Two Sides of the Grande Prairie Singers

In April the Grande Prairie Singers presented Music for a Great Space, a wide variety of sacred music in a gracious acoustic, and in just a week we present I Dream a World, a program that focuses on hopefulness and new beginnings, possibilities and change in the face of inequalities and injustices, prejudice and discrimination. Woven through the program are archival recordings of singers from the 60’s: Bob Dylan, Pete Seeger, Joan Baez, Peter, Paul & Mary -- those who sang about social injustice, civil rights, war and peace. Their messages are our messages.

A Return to Orlando

It was wonderful to return to Orlando for a residency at the University of Central Florida (where I spent thirty years!) for workshops with invited choirs and a culminating performance of I AM IN NEED OF MUSIC with 400 singers in the magnificent Steinmetz Hall of the Dr. Phillips' Center for the Performing Arts.  Thank you Jeff Redding and Kelly Miller for the invitation!  So great to see you and our extraordinary colleague, pianist Robin Jensen!

Choirs and More Choirs

I had the great opportunity to work with Matthew Swope's talented singers from the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music and visiting high school choirs at VanderCook College of Music in March and a variety of singers at festivals in Chicago and Gatlinburg in April.  Well-prepared, eager and engaged singers!

New Works and Publications

In March I delivered the full score and parts of A TIMBERED CHOIR, the commissioned work for Chung Park and the St. Olaf Orchestra, to honor the work of Wendell, Tanya, and Mary Berry. Scored for tenor solo and full orchestra, it is a setting of three of Wendell Berry's poems about great trees. 

This spring AGAIN, AGAIN... for SATB a cappella chorus, was released by Walton Music and I CARRY YOUR HEART, for SSA chorus with piano, by Hinshaw Music.  

A Very Grande Prairie Christmas

My first concert with the Grande Prairie Singers was December third, to a packed house at Flossmoor Community Church.  Not only was this my "thirty-some" year return to this chorus, but also to this beautiful church, where I was Director of Music an equal number of years ago.  A wonderful concert of music by Bach, Holst, Forrest, Whitacre, Rutter, Hagenberg, Brunner and others.  Joyful singing full of heart and spirit..