Wednesday, February 8, 2023
Kopleff Recital Hall
It Is Well With My Soul
arr. Chris R. Hansen
The Voices of Victory
Jeremiah Brown, conductor
"It Is Well with My Soul" is a hymn penned by hymnist Horatio Spafford and composed by Philip Bliss. After suffering the loss of his children, Spafford wrote this beautiful hymn as a testament to the salvation he found in Jesus through the good and bad times in life.
A Change is Gonna Come
Sam Cooke (1931-1964)
José Antonio Montañez, tenor
JEremy Rush, piano
Tyler Gamble, drums
The song was inspired by various events in Cooke's life, most prominently when he and his entourage were turned away from a whites-only motel in Louisiana. Cooke felt compelled to write a song that spoke to his struggle and of those around him, and that pertained to the Civil Rights Movement and African Americans.
III. Carnival from Excursions
David Wilborn (b. 1961)
Trombone Choir
William Mann, conductor
Carnival - The final movement sets the scene of a traditional celebration that's widely held throughout South America and the Caribbean. This movement is characterized by it's fast rhythms, strident dissonance, and Latin dance beat (a Brazilian Samba). Other features in this movement are the tense polyrhythmic passages that are used to make reference to African cultural influences.
Program note by composer
Shon Pittman’s “The Fortifying Woman"
Personnel
JEremiah BRown
Jeremiah Brown is an Atlanta native, and sophomore at Georgia State University majoring in music education with a concentration in voice. Last spring, he made his opera debut playing the role of Antonio in Le Nozze di Figaro. Mr. Brown continues to cultivate his passion for community advancement and impact through several engagements in the Metro Atlanta area including teaching voice, piano, and leading local choirs, accompanying as a percussionist, and serving as a choral scholar at the Saint James United Methodist Church.
MARVA GRIFFIN CARTER
MARVA GRIFFIN CARTER is an Associate Professor of Music History, Popular and World Musics in the School of Music, with joint affiliation in the Department of Africana Studies at Georgia State University. Carter is a graduate of Boston Conservatory at Berklee (B.M.) and of New England Conservatory of Music (M.M.) in piano performance. While at NEC, she heard musicologist Eileen Southern lecture from her bestselling book, Black American Music: A History, and was recruited by her to become a musicologist, concentrating on African Americans. Subsequently she took Southern’s course in African American music at Harvard. Later, Marva graduated from Boston University (M.A.) and the University of Illinois at Urbana (Ph.D.) in musicology, where she also studied ethnomusicology with Bruno Nettl and jazz history with Lawrence Gushee. She is the school’s first and only African American Ph.D. graduate in musicology.
Carter’s administrative/teaching career included: Coordinator, African American Studies Program at Simmons University (Boston); Chair, Music Department at Morris Brown College (Atlanta); Assistant Director, later Director of Graduate Studies, and currently, Co-Chair of the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee in the School of Music at Georgia State.
Dr. Carter is the author of the biography, Swing Along: The Musical Life of Will Marion Cook – a pioneer composer of Broadway Black musical comedies at the turn of the twentieth century (Oxford University Press). She is completing a book for the University of Illinois Press which examines the sacred musical traditions and repertoire of Atlanta’s historic Ebenezer Baptist Church, where Carter was organist for a decade. Her article on this history was included in “Colloquy: Shadow Culture Narratives: Race, Gender, and American Music Historiography” in the Journal of the American Musicological Society, Fall 2020.
Marva Griffin Carter has been active for more than four decades in the American Musicological Society and the Society for American Music, presenting papers and serving on editorial boards, including the Committee on the Publication of American Music. She received the Society for American Music’s coveted Lifetime Achievement Award for 2020. In 2022, Dr. Carter was featured in Harvard Radcliffe Institute’s webinar on Black Music and the American University: Eileen Southern’s Story.
Sarah Griffin
Sarah Griffin is a second-year graduate student pursuing a Master of Music degree in Orchestral Saxophone Performance. Griffin received her undergraduate degree in music education from Georgia College and State University (2021) in Milledgeville, Georgia. While at Georgia College, Griffin served as a research assistant for the research project, Trax on the Trail, where she located, analyzed, and cataloged political campaign music; Griffin presented her research virtually alongside musicologist Dr. Dana Gorzelany-Mostak at the Georgia College Student Research Conference. Griffin studied with Brandyn Taylor, Dr. Andrew Allen, and Dr. Stephen Fischer and has performed in masterclasses from Dr. Stephen Page and Dr. Robert Young. At Georgia State University, Griffin has received awards such as the Creative Excellence Award in the first Graduate Research Conference for Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activity and as a finalist for the 2022 Honors Recital Competition. In education, Griffin serves frequently as a saxophone instructor and woodwind technician for middle and high schools in both urban and rural communities. Most recently, Griffin joined the staff at the Atlanta Music Project as the Preparatory Band Woodwind Teaching Artist where she will work with students between grades first through sixth beginning on woodwind instruments.
José Montañez
José Montañez, tenor, is from Mexico and is pursuing a master’s degree in Voice Performance at GSU. He received his bachelor’s degree at the National Conservatory of Music in Mexico City. He has devoted almost all his career to singing opera, lieder, and French/Mexican art songs, in different countries like Spain and the USA. In 2016 he sang his debut role as Nadir in Bizet’s Les pêcheurs de perles. In 2018 he premiered Aura, a Mexican opera by Mario Lavista, with the Marine Philharmonic Orchestra. He has taken part in several voice workshops in all Mexico and has collaborated with such eminent conductors/coaches as Carlos Miguel Prieto, Linus Lerner, Carlos Aransay, Andrés Sarre and Alejandra Sandoval.
Rontray Miller
Rontray Miller II currently holds a Bachelor of Voice Performance. His resume consists of performing in productions such as Mozart’s “Don Giovanni” as Masetto (2016), Puccini’s “Gianni Schicchi” as Marco (2019), being a featured soloist on Georgia State University Singers’ Album “Heavenly Display” (2020), and more. Rontray is now pursuing his Master’s Degree in Choral Conducting at Georgia State University under the direction of Dr. Deanna Joseph.
DreTL
DreTL is a 20 year old rapper born and raised in Atlanta. He reps his city hard and raps even harder. Friends and family call him Dre, but to his fans he is DreTL, a combination of his name and his hometown. He is inspired by other Atlanta greats like OutKast, T.I., and Future. He recently released his first independent album “Long Overdue” and is quickly gaining traction in his community. He is proud to start his journey as a student at the GSU School of Music, class of 2024.