InChoir: Conversations about Choral Music, The Arts, and Life

Frank Ticheli is best known for his works for wind ensemble and concert band, many of which have become standards in the repertoire. On this episode of InChoir, we feature how his choral compositions explore text through shifting color palettes and timbres. Join us as we trace how these evocative techniques can be heard in his two featured pieces - “Listen to the Silence” and “Earth Song”.

The music of Juhi Bansal draws upon culturally rich musical traditions to create expressive and evocative “sound-worlds”. As an Indian composer brought up in Hong Kong, her music draws upon both traditions and can be heard throughout our two featured pieces—"Fear (Becoming the Ocean)” and “Aurora” (Special thanks to the L.A. Choral Lab for sharing their performance recording of “Aurora”).  Join us for our conversation with Juhi where we follow her musical journey “From Sea to Sky”.

Chicago based singer, arranger, keyboardist, producer and conductor, Paul Langford has a career that spans over 25 years. His work includes arranging for and performing with groups such as The Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Chicagoland Pops, the Pensacola and LaCrosse Symphony Orchestras, and Walt Disney World.

Dr. Tracy Wong hails from Malaysia and is a choral conductor, music educator, composer, vocalist, and pianist. She is passionate about helping choral educators to provide unique experiences for their students through collaborative commissions, customized workshops, festivals, and artist residencies. She has conducted workshops for choirs in North America and internationally. Her choral works are widely published and they have been performed by choirs at international competitions and festivals.

Reena Esmail is the Los Angeles Master Chorale’s 2020-2025 Swan Family Artist in Residence, and was Seattle Symphony’s 2020-21 Composer-in-Residence. She also holds awards/fellowships from United States Artists, the S&R Foundation, the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and the Kennedy Center.

Giselle Wyers (she/her/hers) is the Donald E. Petersen Endowed Professor of Choral Music at the University of Washington, where she conducts the award-winning University Chorale and teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in choral conducting and music education.
Wyers is a leading national figure in the application of Laban movement theory for conductors. She has served as guest lecturer in conducting at Sweden’s Örebro Universitet, European Festival of Church Music (Germany), Latvian Academy of Music, Eastman School of Music, Ithaca College, Westminster Choir College, University of Iowa, Hobart and William Smith Colleges and Portland State University.

John Rommereim is a musician who has pursued a varied career as a composer, conductor, keyboardist, and professor. He has written works for choir, solo voice, orchestra, string quartet, saxophone quartet, flute ensemble, guitar, organ, piano, and electronic media, as well as a chamber opera, and music for theatre and film. The New York Times praised the “richly expressive” character of his vocal writing.
John Rommereim is Blanche Johnson Professor of Music at Grinnell College, where he conducts the Grinnell Singers and the Grinnell Oratorio Society, and teaches composition.

David von Kampen is a composer, arranger, conductor, and music educator whose stylistic versatility can be heard in the wide-ranging genres he writes for, from jazz to choral, hymnody to liturgy, solo instrumentations to musical theater—and the list goes on. He currently teaches at the University of Nebraska.

Today on InChoir, our conversation revolves around a new album released by Apollo5, titled Ánam. We'll be speaking to two acclaimed sopranos who lent their talents to the project, Clare Stewart and Penelope Appleyard.

Blake Morgan’s musical arrangements embody the essence of what it means to “imagine again or anew.” Together with host, Diane Orlofsky, learn how Morgan works in this unique creative space when he conceives his arrangements. This episode features Morgan’s arrangement of the iconic “Hushabye Mountain” (performed by the King’s Singers) and his setting of the beautiful folk song, “The Water is Wide” (featuring Blake’s demo of the arrangement he wrote for Take Six). We even “tease” a brand-new setting of “Time after Time” (performed by Lyyra and Voces8).
InChoir is a production of Troy Public Radio and the College of Communication and Fine Arts at Troy University.
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