ISU Choirs Mid-Winter Concert

Dr. Scott Anderson, ISU Director of Choral Activities, says, "We are looking forward to presenting our first concert of 2024, featuring the ISU Treble Choir, Chamber Choir, and Concert Choir. Our choral ensembles will offer a wide variety of musical styles from the sixteenth century through the present day in the wonderful acoustics of Jensen Grand Concert Hall." 

Dr. Geoffrey Friedley will lead the ISU Treble Choir in a program of five works, including Benjamin Britten’s “A New Year Carol,” featuring soprano soloist Ashley Cantin, and a three-part Renaissance ballett, “This love is but a wanton thing,” by Thomas Morley. The choir will be joined by a string ensemble for a movement from George Frideric Handel’s oratorio “Judas Maccabaeus,” “Come, ever-smiling liberty,” which will feature soprano Paige Carlson and mezzo-soprano Steffanie Groves. Next the choir will perform “La Llorona” arranged by David Conte, from his “Three Mexican Folk Songs.” The Treble Choir segment of the concert will conclude with a setting of the Prayer of St. Francis of Assisi, Friedley’s “Make Me an Instrument,” which features pianist Emily Alldrin and percussionist Chris Elston on tambourine. The Choir will be joined on this last number by singers from the Trinity Episcopal Alleluia Choir.  In early February, the two choirs performed for the kick-off concert of the Feeding of the Five Thousand Families, an annual event devoted to raising money for the Idaho Foodbank.

Directed by Anderson, the ISU Concert Choir will perform Tomas Luis de Victoria's motet "O quam gloriosum," and Coronation Anthem No 3, "The King Shall Rejoice" by George Frideric Handel. Eriks Esenvalds haunting setting of Sara Teasdale's poem "Stars" will feature water-tuned glasses played by the singers, which will provide a sonorous series of overtones accompanying the piece. The Concert Choir will end their performance with the vibrant setting of "John the Revelator"arranged by Paul Caldwell and Sean Ivory. Jaden Klein, a Junior Piano Performance Major, is the Concert Choir pianist and will be featured in the Handel and Caldwell/Ivory pieces.

Also conducted by Anderson, the 17-voice ISU Chamber Choir will present four pieces representing "Love Songs Through the Ages," in French, Italian, German, and English. Claudin Sermisy's delightful chanson "Tant que vivray" will be followed by "Io piango" by Morten Lauridsen. Sermisy wrote his composition around 1540, while American composer Morten Lauridsen set "Io Piango" in 1987 as one of "Six Fire Songs on Italian Renaissance Texts," making an interesting comparison of two pieces written almost 450 years apart. "Der Gang zum Liebchen" by Johannes Brahms, will feature pianist Gabriel Lowman, an ISU graduate in Piano Performance. Billy Joel's "And So it Goes," arranged by Bob Chilcott (former King's Singer) will provide an American love song to end the set. 

Anderson led the ISU Chamber Choir in performance at the Northwest Conference of the American Choral Directors Association in Spokane, Washington as one of six invited College/University Choirs on January 25. He has recently announced his retirement from ISU, after 30 years of service. His final concert as Director of Choral Activities with ISU will be on April 24.