We conclude our miniseries on composers with our most recently performed composer, Bradley Ellingboe, who was also our first guest conductor this past year, Opus 26, 2019.
Bradley has led a wide-ranging career in the world of singing, including accomplishments as a choral conductor, soloist, composer, scholar and teacher. As a choral conductor he has led festival choruses in 35 states and 14 foreign countries. As a bass-baritone soloist he has sung under such conductors as Shaw, Rilling, and Willcocks. Ellingboe has over 140 pieces of music in print. For his scholarly work in making the songs of Grieg more accessible to the English-speaking public, he was knighted by the King of Norway in 1994. As a teacher, the University of New Mexico Alumni Association named him Faculty of the Year in 2008.
| Persons of the Day: Those who do our Auditions So much of Consort’s ability to perform at better levels each year is partially due to a small group who do the auditions for prospective members. They are not only looking for skilled singers, but also evaluating how new voices will blend with our chorus. In recent years Consort has reached capacity and our year-to-year retention of existing members is quite high. This means that openings, even in our Tenor section, are becoming less common, giving us the ability to be more selective. We would like to thank those who have assisted with auditions: Allan Petker, Bob Friestad, Ruthann Lovetang, David Irvine, Sanford Dole, RuthE Wells, and Martha Wall. |
This piece was written as a commissioned anthem to celebrate the 25th anniversary of a music minister serving a church in Tucson, Arizona. It uses a portion of a poem by Dryden, which can be found in the 2019 program on page 4. The musical setting by Ellingboe is meant to be rousing, in keeping with the celebratory nature of the event, as well as lyrical, in honor of music’s power to conjure love— in this case love of God and the church.