Furthering the ensemble’s commitment to new music, the GSA Choir is delighted to announce that it has co-commissioned American composers, Sarah Rimkus and Thomas LaVoy, to compose two new choral works based upon poems by the renowned American poet, Dana Gioia.
The two 5-minute works will take as their texts, The Stars Now Rearrange Themselves… and The Burning Ladder, and will be given their premieres by the ensemble in May 2020.
Speaking about the commission, Musical Director of the GSA Choir, Jamie Sansbury, said: “Continuing our strong record of previous commissions with artists such as Liz Lochhead, Sir James MacMillan and Jay Capperauld, we are delighted to be working with Sarah and Thomas, as part of a collection of ensembles, to realise two new choral works. I have been an admirer of Sarah’s work for many years now, and I am hugely excited to hear how both her and Thomas conjure up the unique atmospheres created by Dana’s poems.”
Discussing his work, Dana Gioia says: “Unlike most poets, I think of my verse in musical and auditory terms, so my sensibility is similar to a musician’s.” Dana’s works have been set to music by numerous composers.
Sarah Rimkus says: “We are both attracted to the musicality of Dana’s work, always featuring a keen sense of rhythm and often using particular meters, rhyme schemes or forms. In some ways, it is quite traditional. However, his poems never feel old or imitative in any way – the imagery and themes and the way these are coupled with his language are always contemporary and fresh. He often writes about the vast, stark landscapes of the American wilderness on a grand scale, as well as more intimate thoughts and internal conflict and questioning.”
The two new works will be programmed in the GSA Summer Concerts in May 2020. More details, including ticket links, will be available in early 2020.
Dana Gioia is an internationally acclaimed and award-winning poet. Former Chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, Gioia is a native Californian of Italian and Mexican descent. He received a B.A. and a M.B.A. from Stanford University and an M.A. in Comparative Literature from Harvard University. Gioia recently served as the Poet Laureate of California. He has published five full-length collections of poetry, most recently 99 Poems: New & Selected. His poetry collection, Interrogations at Noon, won the 2002 American Book Award, and 99 Poems won the 2018 Poet’s Prize. An influential critic as well, Gioia’s 1991 volume, Can Poetry Matter?, which was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle award, is credited with helping to revive the role of poetry in American public culture. In 2014 he won the Aiken-Taylor Award for lifetime achievement in American poetry.
As Chairman of the NEA from 2003 to 2009, Gioia succeeded in garnering enthusiastic bi-partisan support in the United States Congress for the mission of the Arts Endowment, as well as in strengthening the national consensus in favour of public funding for the arts and arts education. Business Week Magazine referred to him as “The Man who Saved the NEA.”
Gioia has been the recipient of ten honorary degrees. He has won numerous awards, including the 2010 Laetare Medal from Notre Dame.
Sarah Rimkus is an American composer who recently received her PhD in composition from the University of Aberdeen, with Phillip Cooke and Paul Mealor. She received her BMus in music composition from the University of Southern California in May 2013, where she developed a love of choral music while studying with Morten Lauridsen and Stephen Hartke.
She has received numerous awards, including the ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer Award for Trapped in Amber for string orchestra, the ASCAP Foundation Leonard Bernstein Award, and SACRA/PROFANA’s composition award in 2019. Her works have been performed and commissioned by musicians and ensembles on both sides of the Atlantic including The Gesualdo Six and the Ligeti Quartet, and featured on Classic FM and BBC Radio 3.
Recent projects include commissions for Red Note Ensemble, organist Roger Williams, and a new work for Seattle-based choir, The Esoterics, as the national winner of their annual Polyphonos competition.
In addition to works published online through MusicSpoke, she has works published with GIA and Walton. She recently served as Artistic Director for Spectrum New Music Ensemble and taught extensively on a variety of courses including second year composition, during her time as a PhD candidate.
She was born in Washington, D.C. and moved to Bainbridge Island, Washington, in 1998, where she grew up inspired by the beautiful American west coast. Her work is harmonically and melodically driven, with both a strong sense of emotion and intricacy of construction, and often explores issues of communication and conflict.
Thomas LaVoy is an award-winning composer of contemporary concert music. In November 2017 he received his PhD from the University of Aberdeen in Scotland, where he studied with the world-renowned Welsh composer Paul Mealor. In 2013 Thomas graduated summa cum laude from Westminster Choir College in Princeton New Jersey, where he studied with Joel Phillips and James Goldsworthy. His choral works have been commissioned and performed by choirs across the globe in countries such as the United States, the United Kingdom, Belgium, Germany, Hungary, Poland, New Zealand and Taiwan.
Following the Carnegie Hall debut of his music in 2016, Thomas received a commission from the John Armitage Memorial (JAM) in London to produce a substantial work for the BBC Singers. The resulting work, O Great Beyond, was premiered at the annual JAM on the Marsh festival by Nicholas Cleobury and the BBC Singers, and broadcast on BBC Radio 3’s In Concert.
At age seventeen Thomas became the youngest ever winner of the New York Virtuoso Singers International Composition Competition for his choral work White Stones, which was subsequently published on G. Schirmer’s Harold Rosenbaum Choral Series.
While at Westminster Choir College, Thomas forged a deep musical bond with conductor James Jordan and his GRAMMY nominated choir, Westminster Williamson Voices. This choir has premiered more of his works than any other ensemble, including his Alleluia, The Lake Isle of Innisfree, Songs of the Questioner, and As I Walk the Silent Earth. Thomas is also a founding member of James Jordan’s professional choir, The Same Stream, which has sung and recorded many of his works. The majority of Thomas’ music is published on GIA Publications Evoking Sound Choral Series, of which Jordan is the Executive Editor.
After graduating from Westminster Choir College with highest honours, Thomas received a commission from the Marquette Symphony Orchestra to compose a major work to mark the centennial of the Italian Hall disaster of Christmas Eve, 1913. A Child’s Requiem, with a libretto written by the poet Esther Margaret Ayers, was premiered by the orchestra in December 2013, and was met with critical acclaim for its unflinching and emotional take on one of Michigan’s worst tragedies.
Upon arrival in Aberdeen, to begin his PhD, Thomas was appointed as Manager of the University of Aberdeen Chamber Choir. He held this post for two years, managing tours to the North Wales International Music Festival, New York, London, and a performance for Her Majesty the Queen at Balmoral Castle. The choir has premiered several of Thomas’ works, including Phaenix alumna mortis and Amid Such Snows. His newest work for the choir is The Immortal Memory, the title track of the choir’s new CD, Immortal Memory: A Burns Night Celebration. Upon its release in January 2017, the CD shot to third place on the official UK classical charts, and The Immortal Memory was broadcast several times on BBC Radio 3 and Classic FM.
Thomas also served as a choral scholar in the Chapel Choir of King’s College, Aberdeen, which released their first album on the Vox Regis label in 2016. The final track on this CD is Ave Maris Stella, a choral work that Thomas composed for the choir’s tour to Hungary in 2014.
In addition to maintaining his presence in the world of art music, Thomas is also an active singer-songwriter and has performed in the United States, Scotland, Wales, and Belgium. He was a featured vocalist on the 2013 album Big North by Illinois-based guitarist and songwriter John Berry.