, and was a part of various vocal ensembles in the university and around the Knoxville area. She served as a member of UT’s CNAfME (College National Association for Music Educators) chapter, as well as Women of UT Music, TMEA (Tennessee Music Educators Association), and ACDA (American Choral Directors Association). Additionally, she gained teaching experience in both Blount County and Knox County Schools at Heritage Middle school and Farragut High school where she taught and led multiple choirs. Ms. Kitts is actively involved in the music scene at UT as well as leading worship at her church. She is so honored to direct this year's Women’s Chorale and adores making musical memories with every single one of them.

Connor Cowart is a first-year Graduate Teaching Assistant from Seymour, Tennessee pursuing his master’s degree in Choral Conducting. He began his music career at Church Street United Methodist Church in the children's choir under the direction of Tim Ward and Dr. Edie Johnson and he is currently Director of Music at Broadway United Methodist Church in Maryville. Mr. Cowart attended Bearden High School in Knoxville, where he was active in the choral and theatre programs as well as the Tennessee All-East Honor choir and Tennessee All-State Honor choir. He recently graduated from Maryville College with a bachelor's degree in vocal music education. At Maryville, he participated in the Maryville College Concert Choir, as well as Off Kilter and Lads ensembles.