The Andrews University Chorale and Singers will perform their second concert of the year, entitled “A Vision Unfolding,” on Nov. 2 at 8 p.m. in the Howard Performing Arts Center.
The program is bookended with pieces that discuss the spirit of God (“Spirit of God, Descend upon My Heart” by Loren Wiebe and “A New Jerusalem Arise” by Kyle Pederson). By the end of the first half, the audience will hear about God’s character through the musical pieces and discover how his character should urge them, like the title of their sixth piece states, to “Obey the Spirit of the Lord.” How to take this to heart during a time of political and cultural turmoil and apply it to one's life in a practical way is demonstrated in the program’s second half.
Professor Stephen Zork, conductor of the choirs, says that although this concert is taking place three days before the presidential election, the concert’s theme was not planned with the election in mind.
“I think it doesn’t matter what side of the fence or political party you are, you know, it’s unusual. When I chose the program, I had no context of the fact that it’s happening three days before the election, but it is profound that it is,” says Zork.
Early in the program, the group will sing “Sanctus: London,” a song by Norwegian composer Ola Gjeilo. This song, which has Latin lyrics from the liturgy, talks about how both the heavens and the earth glorify God. Jonathan Kasper (sophomore, architecture), who sings bass in University Singers, is excited to perform Gjeilo’s piece.
“It’s very beautiful—singing it in the choir room is a lot of fun because you can hear every part of it, but performing it in the performing arts center is going to be even more fun,” he says.
Bella Voce, a new student-led vocal octet, will be performing “Adoramus Te, Christe” (Latin for “we adore thee, Christ”) by Eric Barnum. The group will sing four different praises that come directly from the liturgy of the church. That the octet—which was started this year by Violetta Matsiuk (freshman, music education), who joined an octet in her senior year of high school and wanted to continue that form of chamber music in college—is participating in this concert is exciting.
Near the end of the first half of the program, University Singers will premiere “Song of Assurance,” which alumnus Michael Sandvik composed specifically for University Singers. Sandvik, who was a member of the Andrews University Department of Music, graduated in 2012 and now teaches music at Great Lakes Adventist Academy. The piece is the composer’s answer to the cacophony and the noise that the only way to turn off is to rely on God. Sandvik will also attend the concert—a special treat.
The program’s centerpiece, and the piece from which the program’s title is taken, is “A Vision Unfolding” by Kyle Pederson, which will be performed directly after a brief intermission. Pederson says that when composing the piece, his goal was to show the values that the United States has stood for in its best moments—values of equality, freedom, and justice.
Each of the five movements of this work has words written by prominent American poets. The lyrics in the first movement, “Reach Down, Lord,” were written by a friend of Zork—Robert Bode, retired conductor in residence at The Ohio State University School of Music. The song is a prayer to God, petitioning Him to reach down low and save us while simultaneously urging humans to reach down to take care of our brothers and sisters.
The lyrics of the second movement, “Beat! Drums!,” come from a famous poem Walt Whitman wrote during the Civil War. The text talks about how life could not go on as normal during the Civil War, highlighting the juxtaposition of the way wars function now.
Zork expands on this idea, saying, “Now, we send drones over to do our dastardly deeds. We obliterate things but it’s all done surgically. Our soldiers go off and come back and we praise them for their work and their service, but nothing in our lives changes here.”
“All of Me,” the third movement of “A Vision Unfolding,” particularly speaks to student Ryleigh Snow (junior, graphic design).
“Right now,” she says, “there's a lot of division and hate among people that I'm surrounded by—people that I love—and the song is, it's a call to see people for more than their political views, more than our differences.”
Snow says that at the end of the day, most people want the same outcome, but they see different ways of getting there, and that instead of letting that divide us, people need to start looking at what brings them together.
The composer, Kyle Pederson, similarly reflects that this song is meant to urge the audience to step out of their comfort zones to build community, not judging others for the color of their skin, their sexual orientation, faith or even whom they vote for.
According to Pederson, the goal of the song is that we “might not dismiss, disdain, and judge those whose politics are different from ours, but that we might make the uncomfortable effort to see them as people just as worthy of respect and dignity.”
Kasper says he is excited for this concert because of “the variety of music that we’re learning. There are lots of different types of songs that we’ve been learning from, like the a capella of ‘Sanctus’ to kind of like the upbeat, bounciness of the Bach [motet], and then of course ‘Obey the Spirit of the Lord,’the spiritual. Lots of variety, and it makes it so much fun.”
Tickets are $5.00 for students and seniors and $7 for all other attendees. They can be purchased on the Howard Performing Arts Center website or at the box office.
The Student Movement is the official student newspaper of Andrews University. Opinions expressed in the Student Movement are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the editors, Andrews University or the Seventh-day Adventist church.