Boston Magic

JFK Presidential Library and Museum
Photo courtesy Emily Schweich

After arriving late Tuesday night, we were excited for our first full day in Boston. Following breakfast at the hotel, we went to the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum for a tour and performance.

The tour began with a brief documentary on JFK's youth and young adulthood, told completely through clips from interviews with the late president. 

Exhibits chronicled his 1960 campaign and his accomplishments and challenges as president, from the space race to the Cuban Missile Crisis. 

We walked through a replica of the Oval Office and a replica of the Office of the Attorney General, which highlighted JFK's special relationship with his brother, Robert F. Kennedy. The museum also highlighted the work of First Lady Jackie Kennedy.

A replica of the Oval Office at the time of Kennedy's presidency.
Photo courtesy Emily Schweich

When I think about JFK, the first thing I think of is his assassination, so I appreciated how the museum didn't let his death overshadow his life. The final exhibit featured a simple black wall with television screens showing news footage of the assassination. The exhibits opened up into a lofty atrium with tall glass windows opening the Boston harbor -- a beautiful, resonant space for us to sing. While the museum wasn't particularly crowded, we enjoyed the chance to sing in a new space. 

The UMD Women's Chorus singing in the JFK Presidential Library and Museum's atrium.
Photo courtesy Jesse Florida

After our performance, we had a free afternoon in Boston. Many of us enjoyed wicked clam chowda (trying to talk like a Bostonian here) at Quincy Market for lunch. 

Abby Goron, Ashley Heard, Emily Schweich, Alexandra Forrester
and Sarah Barham visit the Old North Church.  Photo courtesy Ashley Heard.

A group of us visited the Paul Revere House and Old North Church, where Revere warned the Colonial militia the British were coming before the Battle of Lexington and Concord in 1775.

North End sweets; photo courtesy Emily Schweich

Some of us spent the afternoon enjoying pastries and coffee in the North End, the city's Italian district. A few of us stopped at St. Leonard's Church in the North End to get ashes for Ash Wednesday. 

Mae Almonte, Katie Harris, Gabrielle Bianchi and
Amanda Connolly with their Ash Wednesday ashes.
Photo courtesy Katie Harris

Others enjoyed shopping at Faneuil Hall, visiting Chinatown, walking the Freedom Trail, swing dancing at MIT and meeting up with friends in the city.  

Women's Chorus members exploring Boston.
Photo courtesy Nicole Peak

Boston is a dynamic city where rich history and modern character collide.  We had a wonderful time exploring!

We made it!

The UMD Women's Chorus prepares to depart for Boston.  Photo courtesy Hayley Abramowitz.

Just a brief update to say that we have arrived in Boston after a smooth eight-hour trip. We look forward to touring and performing at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum tomorrow.

Versatility: The hallmark of a good choir

Our director Dr. Elpus regularly says that “versatility is the hallmark of a good choir,” and our ACDA concert program sets out to demonstrate that. From a sacred motet to a Bulgarian folk song to an African-American spiritual, our program includes a wide variety of music.  Mastering the appropriate vocal tone for each genre of music has been a challenge, and we’ve had several extra rehearsals outside of our normal schedule to prepare.

One of the hardest tones to master has been the forward, nasal tone of Bulgarian folk singing for Peter Lyondev’s jaunty “Ergen Deda.”  The text of this song reads:

The old bachelor, red-faced old man,

like this and like that,

wearing his peasant hat sideways,

like this and like that,

tipped up and down,

He went to the village,

and joined the circle dance,

to dance next to the maidens,

All the maidens ran away,

only the youngest one stayed,

the youngest one, Angelina.

Performing this song with the proper tone requires us almost to belt, which goes against traditional bel canto vocal training and was tough for us to master.  We had the opportunity to work with Tzvety Dosseva Weiner, a local Bulgarian folk singer, to help us develop an authentic tone and embody the villagers gossiping about the circle dance.  Our percussionist Jesse Florida also learned how to play the tupan, a drum used in Balkan music.  

We also look forward to premiering the treble arrangement of “Only in Sleep” by Ēriks Ešenvalds. The Latvian composer has thoughtfully set a poem by American poet Sara Teasdale about a woman who dreams about the young girls she played with as a child.

Sara Teasdale photograph by Arnold Genthe, courtesy Wikimedia Commons

Ironically, Teasdale herself was a sickly child who was forced to live a sheltered childhood.  She was homeschooled until she was age nine and had little contact with her peers, so she was forced to rely on her own imagination to amuse herself.  Whether or not  “Only in Sleep” is autobiographical, it is nostalgic -- whether for things past or for what might have been.  We look forward to performing it for Ešenvalds, who will also be attending the ACDA conference.

We have just one more rehearsal left before we depart on Tuesday!  We're feeling more and more excited about our performance.  Check back on Tuesday for an update on our journey north.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Emily Schweich is a senior broadcast journalism major, women’s studies certificate candidate and voice performance minor.  While this is only her second semester as a member of the UMD Women’s Chorus, she has been involved with UMD Choirs since her freshman year as a member of the University Chorale, the UMD Summer Chorus and Femmes de Chanson, a student-run classical a cappella group for women.

She said, "I think I'm going to Boston."

Next week, the UMD Women’s Chorus will perform at the American Choral Directors Association (ACDA) Eastern Division Conference in Boston, and we could not be more excited!

ACDA is the largest professional group for choir directors nationwide.  The biennial regional conferences feature headline choirs as well as choirs from around the region selected by blind audition.  When attendees aren’t at concerts, they are attending lectures, demo rehearsals and programs to share new repertoire and learn new skills to advance the choral art.  

Dr. Kenneth Elpus leads the UMD Women's Chorus in rehearsal February 5, 2016.

While other Maryland choirs have performed at the conference in years past, this is the first time the UMD Women’s Chorus will perform.  We are one of the most diverse ensembles on campus, made up of music majors and non-majors alike, and being selected is a huge honor.

“I think it says a lot about the strength of choral music at Maryland,” said Dr. Kenneth Elpus, Assistant Professor of Music Education and Director of the UMD Women’s Chorus.

He’s also excited for the group to travel together.

“Group travel, particularly, has a chance to get people who make music together three times a week but might not know each other to bond, and that will help the music-making,” Dr. Elpus said.

We’ll be taking the bus up on Tuesday afternoon (and hopefully not encountering too much snow!)  On Wednesday, we will perform at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum and spend the day exploring Boston.  On Thursday, we will perform two concerts at St. Cecilia Parish for ACDA conference attendees before returning home to Maryland.  It will be a whirlwind of a trip, but I’m looking forward to it!

Check back soon for an update on our rehearsal process!

Dr. Elpus leads the UMD Women's Chorus in rehearsal February 5, 2016.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Emily Schweich is a senior broadcast journalism major, women’s studies certificate candidate and voice performance minor.  While this is only her second semester as a member of the UMD Women’s Chorus, she has been involved with UMD Choirs since her freshman year as a member of the University Chorale, the UMD Summer Chorus and Femmes de Chanson, a student-run classical a cappella group for women.

Aus tiefer Not schrei ich zu dir, BWV 38

First performed on October 29, 1724, Bach’s intense and dark cantata based on Martin Luther’s chorale Aus tiefer Not schrei ich zu dir (Out of the deep I cry to you) evokes both the ancient and the modern, alternating and combining older forms, modes, and instruments with newer ones. This interpretation of Psalm 130 focuses on the steadfastness of faith against all odds, represented by the chorale-tune's appearance in some form in all six movements, adapted to the mood and context of each movement in an almost Beethovenian manner.

Our Family Weekend 2015 Lineup

We're excited to showcase seven of our ensembles next Friday:

UMD Chamber Singers: the School of Music's most select choral ensemble, specializing in music from Renaissance, Baroque, and contemporary eras. Recently, the UMD Chamber Singers toured to South Korea for the 10th World Symposium on Choral Music

University Chorale: an auditioned mixed ensemble that sings a wide variety of a cappella and accompanied repertoire under the direction of our exceptional graduate conductors

UMD Concert Choir: the symphonic choir of the School of Music that frequently collaborates with the UMD Symphony Orchestra, the National Symphony Orchestra, and the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra under world-renown conductors

UMD Women's Chorus: one of our most popular ensembles. Its repertoire for treble voices spans all styles from classical to contemporary and its membership includes students from diverse fields of study. Next spring, the UMD Women's Chorus travels to Boston for performances at the Eastern Division Conference of the American Choral Directors Association

UMD Men's Chorus: With an astonishing diversity in repertoire that ranges from chant to barbershop, the UMD Men's Chorus is one of the university's most dynamic ensembles. The ensemble takes a journey through the Midwest this spring in a performance tour concluding at the Intercollegiate Men's Choruses National Seminar

Femmes de Chanson & MännerMusik: Vital to UMD’s choral ecosystem, Femmes de Chanson and MännerMusik, who also perform in the Festival of Lessons and Carols every year, are student-led a cappella chamber groups dedicated to presenting diverse chamber choral literature

On behalf all our ensembles, we welcome you to our season and look forward to seeing you at the performance on Oct 2 at 8pm!

A note from the composer:

"Five Fantasies on Bach Chorales has been in the works for some time, having benefited from some work-shopping (in bits and pieces) in 2009 and 2011—well before its completion in 2014.  While each of the five movements thus stands on its own in a way, there's a significant amount of overlap between them—mostly textural and textual rather than thematic. In this work, I employ a type of text setting wherein semiotic links are established and maintained well beyond a passing "word painting" acquaintance; the most far-reaching is the nautical metaphor of the third movement ("let loose my ship's rudder") being resurrected at the conclusion of the closing movement, with the choir wordlessly imitating ocean sounds. Other long-range references occur both within and between movements.  I love it when particularly perceptive listeners (and performers!) notice these connections and start discussions about them; it's a wonderful way to engage with my fellow musical people.

Since I knew from experience what the UMD Chamber Singers are capable of before I finished two of these movements, there are some fairly virtuosic passages requiring great sensitivity to rhythm, diction, and especially intonation.  When the announcement was made that the Five Fantasies were selected as the winners of the Walsum Competition at UMD, the most exciting dimension of it for me was knowing that the music would be rehearsed and performed by a choir that has demonstrated great facility with both the composer I'm borrowing from and the musical language which I myself bring.  Having performed with this fine ensemble a great many Bach cantatas and a number of challenging twentieth-century works (foremost among them those by Benjamin Britten and Francis Poulenc), I am thrilled to hear what they bring to a work that seeks to draw equally upon the old and the new."

—William Kenlon

The UMD Chamber Singers will be premiering  Five Fantasies on Bach Chorales on April 17.