Christina Whitten Thomas ‘01.5

Award-winning composer and Middlebury alumna Christina Whitten Thomas ‘01.5 returns to campus for the premiere of her new choral suite, Songs of Gold, on Friday evening, April 21, 2017, 7:30 p.m., in Robison Concert Hall at the Mahaney Center for the Arts. Commissioned by the Vermont Choral Union (directed by Jeff Rehbach, music department, who also conducts the Middlebury College Community Chorus),  this dazzling work for eight-part chorus and flute includes texts by Vermont-based writer Abigail Carroll, 1950s Waterbury poet Jean Killary, and Middlebury faculty member Jay Parini.

Christina will also present a talk about her music and career as a composer since her graduation from Middlebury at 2:00 p.m. on Wednesday, April 19, in room 221 of the Mahaney Center for the Arts, free and open to the public.

The Friday evening concert celebrates the Vermont Choral Union’s  50th anniversary. James G. Chapman, who had previously taught in the music department at Middlebury College and conducted the College Choir, founded the Choral Union in 1967 at the University of Vermont. Today, its 36 singers from across the state take wing with soaring works from medieval times to the present. This 90-minute program encompasses works that bring to life texts from church and theater traditions, romance and the natural world, crossing the centuries from the European and North American continents. In addition to Songs of Gold, the program features works that Chapman introduced to audiences at Middlebury and UVM, including 18th-century psalm settings by historic Vermont figures Justin Morgan and Elisha West, and pieces by such noted composers as William Byrd, Heinrich Schütz, Johannes Brahms, Josef Rheinberger, Maurice Duruflé, Charles Villiers Stanford, Francis Poulenc, Samuel Barber, Will Todd, and Randall Thompson. Tickets ($12/$10/$6) will be available at the door or in advance at the College box office (go.middebury.edu/boxoffice).

Christina Whitten Thomas’s works have been performed throughout the United States including at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, and Disney Concert Hall. She has received commissions from the Los Angeles Master Chorale Chamber Singers, the Denver Women’s Chorus, Vox Femina of Los Angeles, the Esoterics of Seattle, Melodia Women’s Choir, the Apollo Men’s Chorus, and the Vermont Choral Union. Her awards include first place in the Indianapolis Symphonic Choir competition, first place in the Los Robles Master Chorale competition, first place in the Park Avenue Christian Church competition, second place in the NATS Art Song Composition Award, the Sorel Conductor’s Choice award, and the Sorel Medallion. Her choral cycle Choral de Bêtes can be heard on Musica Sacra’s 2012 CD release Messages to Myself. In addition to her Middlebury B.A., Christina holds a M.M. in composition from the University of Southern California’s Thornton School of Music. She curently resides with her family in Pasadena, California, where she is also an active teacher and vocalist. More information can be found at www.christinawhitten.com.

One hundred singers will soon take their places on stage in the Robison Concert Hall at the Mahaney Center for the Arts as the Middlebury College Community Chorus presents its annual Thanksgiving concerts. These free, hour-long programs take place in a special performance on Saturday evening, November 19 at 7:00 p.m. and an encore presentation on Sunday afternoon, November 20 at 3:00 p.m.  Please note this year’s change in location from Mead Chapel to the Center for the Arts. All are welcome!

College students and community members prepare for annual Thanksgiving concert. Photo: Anastasiya Prokhorenko, ’19

This season’s program includes historical works from the European choral tradition alongside breathtaking contemporary works written during the past decade. The songs feature celebratory psalm texts with a Thanksgiving theme, as well as music with words that reflect the changing seasons and a longing for justice and peace, important to so many people at this time.

The choir offers Chandos Anthem No. 9 by Baroque composer George Frederic Handel. Its four choruses – reminiscent of the spirited music found in his Messiah – contain dramatic shifts in textures and harmonies, scored for string orchestra and oboe. The program also includes Mozart’s expressive Ave verum corpus, a traditional text from the Roman Catholic tradition.

The chorus welcomes the change of seasons with music by Zachary J. Moore, one of a new generation of American choral composers. With beautiful melodies, he vividly paints the poem October Song, written by Wisconsin poet laureate Max Garland. In O Notte (O Night), composed earlier this year, distinguished conductor-composer Z. Randall Stroope dramatically scores selected phrases of a Michelangelo poem, “O night, in dreams you carry me,” for choir, piano, solo violin and cello.

Distinguished arranger, composer and conductor Craig Hella Johnson creates a lyrical musical setting the words of Mattie Stepanek’s Psalm of Life, written just before Thanksgiving 2003. Mattie, a published poet and peace advocate, died a month before his 14th birthday from a rare form of muscular dystrophy. From the Hebrew tradition, contemporary composer Allan Naplan sets the text of Al Shlosha D’varim: truth, justice and peace sustain the world. The inspirational words of Mother Teresa, “If we have not peace, it is because we have forgotten we belong to each other,” provide the foundation for an award-winning 2010 work, All Works of Love, by Pacific Northwest composer Joan Szymko.

Conductor Jeff Rehbach notes that this program offers to listeners and performers alike vivid, dramatic, and expressive writing for chorus, piano, and chamber music ensemble. Local teachers who play with the Vermont Symphony, Champlain Philharmonic, and Burlington Civic Symphony orchestras join the chorus for this performance.

Members of the College Community chorus travel for weekly rehearsals from throughout the region, including

College faculty, staff, and community members prepare for Thanksgiving concert. Photo: Anastasiya Prokhorenko ’19

Cornwall, Weybridge, Middlebury, Ripton, Bristol, Monkton, New Haven, Waltham, Vergennes, North Ferrisburgh, Charlotte, East Middlebury, Salisbury, Leicester, Brandon, Orwell, Shoreham, Randolph, Port Henry, Westport and Moriah. College students hail from New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Illinois, West Virginia, Idaho, North Dakota, Florida, Costa Rica, China and Kenya.

Jeff Rehbach is in his seventeenth season as conductor of the College Community Chorus, and Timothy Guiles serves as the ensemble’s remarkable accompanist. The group welcomes without audition all singers who delight in participating in this 150-year-old community tradition, hosted by Middlebury College.