News Release
“LOVE IS A CIRCLE” CONCERT SERIES MARCH 29 - 30
TO FEATURE COMPOSER AND GUITARIST JEFFREY VAN
SCHEDULED WORKS INCLUDE VAN PREMIERE PLUS
COMPOSITIONS BY ROSSI, MUEHLEISEN AND ASPLIN
AUSTIN, TEXAS – With the spring 2008 concert series, Love is a Circle, Conspirare makes its performance debut at the idyllic wooded enclave of St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church in Wimberley on March 29, and at Austin’s exquisite Congregation Agudas Achim at the Dell Jewish Community Center on March 30.
Special guest composer and guitarist Jeffrey Van joins the Company of Voices for a program that includes the Austin premiere of Van’s A Procession Winding Around Me, a setting of four Civil War poems of Walt Whitman. In the liner notes for the 2004 recording of the piece, Van wrote, “While the Civil War was always present in my mind as the context for these poems, there is nothing in these texts which specifically identifies that war, and Whitman’s powerful and timeless words ring true for any war in any age. The percussive qualities of the guitar figure prominently through this work, evoking the ever-present drums of war: the call to attention of the field drums, the rattle of the snare, and the ominous pulse of the bass drum.”
The concert opens with the music of Salamone Rossi, a contemporary of Monteverdi and Gastoldi. He was the first musician in modern times to compose choral motets for the synagogue, and his work displays a particular sensitivity to the Hebrew psalm texts. Also featured will be John Meuhleisen’s beautiful setting of Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s poem, Perplexed Music, and David Asplin’s cantata for peace, For the healing of nations, a work whose text includes words from the Iroquois Constitution, Confusius, The Holy Qur’an and the biblical books of Isaiah and Revelation.
EDITORS PLEASE NOTE:
PERFORMANCE SCHEDULE
Saturday, March 29, 2008 at 7:30 pm St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church 6000-A FM 3237, Wimberley
Sunday, March 30, 2008 at 7:30 pm Congregation Agudas Achim 7300 Hart Lane, Austin
Tickets and Information
General admission adult tickets for Love is a Circle are $25 for the Wimberley concert and $30 for the Austin performance, with $15 for youth, ages 6 to 17, at each venue. Tickets are on sale now by phone at (512) 476-5775 or by e-mail request to info@conspirare.org. Based on availability, student rush tickets at $10 each will be sold to any student showing current school I.D. at each performance beginning thirty minutes prior to the concert. Conspirare box office hours are 9:00 am until 5:30 pm, Monday though Friday. For more information about this and other Conspirare performances and programs, please visit www.conspirare.org.
About Jeffrey Van
Guitarist and composer Jeffrey Van has premiered over 50 works for guitar including Dominick Argento’s Letters from Composers, five concertos and a broad variety of chamber music. He has performed in Carnegie Hall, London’s Wigmore Hall, and the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, and as part of Duologue, with flutist Susan Morris De Jong, has premiered and recorded commissioned works from more than a dozen composers, including Stephen Paulus, Roberto Sierra, Tania Leon, Michael Daugherty, Libby Larsen and William Bolcom.
He has been featured on many NPR broadcasts, made several solo and ensemble recordings and appeared on ten recordings with The Dale Warland Singers. Van has performed and taught master classes throughout the United States, and earned a Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Minnesota School of Music, where he is a lecturer in classical guitar. Former students include Sharon Isbin, John Holmquist and members of the Minneapolis Guitar Quartet.
Mr. Van’s compositions include works for guitar, guitar and violin, guitar and flute, chorus, chamber ensemble, vocal solo, organ, and a concerto for two guitars and chamber orchestra. His music is published by Boosey & Hawkes, Walton, Colla Voce, Mark Foster, Earthsongs, MorningStar and Hal Leonard.
About Conspirare
Now in its 15th performance season, Conspirare combines outstanding vocal artistry with innovative programming to create a unique and dynamic choral art. Under the leadership of Founder and Artistic Director Craig Hella Johnson, Conspirare is comprised of three performing ensembles: a professional chamber choir of singers from around the country that is presented in an annual concert series in Austin and other central Texas cities and tours internationally; a symphonic choir of both professional and volunteer singers that presents at least one large choral/orchestral work annually; and the Conspirare Children’s Choir, a training program for young singers, ages 9-16.
In 2004 Conspirare produced its first professional, commercial recording, “through the green fuse.” A second CD, “Requiem,” was released in 2006 and received two 2007 Grammy® Award nominations (Best Choral Performance and Best Engineered Album, Classical). A new recording, “Threshold of Night: Music of Tarik O’Regan,” will be released later this year and will be Conspirare’s inaugural offering on the prestigious Harmonia Mundi label.
Conspirare has performed at New York’s Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center, and continues to receive rave reviews and national acclaim. In 2005 the organization received the “Margaret Hillis Award for Choral Excellence,” presented by Chorus America. In 2007, as one of only seven choruses in the country to receive a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts for an “American Masterpieces Festival,” Conspirare presented “Crossing the Divide: Exploring Influence and Finding Our Voice.” The four-day festival featured a distinguished gathering of composers and conductors, performances of three world premieres, and a gala closing concert with a choir of 600 singers. In the summer of 2008, Conspirare will perform at the Eighth World Symposium on Choral Music – the only choir from the United States to be invited to join choral ensembles from around the world for the eight-day festival in Copenhagen, Denmark.
About Craig Hella Johnson
Founder and Artistic Director of Conspirare, Craig Hella Johnson has assembled some of the finest singers in the country to create a world-class, award-winning ensemble committed to creating dynamic choral art. As conductor, teacher, songwriter, composer, arranger, pianist and singer, Craig Hella Johnson’s reputation as one of this country’s most dynamic and respected musicians is founded on his depth of artistry and musical integrity. Mr. Johnson has been a guest conductor with the Austin Symphony, San Antonio Symphony and Chicago’s Music of the Baroque. From 1990-2001, Mr. Johnson served as Director of Choral Activities at the University of Texas at Austin. His guest teaching/conducting engagements include residencies at Westminster Choir College, Beloit College, and with the St. Olaf Choir at St. Olaf College. He has been Artistic Director of the Victoria Bach Festival since 1992, and, from 1999-2003, he was Music Director of the Houston Masterworks Chorus.
For more information, please visit www.Conspirare.org.