Since 2010 Consort has sung 12 compositions by Kevin A. Memley, including a number of pieces while on tour with the Allan Petker Chorale. Kevin is our most performed composer after Allan. He has traveled from his home in Fresno several times to attend Consort performances, and was our accompanist in 2012 when we sang both his “Gloria” and “Magnificat.” In May of 2015, a number of our members joined him in a performance of his Magnificat at Carnegie Hall.
| Quiz of the Day Allan and Kevin are Consort’s most performed living composers. If we count all the composers whose work we have sung, how many of our top 10 can you name? (Answer below) |
Kevin was kind enough to review all of the videos we have of his pieces and gave us a ranking of his favorite top six. Today we present number six, his beautiful “Sing Contate Domino,” (Psalm 96:1-5) from Opus 22 in 2015. Kevin was our recording engineer for this concert. Accompanist was Alla Artemova.
Sing, sing, sing, sing … Cantate Domino. Cantate Domino canticum novum. Cantate Domino omnis terra. Cantate Domino et benedicite nomini ejus. Annuntiate de die in diem salutare ejus. Annuntiate inter gentes gloriam ejus. Quoniam magnus Dominum et laudabilis nimis. Terribilis est super omnes deos. Sing, sing, sing, sing … Cantate Domino!
Sing to the Lord a new song. Sing to the Lord all the land. Sing to the Lord and bless his name. Declare his salvation from day to day. Declare God’s glory among the nations. For the Lord is great and greatly to be praised. Feared above all gods. Sing to the Lord a new song!
Answer: The first nine of Consort’s most performed composers, in order, are: Allan Robert Petker, Kevin A. Memley, Joseph Haydn, Johannes Brahms, Eric Whitacre, George Frideric Handel, Morton Lauridsen, and Moses Hogan.
Tenth position is a five-way tie between: Anton Bruckner, David Dickau (who will be our guest conductor in 2022), Stacey Gibbs, Jack Halloran, and Charles Villiers Stanford.
Sanford Dole gets an honorable mention in eleventh place. He’s then followed by many well-known composers like: Mozart, Saint-Saens, Debussy, Poulenc, Vivaldi – and somewhere way down – Bach, who we have not attempted since 1999.
All counted, we have performed pieces by more than 98 different composers, though the actual number is probably higher, since this count comes from our programs, which do not list the encore pieces.