48th Season
Anne Watson Born, Music Director
Special thanks to our Premier Sponsors
Gervais Ford, Middlesex Savings Bank, and XtremeDev
Table of Contents
Welcome to the beautiful Groton Hill Music Center! The Nashoba Valley Chorale is thrilled to be performing here today, and we are especially happy to be working with musicians from the Vista Philharmonic Orchestra, and with our outstanding soloists: Christòpheren Nomura, Brianna J. Robinson, and Fred C. VanNess Jr. We are very grateful to Groton Hill Music Center for this opportunity and for the support we have received from the Groton Hill staff.
Today’s program includes music from 1936, 1989/1997, and 2020 — this is music by composers of different eras and different backgrounds. All of these works, though, are connected by text, musical craft, and expression. The texts are serious: they illustrate human anguish, grief, and fear, but they show as well our resilience and faith. Each composer is adept at writing choral-orchestral works: you will hear a variety of timbres, harmonies, and textures, all employed in different relationships between the choir and the orchestra. Each work presents us with a different sonic world which is an expressive response to the poetry being sung. It has been a wonderful process for the Chorale to prepare this program.
We will finish planning our 2024–2025 season later this spring, but here are a couple of upcoming events: in November we will collaborate again with the Cambridge Symphony Orchestra, Cynthia Woods, Music Director, and the Choral Ensembles of UMass Lowell, Jonathan Richter, Conductor. We will sing in The Planets by Gustav Holst and reprise the Dona Nobis Pacem by Ralph Vaughan Williams. The Chorale will also sing in the holiday concerts series presented by the North Worcester County Symphony Orchestra, Jared Bloch, Music Director, and (our favorite holiday tradition!) with the Worcester Youth Orchestra, Jonathan Colby, Music Director.
Our rehearsals for next season will begin on Monday, September 9, 2024 at Acton Congregational Church. We welcome all vaccinated singers. Please go to www.nvcsings.org for more information.
We also are always looking for those persons who love choral music and love the Chorale and who may want to help out by serving — on the Board, on a committee, or by helping with a special project. Please contact us via our website, www.nvcsings.org or by phone (978-540-0088) if you’d like to volunteer.
Thank you for supporting the Chorale and attending our concerts. We feel doubly fortunate to be able to learn such glorious music in rehearsal and to present it to you in performance.
Anne Watson Born
This program is supported in part by grants from the local cultural councils of Carlisle, Concord, Littleton, Shirley, and Westford, local agencies which are supported by the Mass Cultural Council, a state agency.
I Will Lift Up Mine Eyes
Adolphus Hailstork (b. 1941)
Mr. VanNess
1. I Will Lift Up Mine Eyes
2. How Long?
3. The Lord Is My Shepherd, Alleluia
Far Past War
Augusta Read Thomas (b. 1964)
Dona Nobis Pacem
R. Vaughan Williams (1872–1958)
I. Dona Nobis Pacem
Ms. Robinson
II. Beat! Beat! Drums!
III. Reconciliation
Ms. Robinson, Mr. Nomura
IV. Dirge For Two Veterans
V. The Angel of Death
Ms. Robinson, Mr. Nomura
VI. O Man Greatly Beloved
Ms. Robinson, Mr. Nomura
California Artists Management is the exclusive North American representative for Mr. Nomura.
Dona Nobis Pacem is licensed through B&H Music Publishing Inc. d/b/a Boosey & Hawkes, Sole Agent in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico for Oxford University Press, publisher and copyright owner.
Program Notes
I Will Lift Up Mine Eyes
We open today’s program with I Will Lift Up Mine Eyes, a cantata for tenor soloist, chorus and orchestra, by Adolphus Cunningham Hailstork III. Dr. Hailstork (b. 1941) was born in Rochester, NY and grew up in Albany, where he studied violin, piano, organ and voice. He holds degrees from the Manhattan School of Music and Michigan State University. He taught for many years at Norfolk State University and Old Dominion University, both in Norfolk, VA; he currently lives and composes in Virginia Beach, VA. (Wikipedia).
I Will Lift Up Mine Eyes was composed in 1989 and revised in 1996 to honor the memory of Undine Smith Moore, the “Dean of Black Women Composers.” It is in three parts, each with its characteristic sound, with the whole being unified by the melodic theme of the opening movement.
The first movement is in a call-and-response form, with the choir responding to the tenor soloist; the orchestral accompaniment is harmonically dense and rhythmically assertive. Music nerds: you will hear throughout the motive of a rising 2nd and descending 4th.
The second movement is contrasting, with a quiet, pared down texture and a keening melody sung by the choir. There are some measures of improvisation, for the tenor soloist and two choir members, before the choir intones the melody from the opening movement (“I will lift up mine eyes”). The flute at the end of this movement plays the rising 2nd-falling 4th motif as the orchestra fades out on an A minor chord.
The final movement begins in A major, very softly, and the choir sings a prayerful “Alleluia.” This melody will return as a triumphant statement later in the movement, following a gospel-style middle section (“Yea, though I walk”) and the return of the “I will lift up mine eyes” melody. The work ends softly, with the tenor soloist again soaring above the choir as he sings a final “Alleluia.”
Far Past War (2020) is a composition for chorus and orchestra by Augusta Read Thomas. The text is a combination of two poems by the composer’s sister, Cammy Thomas. The composer says Far Past War is “about bringing peace through nature, both to the self and to the world.”
Augusta Read Thomas (born April 24, 1964) is an American composer and University Professor of Composition in the Department of Music at the University of Chicago, where she is also director of the Chicago Center for Contemporary Composition. (Wikipedia) Thomas's music avoids traditional models, such as sonata form, and traditional styles, such as folk song. One can hear the influence of jazz as well as that of composers such as Luciano Berio in her use of improvisatory-sounding rhythms and colorful harmonies. (classicalconnect.com)
After growing up on Long Island, Cammy Thomas was educated primarily in California, receiving her BA and PhD from the University of California, Berkeley, and her MA from San Francisco State University. She wrote her PhD dissertation on the poetry of Alfred, Lord Tennyson. An MFA followed, from the MFA Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College. She has taught literature and creative writing for many years, and lives in Bolton, Massachusetts.
Of Far Past War, the composer writes:
Composing for voice is a passion for me, and as a result the largest part of my catalogue is music for voice. The human voice — possibly the most subtle, complex, and fragile yet forceful carrier of musical ideas and meanings — has always been an inspiration for my musical thinking. I strive for craft, clarity, and passion. The carefully sculpted music and poems of Far Past War develop a labyrinth of musical interrelationships and connections that showcase the choir and musicians in a virtuosic display of their emotional palette, strength, clarity, and majesty. The opportunity to collaborate with my sister, Cammy Thomas, has been a highlight of my life. Music’s eternal quality is its capacity for transformation and renewal. Together, we have created a work that celebrates the unsurpassed power of nature, and its potential to move us toward peace. This piece is dedicated with admiration and gratitude to the Cathedral Choral Society [the commissioning ensemble], and to our grandmother, Dorothy Quincy Read Thomas, who marched for women's suffrage.
Dona Nobis Pacem
Ralph Vaughan Williams was born at Down Ampney, Gloucestershire, England, on 12 October 1872 and died in London on 26 August 1958.
In addition to ten stage works and more than thirty orchestral compositions (including nine symphonies, two of which employ chorus), Vaughan Williams composed thirty-nine choral/orchestral works, thirty-two choral pieces scored a cappella or with keyboard accompaniment, fourteen hymns, thirty-five carols, and twenty-nine folk song arrangements. The choral/orchestral works include three major compositions set to texts by Walt Whitman, whose poetry was so meaningful to Vaughan Williams that he carried a pocket edition of Leaves of Grass with him for most of his life…Dona Nobis Pacem (1936) combines biblical and other texts with Whitman’s “Beat! Beat! Drums,” “Reconciliation,” and “Dirge for Two Veterans” from Drum Taps. This…work is especially important in the development of choral music in the Modern era in that it combines traditional Latin liturgical texts with accordant secular poetry. (Dennis Shrock, Choral Repertoire)
The cantata Dona Nobis Pacem was composed in 1936, for the Huddersfield Choral Society’s 100th anniversary. Vaughan Williams was concerned about the state of world affairs at the time: the Spanish Civil War, the invasion by Hitler into the Rhineland, Mussolini’s invasion of Ethiopia. As one who had served in World War I — even though he was 42 years old and had flat feet, Vaughan Williams signed up and served in the war as an ambulance orderly — the composer had strong feelings about the need to avoid another world war. “…as Simon Heffer, Vaughan Williams’ biographer, has said of Dona Nobis Pacem, his ‘main inspiration is drawn not from the soil of England, but from the whole world going mad around him.’” (Oxford University Press)
The movements are attacca — there is no break or pause between them.
I Agnus Dei: “Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, grant us peace.” The soprano soloist begins pianissimo, then cries out, forte, at “Dona,” her voice fading on the second syllable; this is echoed by the chorus. The word “pacem” is sung softly by the choir, as in a prayer, until their final cry, which begins fortissimo.
As the movement comes to a close, listen for the timpani, tenor drum, and low strings as they begin a military rhythm underneath the soprano’s exhausted final pleading.
II Beat! Beat! Drums! is the first of the three Whitman poems. The trumpets and horns play a martial tune full of open fifths and chromatic descending gestures; it is a half step up from the rhythmic percussion and low strings, making a highly dissonant opening to the movement. The chorus erupts, their chromatic lines illustrating the word “blow.” It is a piece that takes off from the beginning and only calms down at the words “Mind not the timid – mind not the weeper or prayer.” This is followed by a return to the inexorable business of war (“So strong you thump O terrible drums”).
The transition to the third movement is genius: the brass motive at full blast, then abruptly piano, while the low strings’ rhythms relax into triplets and the violins intone a B — a moment out of time, leading us into the third movement.
III Reconciliation. We hear the baritone soloist for the first time. “The music that Vaughan Williams composed is heartbreaking in its beauty, a shimmering E minor clouded over with shifting rhythms.” (Honey Meconi) The text combines exquisite imagery (“the hands of the sisters”) and straightforward description (“I look where he lies…”).
The soprano soloist makes a brief, somewhat disturbing appearance. She asks again for peace, haltingly, in almost gasped phrases, ending with a pitch foreign to the key of “Reconciliation.” The uncertainty is highlighted by the timpani beginning the fourth movement on a note dissonant to hers.
IV Dirge for Two Veterans. This movement was first composed in 1911, but not published. The same Whitman poem was set by Gustav Holst and Charles Wood, and it could be that Vaughan Williams kept his setting out of circulation out of deference to these two friends of his. In any case, it became the starting point for Dona Nobis Pacem. It opens with the military drums with a woodwind and brass chorale over them; this movement has the longest purely orchestral passages in the whole work. The chorus enters, describing the scene: a new-made grave seen at dusk, the moon rising. The music builds as the narrator hears “the sound of coming full-keyed bugles” and “the great drums pounding.” One of the most heartbreaking moments of the work occurs at the lines “Two veterans, son and father,” where we hear the two men, represented by the choir in duets, fall, followed by the choir singing in unison, “And the double grave awaits them.” After another extended orchestral passage comes an ethereal, quiet depiction of the “sorrowful vast phantom” moon. The movement closes with Whitman’s sublime words, “And my heart, O my soldiers, my veterans, My heart gives you love.”
The closing orchestral passage is a reprise of previous material, until the final measures, when an insistent timpani leads us into an 1855 speech from the British House of Commons.
V The Angel of Death. The speech, by John Bright, was a denunciation of the Crimean War. It references the story in Exodus, where the Israelites painted their door posts and beams (lintels) with blood to spare their first-born children. After the cry for peace by the chorus and soprano soloist, Vaughan Williams sets text from Jeremiah 8 in a canon (“We looked for peace, but no good came”). The music builds to a plea for a cure to war (“Is there no balm in Gilead?”) and the voices drop back to a hopeless piano at the end.
Vaughan Williams wastes no time (only two measures) transitioning to the final movement, a powerful expression of hope.
VI O man greatly beloved. The baritone soloist returns with a recitative directing us to “be strong…And in this place will I give peace.” The main theme of this movement is in the basses; you will hear them sing the main melody three times. The rest of the choir’s music entwines around this theme until all the voices come together at “For as the new heavens and the new earth.” There’s a marvelous meter change, all the orchestral bells and whistles come together at “Glory to God in the highest,” and for the final time, the basses roar out the theme (“Glory to God”). An even more amazing moment comes with another meter change when the tempo slows and the choir, a cappella, sings “Good will toward men” three times, at which point the soprano returns, pianissimo, singing “Dona nobis pacem.” Vaughan Williams at this point “moves us from the euphoria of a joyous world at peace back to reality….a reminder of the work yet to be done to avert war.” (Scott Hochstetler)
Texts
I Will Lift Up Mine Eyes
1. I Will Lift Up Mine Eyes Psalm 121
I will lift up mine eyes to the hills, from whence cometh my help.
My help cometh from the Lord, maker of heaven and earth.
He will not suffer thy foot to be moved: He that keepeth thee will not slumber nor sleep.
The sun will not smite thee by day, nor the moon by night.
The Lord shall preserve thee from evil: the Lord shall preserve thy soul.
2. How Long? Psalm 13
How long, O Lord? How long?
How long, O Lord, will Thou forget me? How long will Thou hide Thy face from me?
How long? How long must I suffer anguish in my soul and grief in my heart?
How long, O Lord? Look now and answer me, O Lord.
Give light, O Lord, give light to my eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death.
I will lift up mine eyes to the hills from whence cometh my help.
3. The Lord Is My Shepherd, Alleluia Psalm 23
Alleluia.
The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside still waters.
He restoreth my soul:
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.
Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.
Alleluia.
Far Past War
Cammy Thomas
1. In Love with the Sun
I’m in love with the sun
ave ave
early and late
I fly at the sky
the sun’s rays
in my eye
ave ave
I can’t stare
straight at my desire
only sideways
I go round and round
the source of all
the brightest way
ave ave
2. Far Past War
ah sun
oh moon
we crave peace
heron standing in the lake
say to the moon
no more war
no war
we crave
great blue heron
wide her veil of wings
glide down night
sail over sun
drop far
past war
take us
take us too
Dona Nobis Pacem
I
Agnus Dei qui tollis peccata mundi
Dona nobis pacem
Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world,
Grant us peace.
II
Beat! beat! drums! – blow! bugles! blow!
Through the windows – through the doors – burst like a ruthless force,
Into the solemn church, and scatter the congregation,
Into the school where the scholar is studying;
Leave not the bridegroom quiet – no happiness must he have now with his bride,
Nor the peaceful farmer any peace, ploughing his field, or gathering in his grain
So fierce you whirr and pound you drums – so shrill you bugles blow.
Beat! beat! drums! – blow! bugles! blow!
Over the traffic of cities – over the rumble of wheels in the streets;
Are beds prepared for the sleepers at night in the houses? No sleepers must sleep in those beds,
No bargainers’ bargains by day – would they continue?
Would the talkers be talking? would the singer attempt to sing?
Then rattle quicker, heavier drums – you bugles wilder blow.
Beat! beat! drums! – blow! bugles! blow!
Make no parley – stop for no expostulation,
Mind not the timid – mind not the weeper or prayer;
Mind not the old man beseeching the young man;
Let not the child's voice be heard, nor the mother's entreaties;
Make even the trestles to shake the dead where they lie awaiting the hearses,
So strong you thump O terrible drums – so loud you bugles blow.
—Walt Whitman
III Reconciliation
Word over all, beautiful as the sky,
Beautiful that war and all its deeds of carnage must in time be utterly lost,
That the hands of the sisters Death and Night incessantly, softly, wash again and ever again this soiled world;
For my enemy is dead, a man divine as myself is dead,
I look where he lies white-faced and still in the coffin – I draw near,
Bend down and touch lightly with my lips the white face in the coffin.
—Walt Whitman
IV Dirge for Two Veterans
The last sunbeam
Lightly falls from the finished Sabbath,
On the pavement here, and there beyond it is looking
Down a new-made double grave.
Lo, the moon ascending,
Up from the east the silvery round moon,
Beautiful over the house-tops, ghastly, phantom moon,
Immense and silent moon.
I see a sad procession,
And I hear the sound of coming full-keyed bugles,
All the channels of the city streets they’re flooding
As with voices and with tears.
I hear the great drums pounding,
And the small drums steady whirring,
And every blow of the great convulsive drums
Strikes me through and through.
For the son is brought with the father,
In the foremost ranks of the fierce assault they fell,
Two veterans, son and father, dropped together,
And the double grave awaits them.
Now nearer blow the bugles,
And the drums strike more convulsive,
And the daylight o’er the pavement quite has faded,
And the strong dead-march enwraps me.
In the eastern sky up-buoying,
The sorrowful vast phantom moves illumined,
’Tis some mother’s large transparent face,
In heaven brighter growing.
O strong dead-march you please me!
O moon immense with your silvery face you soothe me!
O my soldiers twain! O my veterans passing to burial!
What I have I also give you.
The moon gives you light,
And the bugles and the drums give you music,
And my heart, O my soldiers, my veterans,
My heart gives you love.
—Walt Whitman
V
The Angel of Death has been abroad throughout the land; you may almost hear the beating of his wings. There is no one as of old..... to sprinkle with blood the lintel and the two side-posts of our doors, that he may spare and pass on.
—John Bright
Dona nobis pacem
Grant us peace.
We looked for peace, but no good came; and for a time of health, and behold trouble!
The snorting of his horses was heard from Dan; the whole land trembled at the sound of the neighing of his strong ones; for they are come, and have devoured the land..... and those that dwell therein.....
The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved....
Is there no balm in Gilead?; is there no physician there? Why then is not the health of the daughter of my people recovered?
—Jeremiah VIII. 15-22
VI
‘O man greatly beloved, fear not, peace be unto thee, be strong, yea, be strong.’
—Daniel X. 19
‘The glory of this latter house shall be greater than of the former.... and in this place will I give peace.’
—Haggai II. 9
‘Nation shall not lift up a sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.
And none shall make them afraid, neither the sword go through their land.
Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other.
Truth shall spring out of the earth, and righteousness shall look down from heaven.
Open to me the gates of righteousness, I will go into them.
Let all the nations be gathered together, and let the people be assembled; and let them hear, and say, it is the truth.
And it shall come, that I will gather all nations and tongues.
And they shall come and see my glory. And I will set a sign among them, and they shall declare my glory among the nations.
For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before me, so shall your seed and your name remain for ever.’
Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good-will toward men.
—(Adapted from Micah iv. 3, Leviticus xxvi. 6, Psalms lxxxv. 10, and cxviii. 19,
Isaiah xliii. 9, and lxvi. 18-22, and Luke ii. 14)
Dona nobis pacem
Grant us peace.
Anne Watson Born, music director, is thrilled to be in her eighteenth season with the Nashoba Valley Chorale. Ms. Watson Born has been a choral conductor and teacher in the Boston area for many years. She is the Director of Music Ministry at the First Unitarian Universalist Society in Newton and is a credentialed UU music leader.
Ms. Watson Born was an Assistant Professor at Bristol Community College for five years; while there she was the voice coach, composer, and sound designer for the Bristol Community College Theatre Repertory Company. In that capacity she has been the music director for productions of Threepenny Opera, Marat/Sade, and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (quite the combination). She has composed original music and/or improvised live music for several theatre productions, including King Stag, Treasure Island, The Tempest, Black Elk Speaks, Fireflies, The Bacchae, Alice in Wonderland, and Aladdin. She was the Music Director of the Brookline Chorus for nine years and taught at the Brookline Music School for many years. She was the founding Artistic Director of the Women’s Chorus of Boston and the Avenue of the Arts Chorale and in 2002 conducted the Boston-area performance of the Rolling Requiem to commemorate the tragedy of September 11.
Ms. Watson Born holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Music from University of the Pacific in Stockton, California, where she studied conducting with William Dehning. She moved to Boston and obtained a Master’s degree in Choral Conducting from New England Conservatory, where her principal teacher was Lorna Cooke DeVaron. She has also studied conducting with Helmuth Rilling and Murry Sidlin, composition with John Heiss and Andrew Imbrie, and voice with Jeanne Segal and Michael Strauss. She lives in Jamaica Plain with her husband and their sato, and visits her daughter in Brooklyn, NY as often as possible.
Shawn McCann, collaborative pianist, has been active in the area as an accompanist and solo performer on piano and organ for over 35 years. He is currently in his 13th consecutive year with the Nashoba Valley Chorale, having previously worked with the group for several years in the late 1990s. Shawn is also a staff accompanist/ collaborative pianist at Groton Hill Music Center. In addition to his work as an accompanist, Shawn is the Director of Music Ministries at First Parish Church of Groton, is a credentialed UU music leader and is a past president of the Association for UU Music Ministries.
Shawn received his Bachelor of Music degrees in Piano Performance and in Music Theory / Composition from the University of Lowell where he studied under Inge Lindblad and Juanita Tsu. He lives in Pepperell, MA with his wife, Monica.
Brianna J Robinson, soprano, is a native of Ravenna, Ohio. She is a former Jane and Steven Akin Emerging Artist with Boston Lyric Opera where she covered and performed roles such as Lucy in Gregory Spears’ Fellow Travelers, Mimi (cover) in Puccini’s La Boheme, Lena in Ana Solokovic’s Svabda and covered several roles in Paul Ruders’ The Handmaid’s Tale. She recently stepped on stage as Julie in Rhiannon Giddens and Michael Abels’ 2023 Pulitzer Prize-winning opera, Omar.
In the 2023-2024 season, Ms. Robinson makes her Carnegie Hall debut with The Cecilia Chorus of NY in Ralph Vaughan Williams’ Dona nobis pacem. She also returned to Boston Lyric Opera as Leontine in Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-George’s The Anonymous Lover. Last season, she made multiple concert debuts with several orchestras, including the Akron Symphony Orchestra, Claflin Hill Symphony Orchestra/New World Chorale, and the Handel and Haydn Society in the powerful performances of ‘Crossing the Deep’. Ms. Robinson was named a finalist in the Benjamin Matthews Vocal Competition with Opera Ebony, awarded first prize at the 6th Getting to Carnegie Competition and recently was selected as a District Winner of the Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition. She has participated in international programs including the Berlin Opera Academy and Opernfest Prague. She made her international debut in Ruse, Bulgaria in 2021 creating the role of Ophelia in the world premiere of Joseph Summer’s Hamlet.
Ms. Robinson is a proud graduate of Ohio Wesleyan University and the Eastman School of Music.
Fred C. VanNess, Jr., tenor, performs a wide variety of repertoire on stages across New England. Praised for his “superb talent” and “gorgeous vocals,” Mr. VanNess has appeared as Paris in Boston Lyric Opera’s production of Romeo and Juliette, Russell Davenport in Dan Shore’s acclaimed opera Freedom Ride presented in a co-production by MASSOpera and Chicago Opera Theater and numerous other productions throughout New England. Mr. VanNess is currently in his second year as a Steven Akin Emerging Artists with Boston Lyric Opera. Last season Mr. VanNess performed the roles of Amadou and covered the title role of Omar in Rhiannon Giddens and Michael Abels new opera Omar in a new co-production by Boston Lyric Opera with Spoleto Festival USA, L.A. Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago and San Francisco Opera. Mr. VanNess holds degrees from The Longy School of Music of Bard College, Louisiana State University and McNeese State University.
Christòpheren Nomura, baritone, has earned a prominent place on the operatic, concert and recital stages, appearing with many of the leading North American orchestras, in wide-ranging repertoire. He has become a regular guest artist with a number of orchestras including the Pacific Symphony Orchestra under Carl St. Clair, the North Carolina Symphony with Grant Llewellyn and the National Philharmonic. In 2006 he sang the title role in the premiere of Philip Glass’ The Passion of Rama Krishna for the Pacific Symphony’s inaugural concerts in Segerstrom Concert Hall, reprised and recorded there in 2011.
A noted Bach and early music specialist, Christòpheren Nomura has been a frequent performer with the Bach Choir of Bethlehem, Oregon Bach Festival, Carmel Bach Festival, Music of the Baroque, Baldwin-Wallace Bach Festival, Handel & Haydn Society, Boston Early Music Festival, Boston Baroque and the Berkshire Choral Festival. In the realm of opera, Mr. Nomura is a noted Mozartean, known for his portrayals of Don Giovanni, Papageno in The Magic Flute, the Count in Le nozze di Figaro and Guglielmo in Cosi fan tutte. Known for his deep commitment to the art of the recital, he has given more than 250 recitals throughout North America, Europe, Asia, South America and Africa. He was Artist-In-Residence with San Francisco Performances for four seasons. Among many other notable performances, Mr. Nomura made his Broadway debut in 2015 in Allegiance, the musical with George Takei and Lea Salonga. He was invited to sing Bernstein’s Mass at the Vatican for the “Jubilee Year,” in 2000 performing before an audience of 15,000 in the Salla Nervi, simulcast to some 200,000 people in Vatican Square.
Mr. Nomura has been the recipient of numerous awards and distinctions including a four-year Fulbright Grant to study with Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Hermann Prey and Gérard Souzay. He was winner of the Young Concert Artists International Auditions as well as the Naumburg, United States Information Agency Music Ambassadors and the Marilyn Horne Foundation competitions. He holds a Masters degree and Artists Diploma from the New England Conservatory of Music.
Members of the Vista Philharmonic Orchestra
Violin I
*Alice Hallstrom
Shuang Yang
Jane Dimitry
Stuart Schulman
Cindy Cummings
Stacey Alden
Caxton Jones
Nicki Payne
Violin II
*Stanley Silverman
Todd Hamelin
Laura Papandrea
Susan Turcotte-Gavriel
Caterina Yetto
Ana Maria LaPointe
Viola
*Peter Sulski
Darcy Montaldi
Jennifer Tanzer
Dorcas McCall
Rebecca Hallowell
Caroline Drozdiak
Cello
*Young Sook Lee
Priscilla Chew
Nathaniel Lathrop
George Hughen
Miguel Vasquez
Bass
*Kevin Green
Robb Aistrup
Justin McCarty
Flute
*Jessica Lizak
Caitlyn Schmidt
Grace Helmke
Oboe
*Mary Cicconetti
Ben Fox
Clarinet
*Bill Kirkley
Margo McGowan
Bassoon
*Andy Flurer
Isaac Erb
Susannah Telsey
Horn
*Nick Auer
Nancy Hudgins
Neil Godwin
Laura Crook Brisson
Trumpet
*Mark Emery
Rich Given
Trombone
*Peter Cirelli
Alexei Doohovskoy
Donald Robinson
Tuba
*Michael Stephan
Timpani
*Matt Sharrock
Percussion
*Michael Ambroszewski
Aaron Trant
Bill Manley
Harp
*Maria Rindenello-Spraker
Organ
* Shawn McCann
*Principal
Librarian: Kate Weiss
Nashoba Valley Chorale
Soprano
Elizabeth Auld
Sarah Browne
Diana Chabot
Julie Corenzwit
Mary Havlicek Cornacchia
Sylvia Degrado
* Kathryn Denney
Rachele Emanouil
Tamasin Foote
Susan Hill
Natalie Jensen
Kendra Kratkiewicz
Alida Lupsiewicz
Joy Madden
* Lora Madonia
Keiko Nakagawa
Fredrica Phillips
Maureen Robertson
Alison Barrows Ronn
Sherry Ryder
* Pamela Schweppe
† Melinda Stewart
Ellyson Stout
Aliyah Teeter
Brenda Troup
Candyce Wainwright
Charlotte Whatley
Chen Yan
Alto
Pam Aldred
Pamela Colt
Elizabeth Copley
Wendy Cowen
Heather Davis
Behvin DeHerrera
Kate Dennison
Karen Emerson
† Ashley Farmer
Mary Beth Fletcher
Hannah Greene
Marge Hamel
Ruth Lyddy
Anna Mayor
Rita Mckinley
Carol Miller
Patricia Oliver-Shaffer
Kimberly Parker
Karen Pokross
Luana Read
Kathie Renzhofer
Pamela Resor
Kathy Romberg
Nancy B. Stephens
Debra Strick
Priscilla Swain
Allison Syphus
Erica Tamlyn
Sharla Tracy
Natasha Westland
Tenor
Robert Barney
Jody Doughty
Paul Garver
Jim Kay
Philip Lafollette
Fausto Miro
Erin Monroe
Sam Pilato
Ernie Preisig
Tom Ryder
* Demitri Sampas
Arthur Schintzel
Todd Shilhanek
Tony Simollardes
Robert Tuttle
Bass
Charles M. Bliss Jr.
* Timothy Butler
Douglas Dalrymple
Andrew Fletcher
Bob Goldsmith
Paul Harter
Yigal Hochberg
William James Hoermann
Richard Hussong
Bernie Kirstein
Dane Krampitz
Jim Luebke
Thomas Macy
Michael Manugian
Griff Resor
David Schlier
Jonathan Stevens
David Wolf
* rehearsal soloists
† Hailstork soloists
2023–2024 Nashoba Valley Chorale
Officers and Volunteers (link)
Donors and Supporters
The Nashoba Valley Chorale wishes to thank the following individuals, organizations, and companies for their generous support.
$1,000 and Over
Massachusetts Cultural Council
North Worcester County Symphony Orchestra
Kathy Romberg
Melinda Stewart & Richard Hussong
$500 to $999
Philip LaFollette
Ruth Lyddy
Kathie & Martin Renzhofer
Nancy Stephens
Worcester Youth Orchestras, Inc
$100 to $499
Robert Adams
Deborah Baldwin
Edith Baxter
Camilla C. Blackman
Randall Blanchard
Chip Bliss
Anne Watson Born
Denise Burns
Jonathan Colby
Julie Corenzwit
Douglas Dalrymple
Holly Darzen
Tamasin Foote
Harry Garnett
Robert Grappel
David Grubbs
Margaretanne Hamel
Deborah Hamilton
Mary & Phil Hankins
Paul & Geraldine Harter
Susan Hill
Jin Hong
Cam Huff
Christine M Karnes
Bernie Kirstein
Costas Kitsos
Kendra & Gary Kratkiewicz
Kristina Leclaire
Andrew Lewis
Bea Alice Loos
Michael & Aleta Manugian
Midnight Tango Fund
Susan Mitchell-Hardt
Jeanne Ayers Morette
Brian Moseley
Robert Norton
Pageflex, Inc
Kim Parker
Fredrica Phillips
Ernest Preisig
Jane Puffer
Pam & Griffith Resor
Catherine Rowden
Sherry & Tom Ryder
Arthur Schintzel, Jr
Anthony Simollardes
Cheryl Stanton
Priscilla Stephens
Erica Tamlyn
Sarah and John Terrey
Candyce Wainwright
Barbara Watson
Sarah Watson
Anne E Weber
Chen Yan
Up to $100
Annemarie Altman
Gail Amsler
Kim Buchheit
Margaret Burt
Philip Caruso
Diana Chabot
Linda & John Dacey
Michael David
Heather Davis
Sylvia Degrado
Alicia Deschenes
Noah Doyle
Janet Drake
Bernard Farrell
Sheila Flood
Anne Fortier
Gardens Buffalo Niagara
Chris & Mick Grzonka
Chip Highfield
William Hoermann
Bradley Hubbell
Zouhair Issa
Patricia Keane
Suzanne Knight & Dean Sullender
Knox Real Estate Team
Dane Krampitz
Rose Latto
Barbara A Leary
Michael Luby
Lora Madonia
Nancy Maldari
Honor McClellan
Sally Merrill
Barbara Murray
Okan Okutgen
Catherine Parsi
Karen Pokross
Jill Queally
Thomas Ruggles
Pamela Schweppe
Nola Sheffer
Todd Shilhanek
Debra Strick
Maureen Sullivan
Sandra Tobies
Robert Tuttle
Anne Umphrey
Joey Vigeant
Celeste Wells
Nancy Woodle
Central Massachusetts Choral Consortium
www.MassChoral.org
This group is a member of the Central Massachusetts Choral Consortium, whose purpose is to promote choral activities throughout the Central Massachusetts region through public awareness and performance. Please see the website listed above to learn more and to find out about choral events scheduled for this season.
Member groups currently include:
Acton Community Chorus, Lisa Cooper, Director
Assabet Valley Mastersingers, Dr. Robert P. Eaton, Artistic Director
Greater Gardner Community Choir, Diane Cushing, Music Director
Master Singers of Worcester, Ed Tyler, Artistic Director
Nashoba Valley Chorale, Anne Watson Born, Music Director
Salisbury Singers, Bradford T. Dumont, Music Director
Shir Joy, Nan AK Gibbons, Director
Sounds of Stow Chorus & Orchestra, Barbara Jones, Artistic Director
Westford Chorus, Jim Barkovic, Music Director
Worcester Chorus, Christopher Shepard, Artistic Director
GREATER
BOSTON
CHORAL
CONSORTIUM
Find more choral concerts near you!
We are a proud member of the Greater Boston Choral Consortium, a cooperative association of diverse choral groups in Boston and the surrounding areas.
View the digital concert calendar: