Boston Choral Ensemble
Katherine Chan, Artistic Director
Leona Cheung, Collaborative Pianist
Soloists:
Elizabeth Eschen, mezzo-soprano
Craig Juricka, baritone
Program
There Is Sweet Music by Edward Elgar (1857–1934)
Text by Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809–1892)
[text]
You Have a Name and a Place by Lansing McLoskey
Texts by Kate Thomas (1871–1950), Timothy Liu (b. 1965), Kimberly Burnham (b. 1957), Carol Lynn Pearson (b. 1939), and Kelly Miller
Song
Morning
Anna Schwartzberg, sopranoa name
[texts]
My Flame the Song by Kim André Arnesen (b. 1980)
Text by Euan Tait (b. 1968)
Leona Cheung, Piano
[text]
This Is How You Love by Jocelyn Hagen and Timothy C. Takach
Elizabeth Eschen, mezzo-soprano
Craig Juricka, baritone
Vow
Disclosure #1
3:29 a.m.
the love song of empty spaces
Disclosure #2
Hungry
Disclosure #3
Endurance
Disclosure #4
needle & thread
Love/Light
Disclosure #5
Anniversary
[texts]
O Love by Elaine Hagenberg
Text by George Matheson (1842–1906)
Leona Cheung, Piano
[text]
June Jasmine Taiwanese folk song
Arranged by Saunder Choi
Leona Cheung, Piano
[text]
Good Night, Dear Heart by Dan Forrest
Text by Robert Richardson (1850–1901) and Mark Twain (1835–1910)
Leona Cheung, Piano
[text]
True Colors by Billy Steinberg and Tom Kelly
Arranged by Saunder Choi
Julia Hanna and Dan Shaw, soloists
[text]
Performers
Katherine Chan, Artistic Director
Australian conductor, Katherine Chan, is known for her energy and enthusiasm on the podium. As Director of Choral Activities and Associate Teaching Professor of music at Northeastern University, Chan conducts the Northeastern University Choral Society Chorus, Chamber Singers, and Mosaic Advance Treble Ensemble. A sought-after choral clinician, Chan also serves as the ACDA East Region Collegiate Repertoire and Resource (R&R) Chair.
Chan’s unique blend of talent and energy has also been on display at the numerous prestigious international festivals in which she’s been privileged to participate. In 2010, Chan was a presenter at the Australia National Choral Association's Choralfest and in the same year, was awarded the Sydney Symposium Choral Foundation’s Fifth Choral Conducting Scholarship. Chan has been a conducting scholar with Maestro Helmuth Rilling at the Oregon Bach Festival (2011), Taipei Bach Festival (2012), Hong Kong SingFest (2012). In 2015, she was invited to conduct at the national conductor master class with John Nelson at American Choral Directors Association (ACDA) National Convention, and with an invitation to conduct at the 2016 National Conductors’ Symposium, Canada. In 2017, she placed among the top four finalists at the ACDA National Graduate Conducting Competition. Chan was selected as one of the top-12 finalists in the World Choral Conducting Competition 2019 (WYCCAA, Hong Kong).
Known for her highly innovative collaborations, Chan partnered with librettist Michael Dennis Browne in 2015 to present a semi-staged performance of Fauré’s Requiem with singers from the Minnesota Chorale. Other notable conducting engagements includes guest conducting Minnesota Chorale, Xi’an Symphony Chorus (China), ACDA Honor Choirs, Bach Choir of Bethlehem, Cantata Singers, Boston Landmarks Orchestra, Back Bay Chorale.
Prior relocation to the United States, Chan was extensively involved in Australia’s choral community. She held positions on National Council, and Queensland & Northern Territory State Committee for Australian National Choral Association (ANCA). She held numerous positions throughout Australia including as the musical director of Choral Connection, and choir director St Andrew’s Uniting Church, Brisbane. In addition to conducting, Chan also actively performs as a soprano and pianist/accompanist.
Chan received her Bachelor of Music Performance and Pedagogy in piano from the Queensland Conservatorium of Music, Griffith University, and won numerous awards including the Brisbane Women’s Club and Yvonne Hayson Bursary, the Ruby C. Cooling Piano Bursary, and M. K. Lassell Piano Scholarship. She received her Master of Music degree in choral conducting from the University of Washington, and Doctor of Musical Arts in Conducting from the University of Minnesota (UMN) under the mentorship of Kathy Saltzman Romey and Matthew Mehaffey.
Chan has led Boston Choral Ensemble since Fall 2022.
Leona Cheung, Collaborative Pianist
Leona Cheung is a Boston-based collaborative pianist. She is especially known for her musical leadership and responsiveness while collaborating with singers and conductors. Cheung accompanies ensembles such as the Handel and Haydn Society, Boston Children’s Chorus, Boston Conservatory Choir, Northeastern University Choral Society, and MIT Women’s Chorale. In summer of 2022, Cheung worked closely with the GRAMMY® nominated vocal ensemble Seraphic Fire at the Aspen Music Festival. Born and raised in Hong Kong, Cheung earned her Master of Music and Graduate Diploma in Collaborative Piano from New England Conservatory. (www.leonacheung.com)
Elizabeth Eschen, soloist
Mezzo-soprano Elizabeth Eschen makes her home in the Boston area, where her work lives at the intersection of choral music and vocal pedagogy. A lifelong and versatile choral singer, her credits range from founding member of Lorelei Ensemble, to Carmen with Boston Lyric Opera, to the Studio Cast Album of Alan Menken’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame. She has extensive experience in the music of Bach, and performs regularly with Handel & Haydn Society, Emmanuel Music, Boston Baroque, Upper Valley Baroque, and the Oregon Bach Festival. This season's solo engagements include the Duruflé Requiem with Hanover Choral Society, Bach St. John Passion with Ashmont Bach Project, and Reena Esmail's This Love Between Us with Emmanuel Music. She is the Director of the Holden Voice Program and Teaching Fellow at Harvard University, where she integrates vocal function into the curriculum of the Harvard Choruses, as well as the President of the Boston Chapter of the National Association of Teachers of Singing. (www.elizabetheschen.com)
Craig Juricka, soloist
Craig Juricka, Boston-based baritone, is an energetic performer and vocal pedagogue. His versatile career has brought him to concert, opera, and musical theater stages around the world. Most recently he has appeared with Odyssey Opera and Des Moines Metro Opera. This season he covered the role of Dr. Olivier Sacks in Odyssey Opera’s production of Awakenings by Tobias Picker, and during the summers of 2018 and 2021 he was featured as an apprentice artist with Des Moines Metro Opera. Juricka is an active soloist and chorister with the Handel and Haydn Society, Boston Baroque, Ensemble Altera, the Boston Pops, Boston Conservatory Opera, Bach Akademie Charlotte, and Marsh Chapel Choir. He holds voice faculty appointments with Boston Conservatory at Berklee and Walnut Hill School of the Arts, and his students can be seen in current Broadway shows (Funny Girl), regional theater productions around the nation, and performing with some of the nation's top choral ensembles. (www.craigjuricka.com)
BCE Singers
Sopranos
Ellen DeGennaro
Julia Hanna
Shannon Hedrick
Ruthlyn Kohn
Kate Melchior
Chrissy Morgan
Lydia Narum
Anna Schwartzberg
Elizabeth Wiley
Jenny Wolahan
Altos
Joanna Hamilton
Susannah Hatch
Sian Kleindienst
Alexandria Miller
Cyndi Sacco
Vardit Samuels
Tenors
Brian Burke
Chris Haimendorf
Ben Horkley
Tim Luo
Timothy Rodriguez
Dan Shaw
Basses
Jeremy Koo
Sam Maurer
Arjun Mudan
Ted Nichols
Chris Peters
Nicholas Petersen
Richard Samuels
Sam Wiseman
Support BCE
Boston Choral Ensemble is a registered 501(c)(3) non-profit organization funded by its supporters and in part by a grant from the Massachusetts Cultural Council, and by a grant from the Boston Cultural Council, administered by the Mayor’s Office of Arts and Culture.
We are so grateful to those people and organizations who have supported us financially. Please consider donating to BCE, so we can continue presenting high-quality, accessible choral performances for Boston audiences.
Texts and Translations
There Is Sweet Music by Edward Elgar (1857–1934)
Text from The Lotos-Eaters by Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809–1892)
There is sweet music here that softer falls
Than petals from blown roses on the grass,
Or night-dews on still waters between walls
Of shadowy granite, in a gleaming pass;
Music that gentlier on the spirit lies,
Than tir’d eyelids upon tir’d eyes;
Music that brings sweet sleep down from the blissful skies.
Here are cool mosses deep,
And thro’ the moss the ivies creep,
And in the stream the long-leaved flowers weep,
And from the craggy ledge the poppy hangs in sleep.
You Have a Name and a Place by Lansing McLoskey
1. Song
That dear warm hand within my own I took
"Illa", I whispered, "May I keep it so?"
My eager blood my anxious cheek forsook
Fearing my love that loved me might say no….
She raised her eyes. There looking I beheld
The soul of Music through the eyes of love
Kate Thomas (1871–1950)
2. Morning
Yesterday morning, I was leaning
over a kitchen sink, my husband
upstairs sleeping. Between his snores
muffled under a down comforter
and a portable electric heater that kept
our bedroom warm, I knew
I could sob as loud as I wanted
without disturbing his dreams.
Timothy Liu (b. 1965): Excerpt from “The Silence”
Morning arrives
the bedroom fills
sunlight's bright rays
questions
in the corner
my new puppy sleeps peacefully
breathing steadily
unaware of my condition
Kimberly Burnham (b. 1957): “The Nightmare”
3. a name
In “a name” five poems by Kimberly Burnham, Kelly Miller, and Carol Lynn Pearson were cut into two-to-three–word chunks, and entered into a randomizer.
Outside your arms
Is a place I like to visit
But I wouldn’t want
To live there.
This is home now
This small cozy structure
We build of an embrace.
This is comfort–
It is fireplace, lamp,
And softest chair.
I will go out
From time to time
For exercise and such
And to keep in touch
With the world where people
Eat and laugh and work.
But I’m a stranger there now,
A stranger in a strange land,
And I never get warm enough
And I’m always alone.
Then–
The touch of your hand,
And I know I’m nearly home.
Carol Lynn Pearson (b. 1939): “Home”
You were suddenly swept away
under the clean carpet.
For laws you had not kept now pray.
Come out. Forgive. Forget.
Kelly Miller: “Swept Under the Carpet”
Before you judge me
For not being like you
Just know this one thing
That I need Jesus too
Kelly Miller: untitled
You have a name and a place
in the church of truth and light.
You have covenants you embrace.
Thank- you for choosing the right!
Kelly Miller: “You Have a Name and a Place”
...Don't judge love of the self soothing twist
of her hair over a rough patch at her neck
all the things distinctively my love
like earthy beets
in my waking consciousness
where I am free
to be outstandingly me in her arms...
Kimberly Burnham (b. 1957): “Loving Differently From You”
The randomized two-to-three–word chunks generated the resultant poem:
a name
I’m nearly home.
That I
of an embrace.
of your hand,
Just know
With the world
you embrace.
And softest chair.
This is comfort–
fireplace, lamp,
consciousness where
Come out.
the clean carpet.
I’m always alone.
warm enough
And to be
I like to
me For not
I will go
Then– The touch
like earthy beets
such And to
time to time
It is
You were suddenly
But I
now pray.
now This small
live there.
Eat and laugh
the things
self soothing twist
swept away under
Before you judge
Forgive. Forget.
For exercise and
You have
rough patch at
For laws you
I am free
in the
visit But I’m
her neck all
You have covenants
I never get
Thank- you for
a stranger there
wouldn’t want To
out From
outstandingly
me This is home
choosing the right!
where people
cozy structure
in her arms...
in a strange
being like you
in my waking
church of truth
and light.
and work.
of her hair
need Jesus too
distinctively my love
Is a place
...Don't judge love
now, A stranger
And I know
of the
Outside your arms
keep in touch
had not kept
We build
over a
land, And
this one thing
and a place
My Flame the Song by Kim André Arnesen (b. 1980)
Text by Euan Tait (b. 1968)
I give this flame, my flame the song,
I pass it from my life to yours,
it gathers strength, through names we’ve loved,
you catch the flame and your name shines.
The fragile flame
held in the heart,
it joins us all,
love to love.
The human voice,
our flame the song,
so fierce its flame,
it cries out love,
love gathering,
love burning,
the life of music’s heart.
We know the wounds, the tear of grief,
the flame extinguished, sudden dark,
the silent voice, the empty road,
the lives we love torn out by the roots.
The fragile flame
held in the heart,
it joins us all,
love to love.
The human voice,
our flame the song,
so fierce its flame,
it cries out love,
so far off,
yet calling,
to lives on distant shores.
We gaze at love,
love gazes back;
see, love’s tears
burn on the ground,
love catches fire from our pain.
The fragile flame
held in the heart,
it joins us all,
love to love.
The human voice,
our flame the song,
so fierce its flame,
it cries out love
approaching,
and calling
to lives that cry for song.
We’re drawn to light, drawn to the heart,
drawn to this music, fire of song;
our fears transform, through music’s pain,
to fire of life, compassion, flame.
The fragile flame
held in the heart,
it joins us all,
love to love.
The human voice,
our flame the song,
so fierce its flame,
it cries out love
approaching
and calling,
a healing song of life.
Composer’s Note
We share a fierce, impassioned singing of the life of love. We sing in the lives we lead, in the way we respond to the cry in the human heart. Our lives unfold the powerful potential of love that lives in each one of us, as friends, parents, siblings, partners, colleagues. In making music, singing together lights an extraordinary process in us: we connect from the depths of our beings with each other, with this shared spiritual flame within us, we connect to those we have lost, to those who have sung the same music, we connect to the eternal singing of that vast, eternal chord of being human. In performing this work, you will pass on the flame to others. You become its music, its words: your spirit cries out, here.
This Is How You Love by Jocelyn Hagen and Timothy C. Takach
1. Vow
I’ll love you until stars fall. Can this be
So sure, so lasting as my heart demands
Of one, whose slightest touch upon my hands
Is like the wind inside an aspen tree?
I am in doubt of this frail thing I hold
So sworn to constancy, and this is why:
Too often I have watched a burnt-blue sky
Where slipping stars spilled scarlet and grew cold.
Florence Hynes Wilette, used with permission
2. Disclosure #1
Voice 1: Here is my happiness; I’m turning it all over to you.
Choir: What do you feel?
Voice 1: Here’s my future well-being. I’m entrusting my life to you. Treat me gently, because I’m all in your hands.
Choir: What do you feel?
Voice 1: Scared. I’m giving you my future. Part of me feels elated and part of me feels scared. I’m excited by the possibilities, but I’m also scared. I might goof it up, and I’d have only me to blame.
Couples therapy session, Dr. Ellyn Bader, used with permission
3. 3:29 a.m.
Leave the lights off.
Leave only sound.
Leave only skin.
Leave only you,
each rib, for counting.
Julia Klatt Singer, used with permission
I don’t
Need magic,
I need your arms around me
At 3:29 a.m. when
The dark
Is too much, I
Need you to be real
When nothing
Else is.
a.r. asher, used with permission
4. the love song of empty spaces
We commit to memory the sound of ice
melting in a glass, the amber glow
of a streetlight and the darkness
just out of its reach
Tucked neatly behind your folded arms
lie all the secrets this land has buried
truths you promise to tell me when
the wind is right.
There is no need for words with this still
life between us. We can see our future
in this fading sky, can read each other’s
minds in the scent of late summer rain.
Julia Klatt Singer , used with permission
5. Disclosure #2
Voice 1: I miss the closeness. I don’t like the emptiness. I’ll do what I can to be close again.
Voice 2: I’m touched.
Voice 1: I’m just being a romantic.
Voice 2: You’ll do that?
Voice 1: Sure.
Couples therapy session, Dr. Ellyn Bader, used with permission
6. Hungry
(composed by Timothy C. Takach)
Pulled hot from the dryer,
the flannel sheets turn our bed
into a cocoon, a refuge
where hungry bodies blend.
See how the years together
have turned us softer, and sweet.
And still, there is the keen blade
of our desire, that constant heat.
When our twin bodies meet
under the blankets,
we recognize one another
in a world beyond language,
hand to hand, mouth to mouth,
pressed tightly together as we sleep.
We’re much alike, yet still unique.
When we share a bed, we sing.
William Reichard, used with permission
7. Disclosure #3
Voice 1: Are you angry at me?
Voice 2: I’m getting there.
Voice 1: Tell me what you’re angry about.
Voice 2: That my wanting to spend time with you is somehow wrong. It seems like that should be positive, not negative. Are you angry at me?
Voice 1: I’m angry that getting you to do anything outside our cozy little home is like pulling teeth. You don’t want to grow anymore. That frustration makes me angry. I feel like you are holding me back. That I am holding myself back.
Couples therapy session, Dr. Ellyn Bader, used with permission
8. Endurance
We have endured
a distance of continents
We have endured
A distance of words
We have endured
A drought
We have endured
A rainstorm
We have endured
Conflict and boredom
Burnt toast, daycare, laundry, tuition and not answering the phone
We have endured
Adjustment
Obligation
Promise
Vow
We have endured
Our love
And our fear.
We will endure.
Jorges Arenas, used with permission
9. Disclosure #4
(composed by Timothy C. Takach)
Voice 1: I miss the way we were. I’m afraid the future you want is less and less of something that matters to me. Do you know what I mean?
Voice 2: I understand, but how else are you going to grow and change if you don’t do new things and have new experiences?
Voice 1: There are a lot of things you can find inside, too. I think we want the same thing.
Voice 2: Me too.
Couples therapy session, Dr. Ellyn Bader, used with permission
10. needle & thread
(composed by Jocelyn Hagen)
you the
brought needle
& I brought the thread.
we meant to tend our
two broken hearts,
but we ended up
stitching them
togeth
er
Amanda Lovelace, used with permission
11. Love/Light
Even after all these years,
the Sun never says
to the Earth
“You owe Me.”
Look what happens—
with a Love
like that,
it lights
the whole
sky.
Daniel Ladinsky, “The Sun Never Says” from The Gift,
copyright 1999 by Daniel Ladinsky, and used with permission.
yours is the light by which my spirit’s born:
yours is the darkness of my soul’s return
you are my sun, my moon, and all my stars.
E. E. Cummings, “silently if, out of not knowable”
from COMPLETE POEMS: 1904-1962, by E. E. Cummings, edited by George J. Firmage,
used with the permission of Liveright Publishing Corporation.
12. Disclosure #5
(composed by Jocelyn Hagen)
Voice 1: It was a very hard time but it forced us to find new ways. We had to find new ways to be, to live, and to work together as a family, and we did. We all found some new ways.
Voice 2: I feel a relief, a release to some feelings I didn’t even know I was still carrying.
Voice 1: I feel happy that we’ve had a chance to share this experience together.
Couples therapy session, Dr. Ellyn Bader, used with permission
13. Anniversary
Maybe it wasn’t strange to find
drums and cymbals where
there might have been violins, maybe
we couldn’t have known; besides,
would it have mattered?
Look at this hand, this arm:
the thick scar across the knuckles,
another in the palm, a ragged one
running along the forearm.
And you:
I know your scars at midnight
by touch.
Everything we’ve learned, we’ve picked up
by ear, a pidgin language
of the heart, just
enough to get by on:
we know the value of cacophony; how to measure
with a broken yardstick;
what to do with bruised fruit;
reading torn maps, we always
make it home, riding
on empty.
And whatever this thing is–palace?
cottage?–we remember
putting it up, every beam,
sighting it skew, making it plumb
eventually; and here it stands,
stone over rock, and on the simple hearth
is our own cricket; and in the walls
there are secret passages
leading to music
nobody else can hear; and somewhere
in a room that’s not yet finished
there are volumes in our own hand, telling
troubled tales, promises kept, and
promises
still to keep.
Philip Appleman, used with permission
O Love by Elaine Hagenberg
Text by George Matheson (1842–1906)
O Love that will not let me go,
I rest my weary soul in thee;
I give thee back the life I owe,
That in thine ocean depths its flow
May richer, fuller be.
O Joy that seekest me through pain,
I cannot close my heart to thee;
I trace the rainbow through the rain,
And feel the promise is not vain,
That morn shall tearless be.
Composer’s Note
“O Love” was inspired by the words of Scottish minister, George Matheson in 1882. Blinded at the age of nineteen, his fiancé called off their engagement and his sister cared for him as he endured new challenges. Years later, on the eve of his sister’s wedding, he faced the painful reminder of his own heartache and loss as he penned the words to this hymn. Given a fresh melody, this setting for SATB choir uses hopeful ascending lines representing renewed faith. Though lingering dissonances remind us of past heartache, the beautiful promise remains: “morn shall tearless be.”
June Jasmine Taiwanese folk song
June jasmine blooms truly fair,
A lover's heart is steadfast, strong and rare,
Rare it is to find flowers paired in perfect bloom,
Alone she stands, her absence a painful gloom.
June jasmine's scent so sweet,
A single maiden waits in an empty retreat,
Even the finest flower longs for a tender touch,
Unseen, she laments, feeling forgotten as such.
June jasmine's fragrance fills the air,
The maiden without a lover, burdened with despair,
The flower blooms, yearning for a heart's embrace,
When will her true love appear, bringing solace and grace?
June jasmine's scent pervades the land,
Handle flowers with care, as they're delicately fanned,
Like butterflies, they flutter, in a chaotic whirl,
Picked and passed, each bloom a transient twirl.
六月茉莉真正美 郎君生做真古錐
好花難得成雙對 身邊無娘上克虧
六月茉莉真正香 獨身娘仔守空房
好花也著有人挽 没人知影氣死人
六月茉莉香透天 單身娘仔無了時
好花也著合人意 何時郎君在身邊
六月茉莉滿山香 挽花也著惜花欉
親像蝴蝶亂亂弄 採過一欉過一欉
Composer’s Note
”June Jasmine” is one of the most popular and recognisable folk songs in Taiwan. The captivating melody originated from the coastal regions of Fujian province in China, and found its way across the ocean to the shores of Taiwan sometime towards the end of the Ming Dynasty and the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, along with a large number of Chinese immigrants. A local Taiwanese lyricist Hsu Bing-Ding imposed text to the melody and made it the classic Taiwanese ballad that it is today.
Good Night, Dear Heart by Dan Forrest
Text by Robert Richardson and Mark Twain
Warm summer sun,
Shine kindly here,
Warm southern wind,
Blow softly here.
Green sod above,
Lie light, lie light.
Good night, dear heart,
Good night, good night.
Composer’s Note
A few years ago, my brother and his wife found out that the four month old girl that they were soon to adopt from Ethiopia had fallen ill and passed away. They had been making plans for her, staring endlessly at her picture, and loving her from across the ocean, so the news was devastating. God’s plans were not for her to ever see the people who had loved her from halfway around the world, but for her to be taken instead to His loving arms. For me, life circumstances (whether euphoric or tragic) don’t usually translate into musical inspiration; the two typically remain separate. The night they received this news, though, I found myself longing to pour out a musical elegy. My search for a suitable text led me to a picture from a cemetery in my hometown (Elmira, NY), where the great American author Mark Twain and his family are buried. My brother and I, from our youth, have known the poem that Twain placed on the tombstone of his beloved daughter Susy, when she died unexpectedly at age 24 and left him heartbroken. I was stunned by the bittersweet irony of this text being from our hometown, and in honor of a beloved daughter who died unexpectedly. I wrote this setting that night; it was quickly added to an upcoming concert and premiered only one week later, as an elegy for Etsegenet and a reminder of the orphans of Ethiopia.
True Colors by Billy Steinberg and Tom Kelly
(additional lyrics by Saunder Choi)
Look at all the colors,
Aren't they beautiful?
So many shades and hues,
So many points of view,
like a rainbow:
blue
purple
green
red
tinges of yellow
blackYou with the sad eyes,
Don't be discouraged,
Oh I realize,
Its hard to take courage.
In a world full of people,
You can lose sight of it all,
And the darkness inside you
Can make you feel so small.
Show me a smile then,
Don't be unhappy, can't remember
When I last saw you laughing.
If this world makes you crazy
And you've taken all you can bear,
Just call me up
Because you know I'll be there.
And I'll see your true colors
Shining through.
I see your true colors,
That's why I love you.
So don't be afraid to let them show.
Your true colors are shining
Like a rainbow.
Let go of the pain,
and fight through the struggle.
Come out of the dark
and show the world who you are.
We'll see our lives in living Technicolor
when all of humanity become one.
I see your true colors
Shining through.
I see your true colors,
That's why I love you.
So don't be afraid to let them show.
Your true colors are shining through,
like a rainbow.