Steven Zopfi, conductor Special guests: the Portland Actors EnsembleSt. Mary’s Cathedral | Saturday, May 2, 7:30pm | Sunday, May 3, 1:30pm

Established in 1945, the Portland Symphonic Choir has a long and rich legacy of bringing the choral masterworks to the Northwest. Singers selected for membership in this largely volunteer ensemble come from all over the Portland Metro area and from all walks of life. Under the leadership of Artistic Director Steven Zopfi, the Choir has achieved a reputation of excellence and dedication through creating powerful, accessible choral experiences for all kinds of music enthusiasts — from the experienced musician to the brand new listener.

In addition to performing major works as the resident chorus of the Oregon Symphony, the Choir regularly commissions and premieres choral works by composers from across the US, including such notable artists as Jacob Avshalomov, Salvador

Brotons, Stephen Paulus, Tomas Svoboda, and Bryan Johanson. Several recent concerts have celebrated American music and its history of song.

Bringing music to the community is a key part of the mission of the Portland Symphonic Choir. A founding member of the Arts for All program, the Choir provides low cost tickets to Oregon Trail Card participants. The Choir has also teamed with Oregon Mentors and Providence ElderPlace to provide all ages free or low-cost access to concerts. And each summer, choral music lovers are invited to sing along with members of the Symphonic Choir at Summer Sings.

2014–15 Portland Symphonic Choir Board & Staff

About the Portland Symphonic Choir

Cover design courtesy of Lodestar Studio. Cover photograph courtesy of A. Davey Coogan. All rights reserved.

Portland Symphonic ChoirPO Box 1517, Portland, Oregon, 97207

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Executive CommitteeMark Petersen – ChairTom Hard – Vice ChairMarianne Sweeney – SecretaryLarry Winkle – Treasurer

Board MembersJudith BabbittJason BrauserCara CantonwineAlexis GabrielDaniel KnaussKatherine LefeverAllen W. Richards Mary Nelson– Choir PresidentJanelle Manske – Choir Vice PresidentShannon McNerney – Ex-officioSteven Zopfi – Ex-officio

Artistic StaffArtistic Director – Steven ZopfiAssistant Director – Kathryn LehmannAccompanist – Douglas Schneider

Administrative StaffExecutive Director – Shannon McNerney Development & Events Manager – Allison SpecterSummer Sings Program Manager – Marianne SweeneyProduction Manager – Mark PetersenOrchestra Personnel Coordinator – Janet GeorgeMusic Librarians – Wayne Carlon, Cameron Griffith Herbert Auditions Coordinator – Diana deTar-MarchandDatabase Manager – Erika Martin2014–15 Intern – Alex W. Simon

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Program Notes

Three Shakespeare Songs and Serenade to Music

RAlPh VAughAN WilliAMS (1872–1958)

Early in 1938, a noted English conductor asked Ralph Vaughan Williams to compose a piece to celebrate his golden jubilee as a conductor. The composer had been wanting to set Jessica and Lorenzo’s reflection on the power of music from Merchant of Venice for years, and he threw himself into the work happily. The completed Serenade to Music for sixteen soloists and orchestra was premiered at Royal Albert Hall on October 5; upon hearing the first performance, the noted composer and pianist Sergei Rachmaninoff was moved to tears. The composer later adapted the work so that the work could be performed by four soloists or orchestra alone and approved the use of a chorus to sing the solo lines. The Serenade’s lush harmonic language, soaring melodic lines from the soprano and violin solo, and attention to textual nuance perfectly capture the intimacy of Shakespeare’s scene and may be one of the most beautiful settings of the bard’s words ever composed.

The Three Shakespeare Songs of Vaughan Williams come from the last

decade of the composer’s life and are the result of a request by choral conductor Armstrong Gibbs for an unaccompanied choral work to serve as a “test piece” for the Federation of Music Festival. The composer again turned to Shakespeare for inspiration and chose three “magical” texts, one for each of the three songs in the cycle. The first song is a setting of the magician-sprite Ariel’s consolation of Ferdinand, who is has been led to believe his father has died in a shipwreck in Act I of The Tempest. The composer’s strange harmonic language and undulating rhythms somewhat obscure the meter of the song and conjure up the gloomy underwater grave. The text of the second song is the magician Prospero’s speech to his daughter and her fiancé in Act IV upon the fragility of mortal life. This movement is intimately connected to the fourth movement of the composer’s Symphony #6, as both are based on the same text and both end in an identical choral progression. The composer later said that the entire set was based on the words “We are such stuff as dreams are made on.” The shifting harmonic language and ambiguous key center lend this piece a slightly uneasy air and further underscore the fleetingness of life. The final song, Over Hill, Over Dale, is the most direct of the three. Set

in a lilting 6/8, the piece details a pastoral journey through the woods by one of Queen Titania’s fairies of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. The fun journey comes to a rather strange end on an augmented major 7th chord as if to underscore the magical quality of all three songs.

Shakespeare Songs MATTheW hARRiS (b. 1956)

Although award-winning New York composer Matthew Harris has composed works for many leading musical ensembles, including the Minnesota and Houston Symphony Orchestras and the New York City Opera, he has a special affinity for choral composition. Many leading American choruses, including the Dale Warland Singers, the Phoenix Bach Choir, and the Western Wind have all sung and recorded his works. The composer’s monumental six-volume collection of Shakespeare’ s songs includes twenty-one songs composed over twenty years. The four songs performed tonight come from books three (1992) and four (1995) and range in style from the wistful folk-style of “It was a Lover and his Lass” to the raucous dance tune “When Daffodils Begin to Peer.”

89.9 FM Portland/Vancouver 88.1 Lincoln City / Newport 96.3 Columbia Gorge East 88.1 Hood River/ e Dalles 88.9 Manzanita 90.3 McMinnville

A Few Words About This Program

Shakespeare’s words and music have always had a special connection. Shakespeare intended songs to be sung in almost every one of his plays and even wrote the words himself. His canonical plays have over 300 stage directions for music. Though scholars do not know who wrote the music for these original songs, over the years many composers have taken a stab at setting the words of Shakespeare: both his songs, and excerpts from his plays and poetry. From Thomas Morley to Felix Mendelssohn to Cole Porter, the inherent musicality of Shakespeare’s prose lends itself to a merry music making. When we turned our attention to assembling some of the best choral settings of Shakespeare for this project, it seemed fitting that we incorporate that other element of Shakespeare’s mastery into our show: drama! For that, it seemed natural to partner with the Portland Actors Ensemble. PAE is one of the longest operating theater companies in Portland, with a rich history of their Shakespeare in the Parks. Portland Actors Ensemble has been the perfect artistic partner for

a program of Shakespeare’s music and texts. So sit back and relax as the Portland Symphonic Choir and the Portland Actors Ensemble explores the music of Shakespeare. We hope that it is not “much ado about nothing” but rather “as you like it!”

— Steven Zopfi, Artistic Director Portland Symphonic Choir

It is a pleasure and an inspiration to collaborate with Portland Symphonic Choir on this program. Shakespeare’s canon illuminates more about the human condition than can be bound in any one sitting, or limited to any one mode of expression, as the richness of these musical compositions attest. In selecting passages to accompany these movements, two quotations from Twelfth Night surfaced and re-surfaced. The first is Orsino’s plaint that opens that play: “If music be the food of love, play on / give me excess of it that, surfeiting, / the appetite may sicken and so die,” and the second the oft-cited lyric sung by Feste that journeys end in lover’s

meeting. Orsino is lovesick and longs to be sick of love; desire’s dual nature is a chord that resounds throughout this sample of Shakespeare from the halls of Elsinore to an orchard within the beleaguered Troy. We’ll move from the suffering Hamlet to the poet’s own introspection, and from the grieving Duchess and the lamenting, Gaunt to the confused courtship between Olivia and Viola, and the bold, beautiful, foolish proclamations of love that are traded between Troilus and Cressida. Along the way, there is much to enjoy and much to discover, and for those who have not spent much time with the bard before, I hope this is the first of many meetings.

— Asae Dean, Director Portland Actors Ensemble

From the Directors

See some of the world’s best plays performed in some of Portland’s most beautiful places. There are no tickets and no reservations. Bring a pic-nic, good friends, and the kids. Performances are supported by audi-ence donations.

For more information and schedule, visit portlandactors.com

Join us this summer

for our 46th season

Macbeth

The Taming of the Shrew

July 11-Sep 7 at

various parks,

universities and

wineries

June 18-July 25 at

Lone Fir Cemetery

Shakespeare in SongPortland Symphonic Choir

Steven Zopfi, Artistic Director Kathryn Lehmann, Assistant Conductor

Portland Actors EnsembleMichael Godsey, Artistic Director

Asae Dean, Director

ACT I Please hold your applause until the end of each act.

hamlet, iii, ii

Three Shakespeare Songs Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958)

Full Fathom Five (The Tempest, I, ii)Full fathom five thy father lies; Of his bones are coral made; Those are pearls that were his eyes: Nothing of him that doth fade, But doth suffer a sea-change Into something rich and strange. Sea-nymphs hourly ring his knell: Ding-dong. Hark! now I hear them—Ding-dong, bell.

The Cloud-Capp’d Towers (The Tempest IV, i)The cloud-capp’d towers, the gorgeous palaces, The solemn temples, the great globe itself, Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve, And, like this insubstantial pageant faded, Leave not a rack behind: We are such stuff As dreams are made on, and our little life Is rounded with a sleep.

Over Hill, Over Dale (A Midsummer Night’s Dream, II, i)Over hill, over dale, Thorough bush, thorough briar, Over park, over pale, Thorough flood, thorough fire I do wander everywhere. Swifter than the moonè’s sphere; And I serve the fairy queen,

To dew her orbs upon the green. The cowslips tall her pensioners be; In their gold coats spots you see; Those be rubies, fairy favours, In those freckles live their savours: I must go seek some dew-drops here, And hang a pearl in every cowslip’s ear.

Sonnet #110

Three Madrigals eMMA lou DieMeR (b. 1927)

Prolific American composer Emma Lou Diemer’s popular Three Madrigals is one of her two settings of Shakespeare’s texts. Diemer’s attention to the text is immediately evident in the expressive piano part. The sprightliness of the first song gives way to repeated octaves and slowly shifting harmonies in “Take, O take those lips away.” The third song’s rollicking piano underscores Shakespeare’s caveat to beware the “fraud of men” and also to be “blithe and bonny.”

From An unknown Past NeD RoReM (b. 1923)

Composer and author Ned Rorem has always had a special affinity for words. Time magazine has labeled him “the world’s best composer of art songs,” and though he has been active in almost every field of composition imaginable, it is for the unique marriage of text and music that is vocal music for which he is best known. Rorem composed the seven-song suite for unaccompanied mixed choir in 1951 while living in Paris. Each brief movement is reminiscent of the renaissance genre of the madrigal in which the text and music were

intimately intertwined. Rorem’s’ choice of period texts and archaic sounding music fit together in perfect harmony.

Music to hear geoRge SheARiNg (1919-2011)

Though most well known as a multiple Grammy winner and recording artist and the creator of the “Shearing” sound, the legendary blind jazz pianist and creator of Lullaby of Birdland was also a prolific composer with over 300 works to his pen. Commissioned by the Dale Warland Singers in 1985, Music to Hear is the first of two choral suites scored for choir, string bass, and piano. Shearing himself played the premiere during the Singers’ ’85-86 season and says of the texts, “It occurred to me that, obviously, I would need a first-rate lyricist…one who wouldn’t be too busy to help. Fortunately, almost immediately William Shakespeare appeared and offered his literary services.” Shearing’s suite of five songs runs the gamut from the harmonic language of Frederick Delius, to the madrigals of Shakespeare’s day to Shearing’s own unique jazz idiom. As is the custom, the last two movements will be performed in reverse order.

Program Notes

Intermission

ACT II

Shakespeare Songs Matthew harris (b. 1956)

It Was a Lover and His Lass, Book III, (As You Like It, V, iii)It was a lover and his lass, With a hey, and a ho, and a hey nonino, That o’er the green corn field did pass, In the spring time, the only pretty ring time, When birds do sing, hey ding a ding, ding; Sweet lovers love the spring.

Between the acres of the rye, With a hey, and a ho, and a hey nonino, These pretty country folks would lie, In the spring time…

This carol they began that hour, With a hey, and a ho, and a hey nonino, How that life was but a flower In the spring time…

And, therefore, take the present time With a hey, and a ho, and a hey nonino For love is crown`d with the prime In the spring time…

Blow, Blow Thou Winter Wind, Book IV (As You Like It, II, vii)Blow, blow, thou winter wind Thou art not so unkind As man’s ingratitude; Thy tooth is not so keen, Because thou art not seen, Although thy breath be rude. Heigh-ho! sing, heigh-ho! unto the green holly: Most friendship is feigning, most loving mere folly: Then heigh-ho, the holly! This life is most jolly.

Freeze, freeze thou bitter sky, That dost not bite so nigh As benefits forgot: Though thou the waters warp, Thy sting is not so sharp As friend remembered not. Heigh-ho! sing, heigh-ho!…

O Mistress Mine, Book III, (Twelfth Night, II, iii)

Christopher Benjamin, tenor

O mistress mine, where are you roaming? O, stay and hear! Your true love’s coming, That can sing both high and low: Trip no further, pretty sweeting. Journeys end in lovers meeting, Every wise man’s son doth know.

What is love? ‘Tis not hereafter; Present mirth hath present laughter, What’s to come is still unsure: In delay there lies no plenty. Then come kiss me, sweet and twenty! Youth’s a stuff will not endure.

When Daffodils Begin to Peer, Book IV (The Winter’s Tale, IV, ii)

Stephanie Benischek, soprano Wendy Hein, soprano

When daffodils begin to peer, -- With heigh! The doxy over the dale, -- Why, then comes in the sweet o’ the year; For the red blood reigns in the winter’s pale.

The white sheet bleaching on the hedge, With heigh! the sweet birds, O, how they sing! Doth set my pugging tooth on edge; For a quart of ale is a dish for a king.

The lark, that tirra-lyra chants, With heigh! heigh! the thrush and the jay, Are summer songs for me and my aunts, While we lie tumbling in the hay.

Twelfth Night, i, v

Music to hear george Shearing (1919-2011)

Kevin Deitz, string bass Douglas Schneider, piano

Music to Hear (Sonnet #8)Music to hear, why hear’st thou music sadly? Sweets with sweets war not, joy delights in joy: Why lovest thou that which thou receivest not gladly, Or else receivest with pleasure thine annoy? If the true concord of well-tuned sounds, By unions married, do offend thine ear, They do but sweetly chide thee, who confounds

In singleness the parts that thou shouldst bear. Mark how one string, sweet husband to another, Strikes each in each by mutual ordering; Resembling sire and child and happy mother, Who, all in one, one pleasing note do sing: Whose speechless song being many, seeming one, Sings this to thee: ‘Thou single wilt prove none.’

Shall I Compare Thee To A Summer’s Day (Sonnet #18)Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate: Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, And summer’s lease hath all too short a date: Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines, And often is his gold complexion dimmed, And every fair from fair sometime declines,

By chance, or nature’s changing course untrimmed: But thy eternal summer shall not fade, Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st, Nor shall death brag thou wander’st in his shade, When in eternal lines to time thou grow’st, So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see, So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

Richard ii, i, ii

Music to hear george Shearing (1919-2011)

Is It for Fear To Wet A Widow’s Eye (Sonnet #9)Is it for fear to wet a widow’s eye, That thou consum’st thy self in single life? Ah! if thou issueless shalt hap to die, The world will wail thee like a makeless wife; The world will be thy widow and still weep That thou no form of thee hast left behind, When every private widow well may keep

By children’s eyes, her husband’s shape in mind: Look what an unthrift in the world doth spend Shifts but his place, for still the world enjoys it; But beauty’s waste hath in the world an end, And kept unused the user so destroys it. No love toward others in that bosom sits That on himself such murd’rous shame commits.

Richard ii, ii.ii

Serenade to Music (The Merchant of Venice, V, i) Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958)

Cameron Griffith Herbert, soprano Janet George, violin

Douglas Schneider, organ

How sweet the moonlight sleeps upon this bank! Here will we sit and let the sounds of music Creep in our ears: soft stillness and the night Become the touches of sweet harmony. …Look how the floor of heaven Is thick inlaid with patines of bright gold: There’s not the smallest orb that thou behold’st But in his motion like an angel sings, Still quiring to the young-eyed cherubins; Such harmony is in immortal souls; But whilst this muddy vesture of decay Doth grossly close it in, we cannot hear it. Come, ho! and wake Diana with a hymn! With sweetest touches pierce your mistress’ ear, And draw her home with music. I am never merry when I hear sweet music.

The reason is, your spirits are attentive. …The man that hath no music in himself, Nor is not mov’d with concord of sweet sounds, Is fit for treasons, stratagems and spoils; The motions of his spirit are dull as night And his affections dark as Erebus: Let no such man be trusted. Music! hark! …It is the music of the house. Methinks it sounds much sweeter than by day. Silence bestows that virtue on it How many things by season season’d are To their right praise and true perfection! Peace, ho! the moon sleeps with Endymion And would not be awak’d. …Soft stillness and the night Become the touches of sweet harmony.

The Miracle (anonymous, about 1600)Behold a wonder here Love hath received his sight which many hundred years, hath not beheld the light.

Such beams infused be By Cynthia in his eyes, As first have made him see, And then have made him wise.

Love now no more will weep For them that laugh the while!

Nor wake for them that sleep, Nor sigh for them that smile!

So powerful is the Beauty That Love doth now behold, As love is turned to Duty, That’s neither blind nor bold.

Thus Beauty shows her might, To be of double kind, In giving love his sight And striking Folly blind.

Tears (from John Dowland’s Third Book of Songs and Airs)Weep you no more, sad fountains; What need you flow so fast? Look how the snowy mountains Heaven’s sun doth gently waste. But my sun’s heav’nly eyes View not your weeping That now lies sleeping, Softly, softly, now softly lies sleeping.

Sleep is a reconciling, A rest that peace begets. Doth not the sun rise smiling When fair at e’en he sets Rest you then, rest, sad eyes, Melt not in weeping While she lies sleeping, Softly, softly, now softly lies sleeping.

Crabbed Age and Youth (attributed to William Shakespeare)Crabbed age and youth cannot live together: Youth is full of pleasance, age is full of care; Youth like summer morn, age like winter weather; Youth like summer brave, age like winter bare. Youth is full of sport, age’s breath is short; Youth is nimble, age is lame;

Youth is hot and bold, age is weak and cold; Youth is wild, and age is tame. Age, I do abhor thee; youth, I do adore thee; O, my love, my love is young! Age, I do defy thee: O, sweet shepherd, hie thee, For methinks thou stay’st too long.

Troilus and Cressida

Music to hear george Shearing (1919-2011)

Kevin Deitz, string bass Douglas Schneider, piano

Blow, Blow Thou Winter Wind (As You Like It, II, vii)Blow, blow, thou winter wind Thou art not so unkind As man’s ingratitude; Thy tooth is not so keen, Because thou art not seen, Although thy breath be rude. Heigh-ho! sing, heigh-ho! unto the green holly: Most friendship is feigning, most loving mere folly: Then heigh-ho, the holly! This life is most jolly.

Freeze, freeze thou bitter sky, That dost not bite so nigh As benefits forgot: Though thou the waters warp, Thy sting is not so sharp As friend remembered not. Heigh-ho! sing, heigh-ho!…

Sigh No More Ladies, Sigh No More (Much Ado About Nothing, II,iii)Sigh no more, ladies, sigh nor more; Men were deceivers ever; One foot in sea and one on shore, To one thing constant never; Then sigh not so, But let them go, And be you blithe and bonny; Converting all your sounds of woe Into Hey nonny, nonny.

Sing no more ditties, sing no mo, Or dumps so dull and heavy; The fraud of men was ever so, Since summer first was leavy. Then sigh not so…

Three Madrigals emma lou Diemer (b. 1927)

Douglas Schneider, piano

O Mistress Mine, where are you roaming (Twelfth Night, II, i)

O mistress mine, where are you roaming? O, stay and hear! Your true love’s coming, That can sing both high and low: Trip no further, pretty sweeting. Journeys end in lovers meeting, Every wise man’s son doth know.

What is love? ‘Tis not hereafter; Present mirth hath present laughter, What’s to come is still unsure: In delay there lies no plenty. Then come kiss me, sweet and twenty! Youth’s a stuff will not endure.

Take, O Take Those Lips Away (Measure for Measure, IV, i)Take, O take those lips away, That so sweetly were forsworn; And those eyes, the break of day, Lights that do mislead the morn! But my kisses bring again, bring again, Seals of love, but sealed in vain, sealed in vain!

Sigh No More Ladies, Sigh No More (Much Ado About Nothing, II, iii)Sigh no more, ladies, sigh nor more; Men were deceivers ever; One foot in sea and one on shore, To one thing constant never; Then sigh not so, But let them go, And be you blithe and bonny; Converting all your sounds of woe Into Hey nonny, nonny.

Sing no more ditties, sing no mo, Or dumps so dull and heavy; The fraud of men was ever so, Since summer first was leavy. Then sigh not so…

Twelfth Night, i, v

From An unknown Past Ned Rorem (b. 1923)

The Lover in Winter Plaineth for the Spring (anonymous, 16th century)O western wind, when wilt thou blow That the small rain down can rain? Christ, that my love were in my arms And I in my bed again!

Hey Nonny No! (Christ Church Manuscript)Hey nonny no! Men are fools that wish to die! Is ‘t not fine to dance and sing When the bells of death do ring? Is ‘t not fine to swim in wine,

And turn upon the toe, And sing hey nonny no! When the winds blow and the seas flow? Hey nonny no!

My Blood So Red (anonymous)My blood so red For thee was shed, Come home again, come home again; My own sweet heart, come home again!

You’ve gone astray Out of your way, Come home again, come home again!

Suspiria (anonymous)O would I were where I would be! There would I be where I am not: For where I am would I not be And where I would be I can not.

olivia Shimkus (guildenstern, Duchess of gloucester, York, Viola)

Originally from New York City, Olivia Shimkus has lived, trained, and performed in Philadelphia, Los Angeles, and Bloomington, Indiana before making Portland her home. Over the past five years she has performed locally in musical and dramatic productions at Lakewood Theatre (The 39 Steps), The Broadway Rose (Ripper), the 2014 Fertile Ground Festival (Dear Momma), Northwest Children’s Theatre (Willy Wonka, Seussical), the Magenta Theater (She Loves Me), Portland Actors Ensemble (Pericles), and the Portland Revels. Regional theater credits include children’s theatre productions for the Bristol Riverside Theater and the Delaware Valley Community Theater, both in Pennsylvania. Local film and television credits include numerous short films and regional commercials. Olivia graduated from Indiana University with concentrations in Vocal Performance and Theatre. She would like to thank her husband, Jonathan, for his constant support and encouragement.

Douglas Reynolds (hamlet, Richard, Troilus)

Doug grew up in Chugiak, Alaska, and holds his BFA in acting from Southern Oregon University. Recently, he spends most of his down time training and playing with his new Ridgeback puppy, Harper. He is a writer, an amateur cook, a certified beer aficionado, and a lover of Shakespeare. Credits include Gratiano

in The Merchant of Venice, Sir Andrew Aguecheek in Twelfth Night, Mercutio in Romeo and Juliet, and his debut with PAE as the titular character in their 2012 production of Hamlet, performed in Lone Fir Cemetery. He is thrilled to be working on this unique celebration of music and Shakespeare with such a talented cast, choir, and crew. He will try not to shoot Curt Hanson in the back this time around, but makes no promises.

Jen elkington (Rosencrantz, Queen, olivia, Cressida)

Jen Elkington received her BA in Theatre from Southern Oregon University in Ashland, as well as a Certificate in Performance from American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco. Her previous roles with Portland Actors Ensemble include Maria in Twelfth Night and Titania in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Other favorite roles include Rosalind in As You Like It, Jessie Cates in ‘night Mother, Reno Sweeney in Anything Goes, and Zombie

Molly in The Revenents. She is also an ensemble member of the online comedy web series, Potty Talk (www.pottytalkpdx.com). She is a passionate traveler and has lived and/or studied theatre in Australia, Germany, England, Pennsylvania, California, New York, Washington, and Oregon.

Curt hanson (John of gaunt, Malvolio, Pandarus)

Curt is the Portland Actors Ensemble’s Business Director and has appeared almost annually in PAE’s “Shakespeare in the Parks” productions since 2007. An alumnus of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Curt began his acting “career” in Portland in 1972. Over the years, he has appeared in productions at the Portland Civic Theatre, New Rose Theatre, Columbia Theatre Company, the Northwest Classical Theatre Company, CoHo Theatre, the Portland Shakespeare Project, the Sandy Actors Theatre and the Nutz n Boltz Theatre … in addition to his eleven roles with PAE. Among his favorite roles have been “Doc” in Come Back Little Sheba, Prospero in The Tempest, Govenor Danforth in The Crucible, and Juror #8 in Twelve Angry Men. This century, his favorites include James Tyrone, Sr. in Long Day’s Journey Into Night, Baron Von Swieten in Amadeus, the Stage Manager in Thornton Wilder’s Our Town, Caesar in Julius Caesar, Malvolio in Twelfth Night and Lear in King Lear. A member of SAG-AFTRA, Curt has acted in numerous supporting TV and film roles including NBC’s mini-series Dead by Sunset; the USA channel’s Homewrecker; and as Mr. Perkins in the Warner Bros./Amblin production of The Goonies. Curt is delighted to work with Asae again and to be part of this PAE/Portland Symphonic Choir collaboration.

Artist BiosArtist Bios

Steven Zopfi, Artistic Director Portland Symphonic Choir

Hailed as one of the leading young conductors in the Pacific Northwest, Artistic Director Steven Zopfi serves as Director of Choral Activities at the University of Puget Sound and is the Artistic Director and Conductor of the Portland Symphonic Choir. Critics have hailed his work as “magical” and “superb” and choirs under his direction have been invited to sing at the local and regional conventions of the American Choral Directors Association, the Music Educators National Conference (now NAfME), and other professional organizations. Zopfi has served on the faculties of Penn State University, the University of Washington, and Pacific Lutheran University.

Zopfi, a native of New Jersey, attended the Hartt School of Music and the University of California at Irvine, and earned a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of Colorado. He has served as Vermont State President of the American Choral Directors Association and on the executive boards of the Vermont Music Educators Association and the Washington Choral Directors Association. He has prepared choruses for Carlos Kalmar, Bernard Labadie, Alastair Willis, Murray Sidlin, and Peter Schickele, and as a singer he has sung for many leading conductors, including Robert Shaw and Sir David Willcocks. Zopfi has performed with the Prague Philharmonic, the Colorado Symphony, the Oregon Symphony, and the New Jersey Symphony and is the founder and past Artistic Director of the Foundling Hospital Singers, the Boulder Schola Cantorum, the Grace Chamber Orchestra, and the Portland Sinfonietta.

Active as an editor of early music, Zopfi is also a passionate advocate for new music, and he has commissioned and conducted the world premieres of music

by Edwin Lawrence, Timothy Melbinger, Bryan Johanson, and Judith Zaimont. His music reviews and articles have been published in the Choral Journal and his arrangements and editions are published by Colla Voce publishing. Zopfi is in constant demand as a conductor, adjudicator, and clinician.

Kathrynn lehmann, Assistant Conductor Portland Symphonic Choir

In demand as a clinician throughout the Pacific Northwest and the West Coast, Portland Symphonic Choir Assistant Director Kathryn Lehmann has taught public school vocal music at the elementary and secondary levels in the Clover Park and Puyallup School districts in Washington. As a public school educator, she directed performing groups at Music Educator conventions at the state and regional levels in the Pacific Northwest, gaining a reputation for her expertise in developing the voice in a choral setting.

Kathryn is currently a member of the voice faculty at the University of Puget Sound. She holds a Bachelor of Music degree from Pacific Lutheran University and a Master of Music in Voice Performance and Pedagogy from Westminster Choir College in Princeton, New Jersey where she also served on the faculty for three years. She was granted the Francis Robinson Award for performance and academic achievement at Westminster and performed actively as a soprano soloist, including singing operatic roles at the Spoleto Festival, Aspen Music Festival and the Bowdoin Festival.

Most recently, Lehmann was the Director of Choral Activities at Pacific Lutheran University. She came to Washington following eleven years in Oregon, where she was the Director of Vocal and Choral Activities at Oregon State University and conducted the OSU Chamber Choir, Madrigal Singers, and the Opera Workshop. The OSU choirs performed nationally and internationally

under Lehmann’s direction, and in 1996, she was given the Stewart Award for faculty development and excellence. Lehmann was also an associate professor on the faculty of the University of Oregon for two years where she directed the U of O Chamber Choir, taught music education classes and directed the Eugene Chamber Singers. She was a performer and lecturer for the Oregon Bach Festival while in Eugene studying choral conducting with Helmuth Rilling. She traveled to Stuttgart, Germany to continue her studies of the Choral music of Bach at the Internationale Bach Akademie.

Asae Dean, Director Portland Actors ensemble

Asae Dean is a freelance director from Albuquerque, New Mexico, who now considers Portland home. Her classical directing credits include Julius Caesar and Much Ado About Nothing for Portland Actors Ensemble and Hamlet for Pittsburgh Classic Players. She holds a Master of Letters for her thesis Brides, Wives, & Widows: Marriage and Murder on the Early Modern Stage, which drew on her experience directing Thomas Kyd’s The Spanish Tragedy and Fletcher and Beaumont’s The Maid’s Tragedy at Mary Baldwin College in Staunton, Virginia. While there, she also earned a Master of Fine Arts for Cressida, her four-person adaptation of Shakespeare’s Troilus and Cressida. She’s studied with Giles Block, the master of verse at the Globe, and Tina Packer, the founder of Shakespeare & Co. Other directing credits include Luis Alfaro’s Electricidad: A Chicano Take on the Tragedy of Electra at the National Hispanic Cultural Center, Paula Vogel’s How I Learned to Drive and Sam Shepard’s Fool for Love at the Backdoor Theater, and Feral, an original work about homelessness in Portland for Compass Works. She is a voracious reader of poetry and a flamenco aficionado. She can be found online at www.asaedirects.com.

Portland Symphonic Choir Donors & Friends

Foundations & Corporate SupportAmazon SmileCambia Health FoundationCollins FoundationFred Meyer Rewards

Jackson FoundationMark Spencer HotelOregon Arts Commission

Oregon Community Foundation

Pacific Power FoundationPosterGarden Foundation

RBP MethodsRACCRegenceThe Standard

US BankWork for Art

$10,000 & above

Anonymous

$1,000 to $9,999AnonymousJason BrauserBruce & Daryl BrowneCarol Corchero

Don & Norma FalesGary GrossJeff HeatheringtonKathy Teyler Jarrett

Phil JoslinGerard & Mary NelsonRalph & Susan NelsonPatricia Rehm

Brian SchmeddinghoffMary Lane StevensMarianne Sweeney

Bill Scott & Kate ThompsonSteven Zopfi

$500 to $999Virgina AdelsheimJudith BabbittKathy Ganske

Robyn L. JohnsonMalle KollomDorothea Gauer Lail

Kathryn LehmannMichael F. Marchand &

Diana deTar Marchand

Hester NauJane StevensCarol Walker

$250 to $499Julie AdamsNate & Donavan

Burkert-KerrRick Deats

Helen DeitzMaria HeinCarol LaBrie &

Roger Edwards

Bonnie & Loyd JohnsonKatherine LefeverMarianne OttMark Perry

John SalmonJoel & Gail SemlerScott & Leslie

Sorensen-Jolink

Deborah Wright

$100 to $249Don & Meri AlrickDr. James & Mary AsaphBrett & Linda BargmanJames BashJoy BongiornoChris BrownMelody & Tracy BoyceRachel Portnoy BradleyPaul ButlerCara CantonwineBetsy & Bob Cooper

Carol D’AloisioDan DalzellKaren DiMiliaRuth DobsonElizabeth DysonKendra FriarKathy GarrettChristina GipsonBill & Cameron HerbertPhill HurleyJean Kimsey

Kari LiebertJudith LudwigsenBarbara A. ManildiErika MartinAlbert & Virginia McBrideSue-Del McCullochShannon McNerneyRamona MooreMichael & Deborah K.

MurrayPriscilla Nelson

Mark A. Petersen & Elo SaarBenno PhilippsonLinda ReisserAllen W. RichardsThomas RocksAriel Shai RogsonCarol RossioJames SaundersPatricia ScherzingerJeremy & Romalia ShibleyElmer Skurdahl

Melissa ThomasLucy Anne TillettAnn UlumDwight UphausJanice ViestenzDale & Rosalie WebberMarjorie WebberLorin WilkersonKirke WolfeConstance Zopfi

Up to $99AnonymousAlexander AlbertineSusan ArmentroutKathy Austen & Jeff LassahnPatricia BakerSusan BextonValerie BongiornoTim & Margaret BraunLonnie & Andrew BreningerBarbara Bridge

Elsa BurrWayne CarlonHallie ClarkElizabeth FarringtonOscar FernandezDavid FoleyBarbara & Robert GuthWendy HeinChristina HemphillDaniel Hibbett

Brianne KerrRichard B. KieburtzKaren Mucha LabingerLenore LeinesLinda MantelLois MaxwellMartha McKinnonJoseph McMahonMark MeekSherry Olson

Sandy PaganoSue PersingerMatthew Alan PhillipsStephen RaherMichael & Miriam RogsonBetty RorenRichard RydmanElaine & Peter SchmidtDavid & Laurie SherburneCarl Selin

Martin TobiasKathleen S. WeaverAndrew & Julie WheelerKate WithiamNorma Withiam

List as of 4/6/2015

Support Portland’s Choir!

PSC’s reputation as a force in local choral music has grown. We’ve reached a standard of artistic excellence and professionalism never before seen in our organization’s history. Your continued support is essential to our success! Your tax-deductible gift of any amount will help sustain a Northwest institution and help keep this timeless music alive in our community for generations to come.

Making your contribution is easy! Visit pschoir.org to learn more

SOPRANO 1Meredith Andersen-Elliott

Rebecca BoyetterMargaret BraunCarol Corchero Gail D’Aloisio

Alyssa DartChristina Gipson

Cameron Griffith Herbert*Bonnie Johnson

Dorothea Gauer LailLauren McCune

Jen MiliusSue Nelson

Camelia NinePatricia RehmMorgan RoeLani Steppe

Theresa SwansonAmanda Taddeo

Kate Warren

SOPRANO 2Kathy Austen

Stephanie BenischekJoy Bongiorno

Hansell BourdonCara Cantonwine

Hallie ClarkPeggy ErlandKendra Friar Nan HaemerWendy Hein

Emily KalteichKatherine LefeverKathryn Lehmann

Janelle ManskeSue-Del McCulloch

Ramona MooreMary Nelson

ALTO 1Amy BarchiniHelen Deitz*

Diana deTar-MarchandAlicia Dunn

Kathy GanskeRosa Haxton

Kendra Killian-DavisElizabeth Merchant

Jenny MosherDeborah MurrayKarin Nystrom

Kristine NystromJane Peace

Carol RossioDorothy Rowland

Sharon SmithGina Starling

Mary Lane StevensMichelle Talal

Trisha WilliamsShanna Yacob

ALTO 2Rachel Bernstein

Amy BowersBetsy CooperLisa DillmanJamie FreyerRuth HealdMaria Hein

Kari LiebertMelanie Madigan

Lois OwenRachel Portnoy

Sara RivaraLaura RobsonCarol Rossio

Ashley SalisburyRhonda Slinkard

Marianne SweeneyMelissa Thomas

Zoe VrabelKate Withiam

Deborah Wright

TENOR 1Eric Asakawa

Brett BargmannChristopher Benjamin

David ClarkRick Deats

David S. FoleyBrian HaskinsJames HookPunya Jain

Daniel MorrillGerard Nelson

Jack RiceTim Tatistcheff

TENOR 2Daniel HibbettJeffrey Hopp

Trevor LangenhuysenJerome Patrick Larkin

Dan ManganGreg McMahonMichael MurrayRalph NelsonEric Prasoloff

Allen W. RichardsMatthew SchickJonathan Schildt

Brian SchmedinghoffGary Shannon*Martin TobiasDale Webber

BASS 1Chris Brown

Paul EbensteinerDavid Eby

John EisemannGeoff ErethDon Fales

Phill HurleyDaniel Knauss

Jim MaddryPhilippe Moore

John NicolKirk Porter

David RaymondKyle Ross-Hall

Eric SmithScott Sorensen-Jolink

Michael Young

BASS 2Don Alrick

Brooke BenfieldWayne CarlonJohn ChilgrenDan DalzellPaul Elison*

Shlomo FarberOscar FernandezJerry Gilkerson

Tom HardEric Hill-Tanquist

Jim ImhoffIsaac Noel

Mark PetersenTom Rocks

John SalmonBill Scott

Dwight UphausLorin Wilkerson

ORgAN & PiANODouglas Schneider

ViOLiNJanet George

STRiNg BASSKevin Deitz

* Section leader

Portland Symphonic Choir

Celebrate summer with song!

Whether you sing in a professional choir, a school choir, or a choir for one in the shower, Summer Sings is for you! Join us this July to sing great choral works with members of the Portland Symphonic Choir.

We provide the scores and the air-conditioning— you provide the enthusiasm!

Tickets just $10. Visit pschoir.org to reserve your spot today!

July 8 Handel’s Messiah withStevenZopfi

July 15 Haydn’s Mass in Time of War & Lauridsen’s Lux Aeterna with Kathryn Lehmann

July 22 The Joy of Singing Bach with Ralph Nelson

All at 7:00pm PCC Cascade Campus Moriarty Arts Auditorium

Summer Sings 2015