The Dessoff Choirs Presents Works Inspired by the Civil War Poetry of Walt Whitman

Malcolm J. Merriweather, music director conductor

The Dessoff Choirs

Steven Ryan, piano

Lars Frandsen, guitar

What: The Dessoff Choirs in Concert: Whitman and the Civil War 

When: Saturday, March 9, 2019, at 4:00 p.m., Pre-concert talk at 3:15 p.m. with Dr. Karen Karbiener

Where: Union Theological Seminary, 3041 Broadway, New York, NY Train: 1 to Columbia University/116th Street  

Tickets: $20-40 in Advance. $25-45 at Door. To purchase, visit dessoff.org.

New York City, NY (For Release 01.15.19) — Hailed as “one of the great amateur choruses of our time (New York Today) for its “full-bodied sound and suppleness (The New York Times),” The Dessoff Choirs continues its 94th season with Whitman and the Civil War: a spring concert inspired by the American poet and journalist Walt Whitman (1819-1892) and his relationship with the Civil War. As part of a season-long celebration of Whitman’s bicentennial, Dessoff’s 50 singers will perform exquisite choral settings of Whitman’s poetry by Van, Clausen, Weill, and Stanford as well as the world premiere of Ian Sturges Milliken’s Whispers of Heavenly Death. (Please scroll below for complete program details.)

When Whitman’s brother was wounded in the Civil War in 1863, Whitman moved from Brooklyn to Washington to help in the overcrowded Union military hospitals.  Though he had no military or medical training, Whitman comforted wounded troops with his poems, stories, songs, and the chores he would dutifully perform well past his appointed shift. Whitman later said that being around suffering soldiers had been beneficial to him, as it somehow restored his own faith in humanity. Many of the ideas in his poetry, about the nobility of common people and the democratic ideals of America, he saw reflected in the wounded soldiers who had been farmers and factory workers.

“Whitman found a new purpose and inspiration for his art,” says Malcolm J. Merriweather, ninth Music Director and conductor of The Dessoff Choirs. “The poetry Whitman wrote had always been inspired by the changing world around him, and so his eyewitness experience of the Civil War naturally began to infuse new poems. He continued to write during and after the war and subsequently inspired many composers.”

Known for singing with conviction, expressivity, and passion, The Dessoff Choirs performs several works by such composers including Charles Villiers Stanford’s Elegiac Ode, a setting of Whitman’s elegy on the death of Abraham Lincoln, René Clausen’s Three Whitman Songs, and Jeffrey Van’s four-movement song cycle, A Procession Winding Around Me: Four Civil War Poems. Also, Maestro Merriweather will step off the podium to perform the wonderful, little-known Four Walt Whitman Songs of Kurt Weill. Bach’s funeral motet, Der geist hilft unser Schwachheit auf, Dessoff’s final installment (over three seasons) of his six motets, rounds out the program.

The program’s capstone is the world premiere of Whispers of Heavenly Death by Ian Sturges Milliken (b.1984), written for soprano soloist, choir, and piano. Set to text of Whitman’s poem of the same name written after the end of Civil War (1868), the work has a forward, flowing motion with an inevitability that is propelled by the poetry. According to Milliken, the poem’s sense of the ultimate end “became an ostinato that sustains throughout the piece but changes slowly as the poem flows through its varied perspectives on the concept of one’s own approaching death: the mysterious, the mystical, the ominous, and, finally, the accepting embrace of a divine rebirth.”

The concert will be introduced with a pre-concert talk by renowned Whitman scholar Karen Karbiener, Ph.D., Clinical Professor at New York University and co-director of the 2019 Whitman Consortium, a collective of east coast organizations, institutions, venues, and individuals planning events in celebration of the poet’s 200th birthday, of which Dessoff is a member.

Whitman, who was born May 31, 1819, is one of the most influential voices in American—and world—literature. “He was an American icon whose life and works have been an inspiration for artists and musicians everywhere,” explains Merriweather. “His is a kind of distinct and distinctive American voice that has brought joy to so many people in our country and around the world.” Although many great writers have contemplated the power of music, few have articulated it more perfectly or more sensuously than Whitman. He wrote of music as “a god, yet completely human… supplying in certain wants and quarters what nothing else could supply.” Not only was Whitman outspoken in his love for music, he also inspired over 500 composers to draw from his work. “Many composers have been attracted to Whitman’s exuberant spirit, democratic ideals, and timelessness,” adds Merriweather.  

About The Dessoff Choirs           
The Dessoff Choirs, one of the leading choruses in New York City, is an independent chorus with an established reputation for pioneering performances of choral works from the Renaissance era through the 21st century. Since its founding in 1924, Dessoff’s mission is to enrich the lives of its audiences and members through the performance of choral music.

Its concerts, professional collaborations, community outreach, and educational initiatives are dedicated to stimulating public interest in and appreciation of choral music as an art form that enhances the culture and life of our times. With repertoire ranging over a wide variety of eras and styles, Dessoff’s musical acumen and flexibility has been recognized with invitations from major orchestras for oratorios and orchestral works.

Past performances include Britten’s War Requiem and Mahler’s Symphony No. 8 with Lorin Maazel in his final performances as Music Director with the New York Philharmonic. Over the course of its 94-year history, Dessoff has presented numerous world premieres, including pieces by Virgil Thomson, George Perle, Paul Moravec, and Ricky Ian Gordon, as well as the first American performance in nearly 100 years of Montemezzi’s opera La Nave with Teatro Grattacielo; and the American premieres of Philip Glass’s Symphony No. 5, and Sir John Tavener’s all-night vigil, The Veil of the Temple. Dessoff’s recent discography includes REFLECTIONS, featuring music by Convery, Corigliano, Moravec, and Rorem, and GLORIES ON GLORIES, a collection of American song featuring composers ranging from Billings to Ives. Please visit dessoff.org for more information.

About Malcolm J. Merriweather Conductor 

Malcolm J. Merriweather is Music Director of New York City’s The Dessoff Choirs, known for performances of choral works from the pre-Baroque era through the 21st century.

An Assistant Professor, he is Director of Choral Studies and Voice Department Coordinator at Brooklyn College of the City University of New York, Artist in Residence at Union Theological Seminary, and Artistic Director of Voices of Haiti, a 60-member children’s choir in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, operated by the Andrea Bocelli Foundation. In the summer of 2017, Merriweather led Voices of Haiti in performances with Andrea Bocelli at Teatro del Silenzio in Lajatico, Italy, and for Pope Francis at the Vatican. Merriweather is also in demand as a baritone soloist, often performing throughout the eastern United States.

Conducting highlights of the 2017-18 season include: conducting the West Chorus in the world premiere of John Luther Adams’s In the Name of the Earth, as part of Lincoln Center’s 2018 Mostly Mozart Festival; David Lang’s The Little Match Girl Passion, Vaughan Williams’s Dona nobis pacem, Bach’s Singet dem Herrn, BWV225, and Komm, Jesu, komm, BWV 229, with Dessoff; Handel’s Messiah at Brooklyn College and the Harvard Club of New York; and Leonard Bernstein’s Mass (Concert Selections) and Honegger’s King David at Brooklyn College. Recent conducting highlights have included Mozart’s Requiem, Vivaldi’s Gloria, Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms, and Orff’s Carmina Burana.

Merriweather holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Conducting from the studio of Kent Tritle at the Manhattan School of Music, where his doctoral dissertation, Now I Walk in Beauty, Gregg Smith: A Biography and Complete Works Catalog, constituted the first complete works list for the composer and conductor. He received Master of Music degrees in Choral Conducting and in Vocal Performance from the studio of Rita Shane at the Eastman School of Music, as well as a Bachelor of Music degree in Music Education from Syracuse University, summa cum laude.

Merriweather’s professional affiliations include membership in Pi Kappa Lambda, the American Choral Directors Association, Chorus America, and he sits on the Board of Directors of the New York Choral Consortium.  Please visit malcolmjmerriweather.com for more information. Connect with him on Twitter and Instagram @maestroweather.

About Steven Ryan

Steven Ryan has been Dessoff’s accompanist and featured keyboard soloist since 1997. He has played celesta with the Berlin Philharmonic at Carnegie Hall; piano, harpsichord, and organ with Dessoff; and synthesizer with the Moody Blues. Conductors he has collaborated with include Vladimir Ashkenazy, Charles Dutoit, Neeme Jäarvi, Sir Neville Marriner, Gerard Schwarz, and Maxim Shostakovich.

In 2012 Steve was a featured artist in Dessoff’s first Midwinter Festival, performing Robin Holloway’s Gilded Goldbergs at Weill Recital Hall with Catherine Venable. In 2011–12 he also appeared on the Stamford Symphony recital series, performed Grammy Award-nominated composer Robert Aldridge’s Piano Trio, and toured in Austria.

Steve is a regular accompanist at Montclair State University, working with the choirs and in voice studios. In recent years, he has performed in Russia and France, and played several solos with the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra and the Greater Trenton Symphony Orchestra. In 2000, he won second prize at the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition for Outstanding Amateurs, and in 2001 he took first place in the Concours des Grand Amateurs de Piano in France.

About Lars Frandsen

Lars Frandsen directs the classical guitar program at Brooklyn College at the City University of New York, where he has taught for nearly twenty years. He also directs the theory and ear training program at the Manhattan campus of Nyack College. He is an associate professor at both colleges. Lars has performed in a variety of venues such as Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center, Walt Whitman Hall in Brooklyn, Dukes Hall in London, and he has recorded world music for CBS records in India.

Lars was a student of the late Leif Christensen, a preeminent pioneer in the rediscovery of the nineteenth century guitar literature and a strong advocate of its historical performance practice. A graduate of the Royal Academy of Music in London, Yale University, and the Eastman School of Music, Lars Frandsen holds a doctoral degree in performance and literature. He was the assistant to the renowned lute player Paul O'Dette while at Eastman, where he also studied in master classes and doctoral seminars with equally renowned forte-pianist Malcolm Bilson. In addition, Lars has performed several times in master classes conducted by John Williams, David Russell, and Manuel Barruecco. Lars was the first guitarist to play and coach chamber music (during five consecutive concert seasons) at the Apple Hill Summer School, where he taught and performed with members of the London Symphony, New York Philharmonic, Chicago and Boston Symphony Orchestras.

Program Details                                                                                      

*world premiere

Jeffrey Van (b.1941)

A Procession Winding Around Me: Four Civil War Poems (1861-65)

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)

Der geist hilft unser Schwachheit auf, BWV 226 (1729)

René Clausen (b.1953)

Three Whitman Settings (1992)

Kurt Weill (1900-1950)

Four Walt Whitman Songs (1942, 1947)

Ian Sturges Milliken (b.1984)
Whispers of Heavenly Death*

Charles Villiers Stanford (1852-1924)

Elegiac Ode, Op. 21 (1884)

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For more information about The Dessoff Choirs, please visit Dessoff.org. 

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