Hands Digital Program

Department of
Music

February 26, 2022 • 7:30 p.m. • Mission Santa Clara

SCU•PRESENTS PERFORMING ARTS CENTER

SCU•Presents Performing Arts Center is at the heART of live
events at Santa Clara University. We are welcoming back audiences
in person after a two-year hiatus and are excited to present theatre,
music, dance, film, and much more. Are you ready to gasp, laugh,
wonder, cry, and reconnect with your arts family?

We are delighted to have you back and hope you are excited to see
live events returning to the area. We created so many memorable
moments, experiences, and connections during our Fall offerings
and we are so excited to continue this Winter and Spring. Sit back,
relax, and enjoy a unique experience that only live performances
can provide.

Butch Coyne
Director, SCU•Presents
Performing Arts Center

FOR YOUR INFORMATION

Land Acknowledgement | We pause to acknowledge that Santa Clara University sits on the land of
the Ohlone and Muwekma Ohlone people. We pay respect to their Elders and to people of the past and
present and extend that respect to their descendants and all Indigenous people.
COVID Compliance | In an effort to keep our community safe as we reopen our venues, we will be
enforcing socially distanced seating of one (1) empty seat between parties. All patrons, regardless of
vaccination status, are required to wear a mask at all times. Anyone not wearing a mask, without a proper
mask, or is wearing one incorrectly will be offered a mask or asked to secure their mask properly. After
the initial request for compliance, those who do not comply will be asked to leave the building.
Late Seating | Late patrons cannot be seated until intermission or a designated break in the performance.
Patrons returning late from intermission will be seated at the discretion of the House Manager.
Emergencies | In the event of a medical emergency, please locate the nearest usher and inform them
of the situation to summon medical help. In the event of an evacuation, please gather in front of the
theatre so we may ensure that all patrons have been cleared from the building, as well as provide any
additional information.
Additional Needs | In compliance with the ADA/504 please direct your accommodation requests to
the SCU•Presents Box Office at (408) 554-4015 or call TTY-California Relay at 1 (800) 735-2929 at least
72 hours prior to the event.

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THE DEPARTMENT OF MUSIC PRESENTS

HANDS

Santa Clara University Chamber Singers and Concert Choir
Scot Hanna-Weir, Music Director and Conductor
Dan Cromeenes, piano

Sing Gently (2020) CONCERT CHOIR
MLK (1984 | 1996) Eric Whitacre (b. 1970)
U2

arr. Bob Chilcott (b. 1955)
Brian Puskarczyk, soloist

To The Hands (2016) CHAMBER SINGERS
I. Caroline Shaw (b. 1982)
II.
III. Seo Hee Byun, violin
IV. Chag-Hee Lee, violin
V.
VI. Jill Van Gee, viola
Jihee Kim, cello
Eugene Theriault, bass

a vision unfolding (2018) Derrick Skye (b. 1982)
Sophia Flores, Kristen Hoekema, Alec Melosini, soloists
Hands (2017) Jocelyn Hagen (b. 1980)
Primrose Waranimman, Riley Carpenter, soloists

Earth Song (2006) CONCERT CHOIR Frank Ticheli (b. 1958)

Prayer of the Children (1995 | 1996) Kurt Bestor (b. 1958)
arr. Andrea S. Klouse
from Merrily we Roll Along (1981) Stephen Sondheim (1930-2021)
and The Evening Primrose (1966) arr. Wayne Barker
Our Time / Take Me to the World (2022)
Alec Melosini, soloist
Worthy to be Praised (1993) Byron Smith (b. 1960) 3

PROGRAM NOTES

“It is in your hands to make a better world for all who live in it.”
-Nelson Mandela

The genesis of this evening’s program began both with a piece and a
question. The piece was Caroline Shaw’s incredibly rich meditation
on a work by the 17th C. composer Dietrich Buxtehude that places
themes of suffering and sacrifice in an incredibly modern context.
The question was what do we do, or can we do, with our hands? So
many circumstances recently have called our campus community
and the world at large to find new ways to respond with compassion
towards each other. Whether that has been adapting to online work
and learning environments, or the incredibly challenging mental
health weight that has loomed large on our campus, we are called
into compassion for others. But how do we enter into these spaces
of compassion and care for one another?
Whitacre’s Sing Gently is a sensitive beginning to this exploration.
While Whitacre has an extensive body of choral work, he has
become known even to people outside of the choral community
through his early exploration of virtual choir projects. In 2010, long
before we sought out new zoom backgrounds and donned masks
across the United States, Whitacre was inspired by a video he saw
of a single soprano singing a line from his piece Lux Aurumque, and
he began to wonder if there was a way to have individuals record
their voices separately and then combine them into a “virtual” choir.
Of course, with the outbreak of the global COVID-19 pandemic,
thousands of choral directors became overnight video editors and
audio engineers to be able to create these kind of projects with
our choirs while we all met remotely. Sing Gently was written in
response to the pandemic, and designed first and foremost as a
virtual choir project. The final video included 17,527 singers from
129 countries, ages 5-88.
Whitacre saw at the start of the pandemic that “this moment in
history was going to be remembered as one of great suffering for
many people, as well as a time of growing division and dissent.” So,
his music and words for the piece were written “with the hope that
it might give some small measure of comfort for those who need it,
and that it might suggest a way of living with one another that is
compassionate, gentle, and kind.”
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PROGRAM NOTES

May we sing together,
Always,

May our voice be soft,
May our singing be music for others,

And may it keep others aloft.
Sing gently, always.
Sing gently as one.

May we stand together,
Always,

May our voice be strong,
May we hear the singing, always.
And may we always sing along.

Sing gently, always.
Sing gently as one.
As the name suggests, MLK is an elegy to the civil rights activist,
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. by the Irish rock band, U2. Dr. King
fought ardently throughout his life for justice and his legacy is one
of standing up forcefully against oppression and taking an active
role in pushing for social change. The text of MLK alludes to one
of Dr. King’s most well-known speeches, the “I Have a Dream”
speech, delivered on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial on August
28, 1963 at the March on Washington.
Sleep, sleep tonight,
and may your dreams be realized.
If the thunder cloud passes rain
so let it rain, rain down on him.
While the dreams that Dr. King espoused in his speech are well-
known, sometimes the injustices that he names earlier in his
speech are less present in our minds.
There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights,
when will you be satisfied? We can never be satisfied as
long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors 5

PROGRAM NOTES

of police brutality. We can never be satisfied as long as our
bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging
in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities.
We cannot be satisfied as long as the Negro’s basic mobility
is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be
satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their selfhood
and robbed of their dignity by signs stating: for whites only.
We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi
cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has
nothing for which to vote.
No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied
until justice rolls down like waters, and righteousness like
a mighty stream.
When so many of these injustices continue to be so present in our
society, from police brutality to the restriction of voting rights,
what is our hand in the legacy of Dr. King? In what ways are our
hands either bound in the progression towards righteousness and
justice, or in binding the shackles of injustice around one another?

~~~
Shaw’s To the Hands begins as does Buxtehude’s Ad Manus, with a
sinfonia. In this case, a sinfonia of instruments and wordless choir,
quoting some of the same motives from the original piece. Shaw
treats these opening melodies as a “wordless plainchant melody,
punctured later by the strings’ introduction of an unsettling
pattern.” The first text we hear, in the second movement, is drawn
directly from Buxtehude:

Quid sunt plagae istae What are these wounds
in medio manuum tuarum in the midst of your hands?

While the initial choral entrances are very much tied to the original
Buxtehude, they are shrouded in a complicated and rhythmically
intricate array of string entrances that creates the undercurrent
of tension in this modern interpretation of the original material.
While the final cadence of the second movement in some ways
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PROGRAM NOTES

feels the most baroque, it turns to ask the most contemporary
question: What are these wounds in the midst of our hands? What may
have been done to us, and also, what have we done and what has
been our role in the wounds we see before us?
Shaw describes the third movement text as a:

[…] riff on Emma Lazarus’ sonnet The New Colossus, famous
for its engraving at the base of the Statue of Liberty. The
poem’s lines “Give me your tired, your poor,/ Your huddled
masses yearning to breathe free” and its reference to the
statue’s “beacon-hand” present a very different image of
a hand –– one that is open, beckoning, and strong. No
wounds are to be found there –– only comfort for those
caught in a dangerous and complex environment.
She ends the movement, which to this point has become frenetic
– overwhelmed by the huddled masses and their heavy breathing –
in a moment of stasis where the choir simply states:

I will be your refuge
We will be your refuge
The text of the fourth movement is by Shaw’s own design. In her
words, it “zooms in on the map so far that we see the intimate
scene of an old woman in her home, maybe setting the table for
dinner alone. Who is she, where has she been, whose lives has she
left?”
ever in the window sills
or the beveled edges of
the aging wooden frames
that hold old photographs
hands folded gently in her lap
ever in the crevices of the never-ending efforts
of the grandmother’s tendons tending to her bread
and empty chairs left for Elijah

where are they now

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PROGRAM NOTES

The treatment of the text is sparse, mostly unison from the choir,
while the string quartet whispers harmonics atmospherically
around the voices. It is not until we come to the empty chair, left
for Elijah (or who else?) that the vigor of the strings return as the
choir poses the question: where are they now? At this, the strings
return in full force with a motive that recalls the original unsettling
pattern of movement two and launches us into another Buxtehude
quote, this time from his Ad Latus (to the side). Shaw describes it as
“a meditation on the words in caverna from the Song of Solomon”,
and indeed it is an increasingly insistent meditation as the dynamic
and complexity of the chords builds to a final conclusion. What lies
in caverna: in the hiding place?
The fifth movement is primarily driven by the shifting harmonies
presented in arpeggios by the strings, while the choir dispassionately
recites numerical figures. These are global figures of internally
displaced persons, by country, sourced from the International
Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC) data reported in May
2015. The IDMC provides “verified, consolidated and multi-
sourced estimates of the number of people internally displaced or
at risk of becoming displaced by conflict, violence, disasters and
development projects across the world.” At the end of 2020, the
IDMC recorded 55 million people displaced internally within their
countries. As Shaw writes, “sometimes data is the cruelest and
most honest poetry.”
The final movement is a promise.

ever ever will I hold you,
ever ever will I enfold you
As we are reminded by the return of Buxtehude’s original motives,
are these only the promises of Christ to us, or are these the promises
we make to one another?

~~~
Have you seen
…mirror––focus
Running, rolling, riding over skin
Turning, looking back

seeing
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PROGRAM NOTES

Truth…ready
Take it back––run

see how I see
we can be free
see how we can be a fountain

take a seat
see us fighting back
not getting love back
so they saw us fighting back
to reach a love that

means
we’re never going back

Derrick Skye’s original poetry in “Anthem of a Crowd” Part 1 served
as the inspiration for his own setting, a vision unfolding. The piece
was written for EXIGENCE, a Sphinx Vocal Ensemble directed by
Eugene Rogers and under the wing of the Sphinx organization, a
social justice organization “dedicated to transforming lives through
the power of diversity in the arts.” The piece ties into the “dream”
presented in MLK, but also acknowledges the consistent struggle
for, as Skye puts it:

equanimity
woven harmony

equanimity
focused energy

The piece ranges wide in its influences, drawing on South African,
Hindu, and Eastern European traditions, including drones, call-
and-response phrases, repeating compound meters, and rhythmic
patterns from the traditional Ewe music of Ghana.

While Skye’s composition used many words to express the
challenges our society faces to overcome oppression and injustice,
Jocelyn Hagen’s Hands uses only a wordless choir to represent the
community we can become.

Hands is a vocalise, a song without words. I started the 9
writing process just by singing to myself. My mother told
me that, as a child, she could always tell when I was happy

PROGRAM NOTES

because I was singing. I wanted this melody to have the
same kind of spontaneous joy.
The stage movement in many ways is just as significant as the
musical ideas. As the piece begins with a solo, then a duet, then
singers one by one until all join together, so does the movement
represent our own disparate hope, creativity, and action. At the
end of the piece, we are united in both the musical and physical;
standing strong together.
Ticheli’s Earth Song ties into so many of the themes of this evening.
The sense of community that we remember in Sing Gently, the
power of music and singing in Hands, and the sense of refuge that
we seek in To the Hands. Additionally, it presents another present
crisis that calls for our action – that of climate change. What can we
and must we do as individuals and together to stop the imminent
threat of catastrophic climate change?

Sing, Be, Live, See,
This dark stormy hour,

The wind, it stirs.
The scorched earth cries out in vain:

O war and power,
you blind and blur.
The torn heart cries out in pain.
But music and singing have been my refuge
And music and singing shall be my ligh.
A light of song, shining strong, Alleluia! Alleluia!
Through darkness and pain and strife,
I’ll Sing, I’ll Be, I’ll Live, See…

Peace.
Bestor’s Prayer of the Children came out of his time spent in the late
1970s in Yugoslavia and the civil war that broke out shortly after
he left the country. Watching from afar and filled with frustration
10 that the innocents in this conflict might feel. His song began with

PROGRAM NOTES

a wordless melody that evolved into questions:
Can you hear?
Can you feel?

These questions became the prayer – one that calls for safety, for
love, and for peace.
Just last week, our choirs finally got to have our first performance of
the new year. In collaboration with Sinatra Artist-in-residence BD
Wong and his musical collaborator Wayne Barker, we performed
a concert of works by Stephen Sondheim, the recently deceased
legend of broadway. To close this program, Barker arranged a special
medley of two powerful songs: Our Time from Merrily We Roll Along
and Take me to the World from The Evening Primrose. These songs
offer a spirit of hope, the prospect for change, and remind us of
what happens when we unite in a common purpose.
Finally, while we began the concert by singing gently, at the end of
our concert we

Raise our voices high and sing to the Lord
Where our hands were reaching towards one another, they are now
lifted up in celebration. There is promise in what our hands can do,
and what we can do together in community. How will we act on that
promise?

MARK YOUR CALENDARS TODAY
Join the SCU Concert Choir and Chamber Singers

at their next concert.
Fusion

Friday, June 3, 2022
7:30 p.m.

Mission Santa Clara

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CONCERT CHOIR AND CHAMBER SINGERS

Clayton Baldwin* Gabriella Martinez
Pixie Barrett Alec Melosini*
Zoë Barton Carols Nunez
Corinne Burns Conrad Park*
Riley Carpenter* Sophie Posse*
Leonie Casper* Brain Puskarczyk
Tong Chen Khoi Quach
Kate Cocales* Gabby Rosenberg
Jesse Ding* Alessio Santiago
Matthew Ding Steven Suljak*
Katie Elkind* Aleena Sunil
Sophia Flores* Grace Tacchetti
Diana Galstyan Andrew Tan
Abhinav Gokhale* David Torres*
Mary Harmon* Primrose Waranimman*†
Matthew Hodges Adam Weaver
Kristin Koekema* Yuling Wu*
Zikai Huang Jinyuan Zhen
Sarah Beth Johnson* Jiakai Zhu*
Kyle Kinard* Emily Zmurk
Jed Lambino
Alexander Law * Chamber Singer
Alex Martin † Choral Assistant

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DEPARTMENT OF MUSIC FACULTY & STAFF

Department Chair Jazz Ensemble and Anthony Rivera, Strings
Bruno Ruviaro Jazz Combos: Saxophone
Motoko Toba, Violin
Carl Schultz Brass Alexandra Leem, Viola
Frederic Rosselet, Cello
Music Theory Orchestra: Richard Roper, Karen Thielen, Harp
John Kennedy Trumpet
John Kennedy Leslie Hart, French Jazz Studies
Teresa McCollough Horn
Kristin Strom, Saxophone
Anthony Rivera SCLOrk Percussion Carl Schultz, Saxophone
Bruno Ruviaro (Laptop Orchestra): Richard Roper, Trumpet
John Kennedy Jon Dryden, Piano
Musicianship Bruno Ruviaro Frank Wyant William Stevens, Piano
Jim Witzel, Guitar
William Stevens Music Theatre Piano Daniel Robbins, Jazz
Bass
Composition Workshop: Hans Boepple
Nancy Wait-Kromm Nicholas Dold Recording
Vivian Fung Teresa McCollough Engineering

John Kennedy Wind Ensemble: Vocal Studies Jeff Hanson
Bruno Ruviaro Anthony Rivera Robin Whitehouse
Leroy Kromm,
Music History/ World Music Bass-Baritone Staff Accompanist
Ethnomusicology Ensemble: Scot Hanna-Weir,
Baritone Dan Cromeenes
Ray Furuta Ray Furuta Debra Lambert, Nicolas Dold
Scot Hanna-Weir Mezzo-Soprano Daniel Lockert
Jenny Matteucci, Elizabeth Neff
John Kennedy Conducting Soprano
Anthony Rivera Aimée Puentes, Department
Carl Schultz Scot Hanna-Weir Soprano Manager
Nancy Wait-Kromm John Kennedy Michele Rivard,
Christina Zanfagna Anthony Rivera Mezzo-Soprano Katie Williams
Nancy Wait-Kromm,
Performing Woodwinds Soprano Director of Musical
Ensembles Performance
Ray Furuta, Flute
Chamber Singers and Adrienne Malley, Debra Lambert
Concert Choir: Oboe
Scot Hanna-Weir Ginger Kroft, Clarinet
Shawn Jones,
Basoon

DEPARTMENT OF MUSIC DONORS

PRESIDENT’S CIRCLE ASSOCIATE Susan Kometani FRIEND
The Argosy Foundation Susan and Stephen Adrienne and Jude Christina Andrade
Dr. Lee and Mrs. Kay Ravishankar Bhaskaran
Brennan Lampitelli Dolores Bravo
Greenwald Brent K. Izutsu Robert Lowery Gregory Hecathorn
Mrs. Bea Kuteman Harris Janet Murphy Pamela Allston Madden Trese Nino
Mr. and Mrs Thomas E. Kathy Mattingly Doug Pickering
SPONSOR Belinda A. May Anthony Raymond
Lanctot Alex Casiano Dorothy Shoup
Janesh and Winita Ivy Depner DONOR
Norman Dittmann Lauren Beaumont
Moorjani Mary and John Doyle Giovanni Castillo
Haunani Nakabara Lori and Brian Green Michelle J. Vejeby
Jennifer Maxwell Janice and Richard Harada
Brent K. Izutsu
BENEFACTOR
Bryn and Hans Boepple

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SCU•PRESENTS PERFORMING ARTS CENTER STAFF

Butch Coyne Jennifer Reichert

Director Marketing and
Communications Manager
Tina Sciolla
Armida Robles
Business Manager
Patron Services Supervisor
Carolyn Guggemos

Production Manager

SCU•PRESENTS PERFORMING ARTS CENTER DONORS

PRESIDENT’S CIRCLE Tully Moxness Susan Griffin ARTS FOR SOCIAL
Melanie Brace Susanne Mulcahy Djuwita Harjadi JUSTICE DONORS
J. Gerald & Mona Clements Darryl Noda Claire Hawley
Esther Rechenmacher Charles Noya Diane Heerwagen SPONSOR
Jeff And Penny Osorio Judy Hodkiewicz Kristen Brown
SPONSOR Katie Peuvrelle Viki Inouye
Charles Barkis Henry & Catherine Patricia Irwin DONOR
Mona-Lisa Blouin Ricardo Wendy Jolles Andre Abrahamians
Puja Bohacek Anna Rutter Tracey Kahan Katherine Almazol
Debra Demartini Anthony Sampson Wayne Kamiya Dawn Burton
Chris Esteban Dianne Stauffer Joey Kipp Patricia Cain
Claire Hawley Nick Steiner Dave Land Erica Mikesh
Theresa Ruby-Percell Leslie Stobbe Laura Lenza Patti Simone
John Lewis Jill Stolarik Bruce Lescher Patricia Tennant
Pamela Allston Madden Barbara Wadors Bette Linderman Richard Upton
Craig Nairn Maureen Locke Juley Yakominich
Lawrence Nelson FRIEND Ted Lorraine Jason Yee
Laurie Poe Chase Abrams Hannah Luscher
Hudson Washburn Beverly Acuna James Mar FRIEND
Lizabeth Yee Molly Aufdermauer Kathy Mattingly Nicole Banks
Barbara Murray Robert Baines Mike Metcalf Julie Garcia
Judy Boccignone Carl Miya Barbara Green-Ajufo
DONOR Alina Borchardt Joanne Miyahara Sandra Howard
Andre Abrahamians Lisa Bowden Lan Nguyen Donna Johns
Jayne Booker Christella Burton Ronald Ogi Ashley Lucas
Phyllis Brown Greg Callaghan Lorette Pirio Roslyn Lyons
Patricia Cain Patricia Cargnoni Marianne Poblenz Ruth Mikusko
Barbara Colyar Karen Carter Jenn Poret Mary Miller
Leana Dalton Loyace Clegg Katherine Sampson Barbara Murray
Ann Digioia Krys Jennifer Couture William Santos Marianne Poblenz
Frank Farris Patricia Curia Pam Saunders Jenn Poret
Judy Foot Sharon Dahnert Cindie Simms Lisa Reyes
Tuyet Giles Sandra De Alcuaz Tobie Smith Tara Steele
Esther Goes Henry Dearborn Anne Marie Starr Norma Welles
Claire Hawley Michael Digioia Julia Sullivan J Wentworth
Julie Henriques Jack Dubin Weston Tierney Jillian Yakominich
Keith Inouye Eric Eklund Richard Upton
Lauren John Lottie Esteban Betty Verhoeven
Janet Kleinhofer Seiko Fujii Tamara Welsh
Ann Krys Ellyn Gaich Kimber Wood
Bette Linderman Gregory Galati Jane Wu
Maria Longsworth Bonnie George Erica Yee
Ian Mccamey Catherine Giberson Barbara Zinicola

THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT! 7