Soprano
Louiya Anthony, Vocal Performance, ‘28
*Alex Bailey, Pre-Music Education, ‘28
Abbi Blank, Pre-Music Education, ‘27
Eileen Brady, Pre-Music Education, ‘28
Morgan Fausz, Pre-Music Education, ‘28
Emma Guanzon, Choral Music Education, ‘26
Riley Heather-Bergman, Pre-Music Education, ‘28
Lainey Luginbill, Music Education, ‘27
Bella Mytinger, Vocal Performance, ‘28
Zo Povlsen, Pre-Music Education, ‘27
Macy Strauss, Pre-Music Education, ‘28
*Allison Twining, Pre-Music Education, ‘27
Noelle Warnement, Theater Acting & Directing, ‘28

Alto
Kamiah Felver, Pre-Music Education, ‘27
Samantha Gentz, Pre-Music Education, ‘28
Jade Gilmore, Pre-Music Education, ‘28
Anna LeHoty, Pre-Music Education, ‘28
Cipher McAlpine, Pre-Music Education, ‘28
Danielle Merced, Pre-Music Education, ‘28
Rylie Thomas, Pre-Music Education, ‘28
McKenna Warner, Pre-Music Education, ‘27
Madeline Yarbro, Pre-Music Education, ‘28

Tenor
Kyle Biers, Pre-Music Education, ‘28
Noah Burke, Statistics, ‘28
Joel Domino, BMA, ‘28
Ben Haines, Undecided, ‘28
Matt Henry, Forensic Investigation, ‘28
Gavric Herring, Pre-Music Education, ‘28
Charles Ligus, Instrumental Music Education, ‘26
Ronan McGrath, Pathway/Pre-Music Education, ‘28
Zackary Murray, Music Education, ‘28
Jacob Ramirez, Pre-Music Education, ‘28

Bass
Luca Caretto, BMA, ‘25
Galen Coffman, Music Composition/Music Education, ‘29
Gabriel Cozzetto, Vocal Performance, ‘28
Chandler Giesswein, Tourism & Event Management, ‘25
*Aidan Johnston, Pre-Music Education, ‘28
*Colton Ogg, Music Education/Music Composition,
Aaron Roos, MM Choral Conducting, ‘26
Nicholas Trevino, Music Composition, ‘28
Ethan Vandeneynde, Pre-Music Education, ‘27
Issac Washington, Vocal Performance, ‘25

*Choir officers

Soprano
*Kloe Archbold, Pre-Music Education, ‘26
^Kourtney Hill, MM Choral Conducting, ‘25
Brittany Izor, Choral Music Education, ‘26
Mackenzie Jones, Vocal Performance, ‘27
*Aria King, General Music Education, ‘26
Ellie Lewis, Vocal Pedagogy/Vocal Performance, ‘27
Audrey Martin, Vocal Performance, ‘27
Laney Mitchell, Choral Music Education, ‘26
*Madelyn Shepherd, Choral Music Education, ‘26
*Amanda Simpson, Choral Music Education, ‘26
*Cassidy Vanscoy, Choral Music Education, ‘25

Alto
Karli Christ, General Music Education, ‘25
Autumn Crowell, Pre-Music Education, ‘27
Emily Harmon, General Music Education, ‘26
Karla Kunk, Choral Music Education, ‘27
Alexandra Meade, Musical Theater, ‘26
Isabella Olzak, Choral Music Education, ‘26
Julia Posadny, Choral Music Education, ‘25
Phoebe Saboley, Choral Music Education, 25
*Ashlyn Slocum, Choral Music Education, ‘26
*Rue Stammen, Pre-Music Education, ‘27
Annie Swanson, Pre-Music Education, ‘26

Tenor
Noah Beasley, Choral Music Education, ‘26
Malcolm De Souza, Choral Music Education, ‘26
Dominic Carlozzi, Choral Music Education, ‘26
Alexander Ebright, Choral Music Education, ‘26
Dylan Gheen, Pre-Music Education, ‘26
^Alejandro Goenaga, MM Choral Conducting, ‘25
Jake Grafitti, Choral Music Education, ‘27
^Will Hermanowski, MM Choral Conducting, ‘24
Ethan Martinez, Choral Music Education, ‘26
Mike Perry, Choral Music Education, ‘25

Bass
Sean Barry, Film Production, ‘25
Jaylen Donald, Digital Arts, ‘25
Zac Flasch, MM Composition, ‘25
Logan Gutierrez, MM Vocal Performance, ‘26
Dylan Haywood, Political Science, ‘26
Alec Lee, Choral Music Education, ‘27
Zach Ortega, Music Composition, ‘25
^Aaron Roos, MM Choral Conducting, ‘26
Sam Scheele, MM Composition, ‘25
Matthew Steele, Choral Music Education, ‘25
Benjamin Tittl, Music Composition/Musical Theater, ‘27

*Chorale officers

^Graduate Choral Conducting Majors

A Cappella Choir

Hold Fast to Dreams! – Joel Thompson (b. 1988)
Text: Langston Hughes

Emmy Award-winning composer Joel Thompson is a composer, pianist, conductor, and educator from Atlanta. He is best known for the choral work, Seven Last Words of the Unarmed, which won the 2018 American Prize for Choral Composition. Thompson’s works have been performed by the New York Philharmonic, Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Minnesota Orchestra, LA Opera, and many others. Currently a doctoral student at the Yale School of Music, Thompson was also a 2017 post-graduate fellow in Arizona State University’s Ensemble Lab/Projecting All Voices Initiative and a composition fellow at the 2017 Aspen Music Festival and School, where he studied with composers Stephen Hartke and Christopher Theofanidis and won the 2017 Hermitage Prize. 

Hold Fast to Dreams was commissioned in 2016 by the Atlanta Master Chorale and about it Thompson writes: “These words of Langston Hughes have proven their immortality this year in American history, and not in the way one would hope. The 1951 poem, Harlem, still captures the essence of disillusionment in a deceptively simple series of vivid questions. Dreams, a lesser-known poem, charges the reader to “hold fast to dreams” while making plain the misery of a life without them. One poem summarizes the pain of broken promises and the other encourages faith that things will get better because the alternative is absolute despair. Both contain essential truths made evident in this turbulent 2016. When asked to write a piece in response to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech, the possibility of dialogue between these succinct literary gems was an instant inspiration to me. Today’s rampant cynicism casts Hughes’ words in a tired light - these sentiments seem to be the stuff of childhood and naiveté - but my hope is that all who experience this piece will put aside our jaded lenses of fear and choose to be vulnerable and continue to dream.”

Kyrie from “Missa Secunda” – Hans Leo Hassler (1564-1612)
Text: Traditional Kyrie

Hans Leo Hassler is a German composer writing during the late Renaissance and early Baroque periods. As was common during this period he composed music for both sacred and secular events, and, as he was a protestant, for both Roman Catholic and Lutheran liturgies. His style highlights the signature of the Renaissance:  imitative counterpoint through equally independent voice parts, but in a manner that is efficient and succinct. This setting of the Kyrie from the Roman Catholic Mass is in three clear parts delineating the plea for mercy first from "Lord," secondly from "Christ," and again from "Lord." The third part begins similarly to the first with the plaintive descending melodic figure but finishes with a strong exhortation as all parts sing simultaneously in homophony.

Shakespeare Songs Book III – Matthew Harris (b. 1956)
Text: William Shakespeare

American Matthew Harris has a huge catalog of choral music which includes seven collections of songs on famous texts of William Shakespeare. It Was a Lover and His Lass; Sign No More, Ladies; and O Mistress Mine come from Book III and illustrate his compact and extremely well-crafted style of simple contrapuntal effects underneath lovely lyrical melodies. Harris describes them: "Instead of the lively romp found in other settings of this lyric, my 'It was a Lover and His Lass' is a slow gentle idyll of young love in the spring. "The women [here represented by sopranos and altos] in 'Sigh No More, Ladies' sigh (ah, ha) and sing (la, la), though the men tell them not to. But they both come together for a rollicking chorus of 'Hey nonny, nonny.' The last song, 'O Mistress Mine' is a slow, heavenly coda that expands on the lessons of youth and love in the first song.

Der Tanz – Franz Schubert (1797-1828)
Text: Columban Schnitzer

"Der Tanz" by Austrian Romantic composer Franz Schubert is quite literally a dance in triple time based on traditional styles such as the Ländler and Waltz. This short exuberant miniature was likely performed at a home gathering of friends making music, called salons, or aptly, "Schubertiade" (Schubert evening).

Dirait-on – Morten Lauridsen (b. 1943)
Text: Rainer Maria Rilke

Morten Lauridsen was perhaps the most popular living composer at the end of the 20th century in choral music. His sweet and simple "Dirait-on" perfectly encapsulates his unique flowing melodic sound built on a "signature" harmonic cluster that permeates much of his work.  His music is marked by a hyper-espressivo neo-Romanticism featuring great dynamic and tempo permutations.  Though coming from a larger suite of songs about roses on texts by Rilke, "Dirait-on" was his runaway hit.

What Was I Made For? – Jennifer Lucy Cook (b. 1988)
Text: Billie Eilish & FINNEAS

Pop star Billie Eilish got her start in music singing in a choir - the Los Angeles Children's Choir - and frequently discusses how singing with others has influenced and shaped her musical vocabulary and experience. Jennifer Lucy Cook is an American composer and arranger who describes this song: "Barbie may be a toy, but it's incredibly human to wonder about one's purpose. For me, comfort isn't found in discovering exactly what I was made for, but in being okay with the lifelong curiosity of its pursuit. Just when I think I've got it figured out, an upheaval happens and suddenly I'm left wondering again. Those are the times I find solace in returning to the last place I felt connected to purpose: to wherever "I used to float." And so, this arrangement ends where Billie's thoughtful lyrics begin, with a floating quality that might lead us to a bit of lightness before we all begin another cycle of questioning.”

Sail Away – Malcolm Dalglish (b. 1952)
Text: Malcolm Dalglish

Malcolm Dalglish is an Indiana based artist and musician whose work draws on his diverse background in choir, theatre and folk music. A choirboy in the 1960s with The American Boychoir, Malcolm later attended Oberlin College, where he joined a resident theatre troupe and worked with Bill Irwin and Julie Taymore. While a music education student at the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music, he designed and built over sixty hammer dulcimers, which became his signature instrument. Dalglish was a founding member of the popular folk trio Metamora and his folk inspired music has been commissioned by The American Boychoir, The St. Olaf Choir, The Indianapolis Children's Choir and others. Based on the old banjo/fiddle tune "Sail Away Ladies," Sail Away is an exuberant celebration of liberation.

Collegiate Chorale

Dawn and Dusk (Fajar dan Senja) – Ken Steven (b. 1993)
Text: Vocables by Ken Steven

The piece is inspired by this short poem that I wrote.

It was quite night – When a glimpse of light slowly gazed upon the sky
Awakening the sleeping souls – Joyfully singing – Dancing in the ray of light – And slowly
It will descend again from its mighty throne

This piece is an exploration of sounds with the human voice. I intended to capture the magical moments as expressed by the poem itself through the various colors of vocal quality and hand percussion produced by the ensemble.  Based on Indonesian exotic Melayu scale, the music pictures the folk life atmosphere in a vibrant sound experience.  The words have no meaning, rather they are just playful syllables to bring the poem to life.

-Ken Steven

The door – Andrew Maxfield
Text: Poem by Miroslav Holub, translated from Czech by Ian Milner

"Go," says poet Miroslav Holub, "and open the door." Go where? Open which door? To my ears, Holub's playful text is an invitation—maybe even a good-natured dare—for us to open ourselves to the unknown and unfamiliar. Sure, he teases us with some whimsical imagery—maybe there's a magic city or a rummaging dog on the other side of the door—but he leads us to a profound realization: even if "nothing" is there, it's still worth opening the door, if only to let in the breeze. Even though we live in a hyperconnected era that can bring us into contact with just about anyone or anything, it's easy tacitly to dismiss "unfamiliar" as bad. We do it all the time with "othered" people and ways of living, even "other" countries. To the extent that a certain fearful mania grips so many people these days, let's fight back, if for no other reason than our own sanity and joy, by opening the door!  

Also, there's a certain jauntiness in the text. It's fun, it's mysterious, it's as cheerful as it is urgent. I wanted to mirror those qualities in the shifting moods and colors of the music. There are Gospel- and Appalachia-inspired shouty bits and there quiet, pondering, foggy bits. All in all, the theme of "going" and "opening" guided my design decisions. Finally, given the playful spirit of (the English translation of) Holub's text, I gave myself permission to be playful with the sounds of the words themselves, like stretching and contorting the diphthong "eye" (ah-ee) and playing up the fact that the interior "f" of draught/draft (breeze) actually sounds like a draft if you let it!

-Andrew Maxfield

I Will Lift Mine Eyes – Jake Runestad (b. 1986)
Text: Psalm 121

I came across Psalm 121 and found great beauty in the admiration for natural creation linked with a promise of guidance and support from a higher power. I find such peace in the splendor of the natural world, and I wanted to capture that serenity with this piece. For centuries, psalms have inspired and encouraged and I wanted to set this psalm text to music that would allow the meaning of the words to speak freely. I carefully shaped the melodic lines to mimic that of a mountainous landscape and the tone colors to the bold hues of where the hills meet the sky.

- Jake Runestad

My Spirit Sang All Day – Gerald Finzi (1901-1956)
Text: Poem by Robert Bridges

Born in England in 1901, the reclusive and introspective composer Gerald Finzi lived only 55 years, dying before his time from leukemia. During his brief life, he dedicated himself to music. Much of his time was spent composing, attending concerts, lecturing, collecting music, and befriending the likes of Gustav Holst and Ralph Vaughan Williams. His output includes orchestral and choral music as well as many solo songs and essays. He shows a brilliance in the way he sets words by finding the essence of the text without the need for over-embellishment (indeed, much of his vocal music is primarily set syllabically). My Spirit Sang All Day is from a set of seven part-song settings of poetry by Robert Bridges (1844-1930) and is an ecstatic declaration of the joy wrought by love.

- Matthew D. Oltman

Drei geistliche Lieder – Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847)
Text: Charles Broadley
Sung in German

The Drei geistliche Lieder (Three sacred songs) and the Hymne (Hymn) op. 96 are two original versions of the same work. In 1840, at the request of the English poet Charles B. Broadley, Mendelssohn set three of Broadley’s sacred texts for alto solo, choir and organ. With these songs he wanted to match the tone of the English verse anthems. Shortly afterwards, he had these three songs published with a German instead of the English text as Drei geistliche Lieder.

Pulses from Titration – Shara Nova (b. 1974)
Text: Shara Nova

TITRATION is an hour-long choral song cycle composed by Shara Nova which examines difficult emotions like fear, sorrow, disgust or rage through the lens of the nervous system and utilizes body-centered practices that develop one’s capacity to calm oneself when such emotions arise.  In these times of conflict and crisis, how can we feel more, rather than less?

With simple actions like humming, shaking, holding hands or intentional laughter, the song cycle explores ways that we can soothe our nervous systems, foster a sense of safety, and grow in our capacity to connect with each other.

This music is greatly influenced by the Somatic Abolitionist body of work and practices of Resmaa Menakem.  “Somatic Abolitionism is a living embodied Anti-Racism practice and culture building that requires endurance, agility, resource cultivation, stamina, discernment, self and communal discipline cultivation, embodied racial literacy and humility.  These can be built, day by day, through reps.  These communal life and invitational reps will temper and condition your body, your mind, and your soul to hold the charge of race.”   By exposing a person to distress, then taking a pause to calm the body, one learns to pay close attention to the body sensations experienced and when revisiting the traumatic event, a person gradually becomes better able to process the pain. 

Analogizing the healing techniques, the word “titration” is sung throughout the work, appearing in brief episodes which function as a “pause” between the more intensely emotional songs. 

Additional influence for this work comes from polyvagal theory author Deb Dana, as well as practices by Qi-gong teacher Master Chunyi Lin and Laughter Yoga.

“Pulses is the final sung movement of Titration.  It is followed by a movement of extended, intentional laughter.  The middle section references the trauma sung in the sixth movement, “Emotion Wheel.”

-Shara Nova

They Are Mother – Jennifer Lucy Cook (b. 1988)
Text: Jennifer Lucy Cook

When I was working on the words for this piece, I consulted with my friend Reverend Alex Reegan, who is a trans man and interfaith minister, to create a text that embodies the energy of the feminine divine that is present in any gender. I chose to use they/them pronouns, which capture both the nonbinary and the nonsingular mystery and grandeur of the divine creating force, and by doing so, welcomes everyone into the work.

I wanted to explore the many aspects of the divine; pairing a grounded Mother Nature with a joyous playful being who is capable of laughter, a force that is present in the large and small moments, the noise and the silence, and most importantly, the divine creative spark in each of us. That all-inclusive, loving creative spirit shows up for me in the potential for movement (“the ready muscle in the sprinter”), the pleasures of modern life, (“the steady heat lamp in the winter”), and serves as a reminder not to take myself too seriously (“laugh lines around the all-seeing eye”). In identifying a creator this way, I channel these same qualities into my own life and my own identity, and it’s my hope that the audience for “They Are Mother” finds themselves within it too.

- Jennifer Lucy Cook

A Chain is Broken – Dominick DiOrio (b. 1984)
Text: Poem by Khashayar Tonekaboni (pen name Terry Pinaud)
Sung in Persian and English

A Chain is Broken is a musical setting of an original poem, Earth’s Anthem, by Iranian-American author and poet Khashayar Tonekaboni (pen name Terry Pinaud). The poem is a creative reimagining of the poet’s own experience of starting a new life in the United States, after he moved here from Iran to study at Indiana University. In the poem, Tonekaboni writes in both Persian and English, as he illustrates the difficulties associated with finding a new way when he was also gradually learning to understand a new language. As the poem progresses, its initial uncertainty turns to feelings of aspiration, optimism, and joy, even while still recognizing that “with freedom comes a cost.”

The music is also aspirational in its trajectory, moving from the opening murkiness in which a tenor soloist is heard over a foggy confusion of English words to an ever more powerful clarity infused with rhythmic propulsion and drive.

The work was written by DiOrio for NOTUS—the contemporary vocal ensemble at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music—to perform at the 12th World Symposium on Choral Music in Auckland. (Ultimately, the premiere was postponed due to the coronavirus.) The commissioning of the music and the text were both made possible with support from the Indiana University New Frontiers in the Arts and Humanities Extraordinary Opportunity program.

-Dominick DiOrio

True Colors – arr. Matthew Brown
Text: Billy Steinberg and Tom Kelly

Originally performed by Cyndi Lauper in 1986, “True Colors” has become a widely recognized song around the world. Billy Steinberg originally wrote the song about his mother, but it connected with people in a very personal way and has since become an anthem for many. In various interviews, Lauper elaborated that the song had resonated with her because of the recent death of her friend, Gregory Natal from HIV/AIDS. Years later, Lauper co-founded the True Colors Fund, a non-profit organization dedicated to eradicating LGBTQ+ youth homelessness. On December 13, 2022, Lauper performed the song at the ceremony where President Joe Biden signed the Respect for Marriage Act into law. Matthew Brown’s arrangement sets the powerful and moving text beautifully, allowing the comfort and light the song provides to continue to shine.

Hold On! - Stacey Gibbs (b. 1962)
Text: Traditional Spiritual

Stacey Gibbs wants to “bring life” to the spiritual for use in the concert hall. This arrangement confirms why his arrangements are so popular: the rhythms and harmonies are fun to sing and he builds things up to a rousing finish. This arrangement reminds us to “keep your hand on the plow as you climb higher and higher...just hold on.”