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Stephen Caldwell: Three Minutes, three questions about Schola Cantorum

Courtesy Photo The delights of "A Child's Christmas in Wales" "will come with hearing new reimaginations of old familiar tunes," says Stephen Caldwell, director of Schola Cantorum at the UA. "Surprises will come in the completely original music, which is designed to be funny at times and serious in others. Each piece is designed to elicit a specific emotion called for in the poetry, and it can be surprising how music can make us feel that more intimately."
Courtesy Photo The delights of "A Child's Christmas in Wales" "will come with hearing new reimaginations of old familiar tunes," says Stephen Caldwell, director of Schola Cantorum at the UA. "Surprises will come in the completely original music, which is designed to be funny at times and serious in others. Each piece is designed to elicit a specific emotion called for in the poetry, and it can be surprising how music can make us feel that more intimately."

"The Schola Cantorum is 48 singers and represents a full cross-section of academic life at the University of Arkansas," says its director, Stephen Caldwell. "The group has both music majors and non-majors, representing more than 20 different majors and every college on campus. They unite around a love of singing. The singers are selected through an audition process each August [when] about 200 singers audition for 48 spots."

All that speaks to the elite level of the performers who will take the stage Dec. 10 at the Faulkner Performing Arts Center on the Fayetteville campus. The concert is titled "A Child's Christmas in Wales," and it is as unique as the combination of voices that will present a completely new vision of the 1952 tale by Welsh poet Dylan Thomas.

FAQ

Schola Cantorum:

‘A Child’s Christmas in Wales’

WHEN — 7:30 p.m. Dec. 10

WHERE — Faulkner Performing Arts Center on the University of Arkansas campus in Fayetteville

COST — $5-$10

INFO — uark.universitytick…

Caldwell answered these three questions for What's Up! in the week before the performance.

Q. How did the "A Child's Christmas in Wales" project come about?

A. Many years ago I sang with the professional group The Princeton Singers, who presented a similar concept but with very difficult historical music, mostly from Victorian England. I thought that the idea would work well in a collegiate setting, so when I came to Arkansas in 2012 I began to conceptualize what it would look like here. Our first "Christmas in Wales" was fall 2014, and each year since I've written a few more original pieces.

Q. Is this the first time (that you know of) that the poem has been entirely "scored"?

A. In our case, the entire poem isn't scored. Our esteemed faculty member, Henry Runkles, reads the poem. At specifically chosen moments, the choir breaks into the poetry and performs music that comments on the moment. As a good example, the poem describes an evening tableau of delicious holiday treats out for snacking, "and the high-heaped fire spat, all ready for the chestnuts and the mulling pokers" -- at which point the choir breaks in with the "Christmas Song," otherwise known as "Chestnuts roasting on an open fire." The goal is that the music makes the poem come alive, and the poem makes the music come alive, in a synthesis of spoken word drama and music.

Q. What has Schola Cantorum been up to lately besides "A Child's Christmas in Wales"?

A. Schola Cantorum has had an exciting year. In the spring, they explored the music of Serbia and the Balkans concluding with a 10-day international concert tour to the Republic of Serbia. They were greeted by standing-room-only crowds and received a blessing from the Patriarch to sing in the Crypt of the Temple of St. Sava in Belgrade. This fall, the choir explored music from the Florence Price archive and brought forth some of her music never before heard. Additionally, they were honored with a distinguished invitation to perform at the Southwestern Region: American Choral Directors Association convention in Little Rock this coming spring.

NAN What's Up on 12/08/2019

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