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Lafayette Madrigal Singers

​in Concert For
Kentucky Music Educators Association
2024 Conference

February 8, 2024, 2:15
Cathedral of the Assumption
Louisville, Kentucky

​

Soprano
Katie Bowden*
Annelise Brown*
Lorena DelaCruz Frazier*
Janeway Howard*
Madeline Logsdon*
Lily Brooke Pearson*
Kara Peters*
Abigayle Stokes*
Sally Thalacker*
Bella Walker
Tate White
​Marisol Zavos-Endicott


​
​Bass
Zade AlQahtani*
Andrew Campbell*
William Darragh*

Charlie Kennedy*
Parker Olukalns*
Joshua Park
Nicholas Perkins*
​Sam Reed

​

Alto
Hadley Collins*
Sarah Collins

Claire Cornett
Abigail Foley*
Sienna Johnson
Meredith Kirby

Natalie Langdorf*
Ruby Loeffler
Millie Matthews
Kaiti Moberly*
Ashlyn Taylor*





​Tenor
Gabriel Brown* 
Colin Clevenger*
Payton Chenault
Logan Gwynn*
Brody Mancuso*

Ian Ransom*
Gabriel Singleton


* Selected for 2024 All-State ensembles
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Download Printed Program

​SONGS OF THE SPIRIT
CREATION
O quam mirabilis est
Hildegard von Bingen, trans. Brad Ritchie​​
O quam mirabilis est
prescientia divini pectoris
que prescivit omnem creaturam.
Nam cum Deus inspexit
​faciem hominis
quem formavit,
omnia opera sua in eadem forma
hominis integra aspexit.
O quam mirabilis est inspiratio
que hominem sic suscitavit.

​​
How wonderful it is,
that the foreknowing heart divine
has first known everything created!
For when God looked
upon the human face

that he had formed,
he gazed upon his every work,
reflected whole within that human form.
How wondrous is that breath
that roused humanity to life!

​       - Nathaniel M. Campbell
​
FAITH
Geistliches Lied
Johannes Brahms, trans. Mark Gotham​

Luise Wendroth, Sarah Padgett, Eve Blackburn,
Tala Glass, Jackson Arnold, quintet
​
Laß dich nur nichts nicht dauern
Mit Trauern, 
​
Sei stille! Wie Gott es fügt, 
​
So sei vergnügt, mein Wille!


Was willst du heute sorgen
auf morgen?
Der Eine steht allem für;
der gibt auch dir das Deine.

Sei nur in allem Handel on Wandel,
steh feste, was Gott beschleußt,
das ist und heißt das Beste. Amen.
Let nothing ever grieve you;

​Be still, as God ordains,
So be satisfied, my will!

Why do you worry today
about tomorrow?

The One commands all
He also give you what is yours.

In all things be steadfast,
stand firmly, what God ordains,
is and signifies
 the best. Amen.
​
​       - Ron Jeffers
​
NATURE
​Still With Thee
Elaine Hagenberg
Still, still with Thee, when purple morning breaketh,
When the bird waketh, and the shadows flee;
Fairer than morning, lovelier than daylight,
Dawns the sweet consciousness I am with Thee.


When sinks the soul, subdued by toil, to slumber,
Its closing eyes look up to Thee in prayer;
The sweet the repose beneath the wings o'ershading,
But sweeter still, to wake and find Thee there.

Shall it be, when that bright morning breaketh,
When the soul waketh and life's shadows flee;
Oh fairer than the morning, lovelier than daylight,
Shall rise the glorious thought to Thee!

​- Harriet Beecher Stowe
​​
JOY
Alleluia, Cantate Domino
Marques Garrett
Alleluia!
​Cantate Domino canticum novum;
Cantate Domino omnis terra.

Benedicamus Domino,
Deo dicamus gratias.
Alleluia!
​Sing to the Lord a new song;
Sing to the Lord, all the earth.

​Let us bless the Lord.
Let us give thanks to God.

​- Psalm 98
​

LOVE
​Lammaa Baddaa Yatathanna
Sireen Abu-Khader
​عندما بدأ حبي يتمايل
يا ليل يا عيني!
حبيبي، جماله (هي)، فتنني
من خلال غمزة أسرتني
بدا جسده (لها) وكأنه فرع منحني
عندما تمايل (هي).
وعدي يا حيرة
من يرحم شكواي
من سيرحم أشواقي،
بل ملك الجمال.
Lamma badaa yatathanna
​yaa lal yaa Ein
Hubbi jamaaluu fatannaa
eawmaa bilaaHZuu easarnaa

​gusnun thanaa
​Hyna maal

waEdy wa yaa Hyraty
man ly raHym shakwaty
FilHubbi min laowEaty
eillaa malykul' jamaal


When my love started to sway
Oh night, oh my eye!
​My lover, his (her) beauty, enamored me
​through a wink which captivated me
his (her) body looked like a bent branch
​when he (she) swayed

​My promise, oh perplexity
who's merciful to my complaint
Who will have mercy on my yearnings,
but the sovereign of beauty.
LIFE
Fatiše Kolo
Serbian Folk Song, arr. Ivan Marković
Fatiše Kolo vranjske devojke.
Vranjske devojke na tu vranjsku česmu.
Na čelu kola,
Živkova Taša, lepotijna naša.

​​
The girls from Vranje started a dance.
The girls of Vranje, at Vranje's fountain.
At the head of the round is
Zhivko's daughter, Tasha, 
our beauty.
HOPE
American Tune
J.S. Bach, Paul Simon, arr. Brad Ritchie

Parker Olukalns and Sally Thalacker, solos
​

Janeway Howard, Abigayle Stokes,
Ashlyn Taylor, Natalie Langdorf,
Zade AlQahtani, Colin Clevenger,
William Darragh, Gabriel Brown, octet


O sacred Head, now wounded,
with grief and shame weighed down,

now scornfully surrounded with thorns,
Thine only crown.

O sacred Head, what glory,
​what bliss till now was Thine!

Yet, though despised and gory,
I joy to call Thee mine.


Many's the time I've been mistaken 
and many times confused.
Yes, and I've often felt forsaken and certainly misused.

Oh, but I'm alright, I'm just weary to my bones.
Still, you don't expect to be bright and bon vivant 
​
so far away from home.


And I don't know a soul who's not been battered. 
I don't have a friend who feels at ease.
I don't know a dream that's not been shattered 
or driven to its knees.

But it's alright, for we lived so well so long.
Still, when I think of the road we're traveling on, 
I wonder what's gone wrong.
I can't help it, I wonder what has gone wrong.


And I dreamed I was dying. 
I dreamed that my soul rose unexpectedly, 
and looking back down at me, smiled reassuringly.

And I dreamed I was flying 
and high up above my eyes could clearly see 
the Statue of Liberty sailing away to sea.
And I dreamed I was flying.


We come on the ship they call The Mayflower. 
We come on the ship that sailed the moon.
We come in the age's most uncertain hours 
And sing an American tune.


Oh, and it's alright, you can't be forever blessed.
Still, tomorrow's going to be another working day 
and I'm trying to get some rest.
That's all I'm trying to get some rest.


Be Thou my consolation,
my shield when I must die;

remind me of Thy passion
when my last hour draws nigh.

Mine eyes shall then behold Thee,
upon Thy cross shall dwell.

My heart by faith enfolds
​Thee who died thus dies well.

​
UNITY
Hela Rotan
Indonesian Folk Song, arr. Ken Steven​
"Pull the Rattan"
​Hela Rotan is a call to live in togetherness,
even though there are differences that attract each other.



Program Notes

Spirit is the intangible essence that animates all living beings. Our program represents music that speaks to ways in which our spirits take flight. The music represented in this program spans nine centuries and a variety of style periods with an eye toward including composers and poets from underrepresented populations. The texts and themes attempt to invoke the spirit: the essence of the human experience, our connection to one another.

We open our program with the Antiphon, O quam mirabilis est of Hildegard von Bingen. Hildegard (1098-1179), the most famous female composer of the high medieval era, was also a powerful abbess, philosopher, visionary, polymath, mystic, and medical practitioner. Hildegard experienced her first religious visions at the age of three and became a nun at the age of fifteen. Though composed to be sung by female voices, our transcription and arrangement is set for mixed chorus. O quam mirabilis sets to music Hildegard’s belief that all creation has its timeless, infinite source in a creator.

Geistliches Lied or Spirit Song, is Johannes Brahms’s earliest accompanied choral work, written in 1856 as a compositional exercise. It is the only such work that Brahms saw fit for publication. The work displays Brahm’s considerable counterpoint skills as a mere twenty-four year old. The work was brilliantly conceived as a double canon at the interval of a ninth with the accompaniment also written in canon. Two different canonic lines are imitated between the soprano/tenor and alto/bass voices. Canonic writing became a hallmark of Brahms’s style throughout his life. Our performance incorporates a transcription of the accompaniment for string quintet by Mark Gotham. Geistliches Lied is set to a text by Paul Flemming (1609-1640) about accepting fate and having faith, frequent themes in Brahms’s vocal compositions. 

Elaine Hagenberg is a widely known American composer whose compositions are performed around the world. In Still with Thee, Hagenberg sets abolitionist and prolific author Harriet Beecher Stowe’s lyric hymn. The poetry encapsulates Hagenberg’s compositional inspirations of text, nature, and faith. Setting the first, fourth, and fifth verses only, Hagenberg takes a more than century-old text and makes it relatable and connectable.
​
Marques Garrett is a widely acclaimed composer, conductor, teacher, and vocalist. His works number over sixty compositions and editions of both non-idiomatic and idiomatic music. Alleluia, Cantate Domino was commissioned by Harvard University's Department of Music in honor of the centenary of Black American musicologist, researcher, author, and teacher, Eileen Southern whose landmark book, Music of Black Americans changed music scholarship in America. Garrett’s composition sets a traditional liturgical text that evokes a Bachian texture combining counterpoint and tuneful melody, yet is distinctly modern.

Lammaa Badaa Yatathannaa is a traditional Muwashshah, an Arabic poetic form and musical genre. The song dates from the 15th century, likely from the Andalusian era of Muslim-ruled Spain. It has since spread throughout the Arab world where it survives in oral tradition. The song is a standard of Arabic and Middle Eastern musical canon. The song has complex rhythms standard in Arabic classical music and is notated in 10/8 meter. Lammaa Badaa Yatathannaa is a love song describing how a beloved is dancing and gracefully swaying from side to side.
​
Fatiše Kolo is a Serbian folk song from the town of Vranje, Serbia. The melody can be found in a beloved Serbian opera entitled Koštana by Boro Stanković, and is best known by Serbs as being from that opera. It is unknown whether Stanković, who based most of his music on folk melodies, composed the melody or whether it is from authentic folk sources. Nonetheless, the Vranje townspeople adopted the arias and dance tunes as their own. The metrical pattern of 9/8 is unusual owing to its asymmetrical groupings similar to Bulgarian and occasionally Macedonian music. Fatiše Kolo describes a spirit-filled circle dance by the young Vranje girls who dance with clasped hands around the town well.

American Tune opens with the most famous chorale from J.S. Bach’s St. Matthew Passion, “O Haupt Voll Blut und Wunden.” This chorale tune, though originally by Hans Leo Hassler, is the melodic source for Paul Simon’s meditation on the American experiment. In it, Simon questions American optimism and evokes a sense of anxiety and weariness.

Commissioned for the 2024 Southern Division American Choral Directors Association, Ritchie creates a choral tapestry that layers the source chorale sung in German with solo writing and eight-part choral texture in the middle verse. This 400 year old melody gives voice to a lament that is as relevant today as it was when Simon wrote it in 1973. A lament, at its core, is an expression of hope.

Our closing piece is an Indonesian folk song arranged by Ken Steven who is known for his fusion of Indonesian colors and elements with modern techniques and harmonies. Hela Rotan is from the island of Maluk (Moluccas) and tells of the traditional game of tug of war. Hela Rotan upends our notion of competition by focusing on the reward of togetherness. Through a call to live in togetherness, we can celebrate our differences. In concluding our program with Hela Rotan, we share our belief in the spirit of unity; that we are stronger working together despite our differences, than when alone. 
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FCPS Superintendent

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FCPS Director of Fine Arts

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About The Program

The Madrigal Singers are state, nationally, and internationally recognized. The choir competed annually in the University of Louisville Chamber Choir Competition and won first place thirteen times. The group performed for the Kentucky Music Educators in 2009, 2015, and 2020, for the Southern Division ACDA Conference in 2010, 2018, and will again in February 2024. The Madrigal Singers were awarded two silver medals at the World Choir Games in Cincinnati in 2012 and won a gold diploma in the mixed youth choir category in the Sing ‘N’ Joy International competition in Louisville in 2014. The Madrigal Singers appeared as a featured choir at the Inaugural Music for All National Choir Festival in 2018, and were invited to be a demonstration choir for the conductors' masterclass with the late Dr. Joseph Flummerfelt.

​​
Lafayette opened its doors in 1939 and was named for the Marquis de Lafayette, the famed French general of the Revolutionary War. Lafayette is one of six public high schools in Lexington and serves over 2300 students. The school combines a comprehensive high school curriculum with the School for Creative and Performing Arts (SCAPA) and Pre-Engineering magnet programs. Lafayette is proud to count among its alumni two governors, actors Colton Ryan, Harry Dean Stanton and Jim Varney, sportscaster Tom Hammond, Olympian Tyson Gay, coach Jock Sutherland, musician Ben Sollee, and many others.

The fine arts programs at Lafayette boast a long tradition of excellence in all arts areas and was recognized as a Grammy Signature School in 2005. In 2024, Lafayette had 105 students accepted to KMEA all-state ensembles and in summer 2023, Lafayette had 42 participants plus 4 alternates accepted to the Governor’s School for the Arts. The Marching Band has been state marching champion an astounding twenty-three times, marched in the Macy’s and Rose Bowl parades, regularly performs at KMEA conferences, and is a recipient of the prestigious Sudler Flag of Honor. The Lafayette Orchestra has performed at the Midwest Clinic and has been featured a number of times at KMEA conference and performed for the American String Teachers Association in 2018 and was awarded second place in the National Orchestra Festival.  

Lafayette students have a wide variety of musical options including a number of vocal ensembles; an instrumental program consisting of strings, wind band, percussion, jazz band and piano; music technology; and a comprehensive visual arts program and nationally recognized theatre program. 

The fine arts programs at Lafayette are proud to serve both magnet and non-magnet students alike, with nearly 1500 students enrolled in fine arts courses and nearly 600 of those enrolled in music classes. Lafayette boasts more student performers than student athletes. In our performing ensembles, SCAPA students sit side-by-side with non-magnet students, making up approximately twenty percent of our musical ensembles. SCAPA students can choose a major in music (voice, band, orchestra, or piano), dance, art, creative writing, or theatre, and are admitted to the program by audition. 

The SCAPA vocal major is a unique opportunity for students to study solo voice in addition to their ensemble experience. Voice students receive private coaching approximately once every two weeks and participate in monthly performance and master classes as well as recitals, solo performances, and contests. SCAPA Voice majors consistently rank in competitions and scholarship offers.

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Ryan Marsh, Director of Choirs
Ryan Marsh holds bachelors and master’s degrees from the University of Louisville. He holds National Board Certification in vocal music and has completed coursework at the doctoral level in choral conducting at the University of Kentucky. Mr. Marsh is in his twenty-first year as director of choirs and  teaches AP Music Theory. He also serves as the instructional leader for performing arts, and as of 2021, the SCAPA Lafayette Program Coordinator.

Mr. Marsh holds professional memberships in ACDA, NAfME, and Kentucky Music Educators Association. He has held elected state office for KMEA coordinating all-state choirs from 2009
–2010. He served on the KMEA state board, executive committee and served as the founding editor of the organization’s monthly e-newsletter for eight years. Mr. Marsh also served on the ENVOY committee for the Inaugural Music for All National Choir Festival from 2016–2020. He is a contributing author for Teaching with Heart, and Teaching Beyond the Music, compendiums for choral directors. His choirs have appeared at KMEA (2005, 2009, 2015, 2020, 2024) and ACDA (2010, 2018, 2023, 2024) conferences and consistently receive distinguished ratings at assessment events. Ryan lives in Midway, Kentucky with daughter, Emory and wife, Tiffany, who is the choir director at Paul Laurence Dunbar High School in Lexington.

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Laura Howard, Director, SCAPA Voice
Laura Howard is a graduate of Morehead State University where she completed her undergraduate and graduate degrees. She received her Bachelor of Music Education degree as a piano major on the choral/vocal education track of study. She received the Master of Music degree while studying music education and choral conducting. Mrs. Howard has completed all three levels of training in the Kodály philosophy of music literacy and education as well as intensive summer study in Hungary, the birthplace of philosopher Zoltan Kodály.

Mrs. Howard began teaching in 2002 at Southern Middle School the Fayette County where she taught general music classes, grades 6
–8, as well as the 6th–8th grade choirs. In 2006, she began teaching at the School for the Creative and Performing Arts (SCAPA) at Lafayette High School. Her responsibilities have included conducting Lafayette Singers, and the Treble and Advanced Treble Choirs. She also coaches the SCAPA vocal majors, has taught Musicianship I, II and III, and Beginning Keyboarding. ​As vocal instructor for the School for the Creative and Performing Arts, Mrs. Howard is responsible for coordinating the vocal program which consists of nearly 50 majors, grades 9–12. While serving in this capacity she provides individual vocal coaching and teaches music theory to junior music majors. In addition, she frequently works as an accompanist, clinician, and adjudicator.


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Joseph Wrightson, Director, SCAPA Voice
Joseph Wrightson is excited to be teaching at Lafayette High School. He holds a degree in Music Education and is pursuing his Masters in Music Education from the University of Kentucky. He has taught music in Fayette County at the Elementary, Middle, and High School levels, and has worked as a Creative Media Designer and Outreach Coordinator with The Lexington Theatre Company. With “The Lex,” Joseph coordinates the Story Cycle program that empowers the next generation of storytellers to find and raise their voices through musical theatre songwriting. He is passionate about the arts in Lexington, and that passion has led him to create a bilingual arts education web series, illustrate a children’s book, and participate in his local community choirs. At Lafayette, Mr. Wrightson teaches the Troubadours tenor/bass choir, Music Technology, and coaches SCAPA voice majors. He also works with Gifted and Talented students throughout the district in visual and performing arts.

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Guest Performers

Jackson Arnold is a cellist double majoring in Music Education and Music Performance at the University of Kentucky. He is a member of the UK Symphony and UK opera orchestras, and as an amateur luthier is beginning the process of handcrafting a cello this spring. Jackson is a graduate of Lafayette High School and the SCAPA program. 

Eve Blackburn is a senior music education major at Eastern Kentucky University currently completing her student teaching at the School for the Creative and Performing Arts (SCAPA) at Bluegrass in Lexington. Eve is a graduate of Lafayette High School and the SCAPA program. 

Tala Glass is a 2020 graduate of SCAPA Lafayette. She is completing her music education degree in instrumental music at the University of Kentucky where she is a member of the acclaimed UK Symphony Orchestra. 
Tala is a graduate of Lafayette High School and the SCAPA program. 

Sarah Padgett i
s a Freshman at the University of Kentucky studying music. She was part of the SCAPA program at Lafayette where she played in the Chamber Orchestra. She is now in the Symphony Orchestra at the University of Kentucky. 

Luise Wendroth is a freshman at the University of Kentucky, majoring in Music Performance and Economics. She participated in the School for Creative and Performing Arts program and played in numerous ensembles, including the Lafayette High School Chamber Orchestra and the Central Kentucky Youth Orchestras (CKYO). She currently plays violin in the University of Kentucky Symphony Orchestra and coaches for the CKYO Concert Orchestra.


Acknowledgements

Supportive parents and care-givers of our students
Lafayette Chorus Boosters
Laura Nevels, Choir Manager
Dr. Mattilda Middleton, Good Shepherd Church

Dr. Kent Hatteberg, University of Louisville
Dr. Jefferson Johnson, University of Kentucky
Dr. Richard Waters, Eastern Kentucky University




Administration
Dr. Demetrus Liggins, Superintendent
Katherine Lowther, Director of Fine Arts
Dr. Anthony Orr, Principal
Stephanie McDermott, Associate Principal
Dr. Caryn Huber,
Associate Principal
Dr. Caroline Morales, Associate Principal

Brittany Harris, Assistant Principal
​
Dustin Fore, Associate Principal

​
​
​Lafayette Performing Arts Faculty
Robert Dee Bishop, Director of Bands
Dr. Chris Strange, Associate Director of Bands, Jazz Band
Aaron Jones,
Associate Director of Bands, Jazz Band, Percussion
 Ryan Marsh, Director of Choirs
Laura Howard, Director, SCAPA Voice
Joseph Wrightson, Director, SCAPA Voice
Amanda Wells, SCAPA Vocal Instructor
Phil Kent, Director of Orchestras
Aaron Breeck, Associate Director of Orchestras
Amie Kisling, Director of Theatre Arts

Cassady Gorrell, Associate Director of Theatre Arts
Alberta Labrillazo, SCAPA Theatre
Laurie Fields, SCAPA Dance
Cynthia Mills, SCAPA Dance

Cathy Calhoun, SCAPA Piano Instructor


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Lexington, KY  40503
859 • 422 • 2136
   
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