Echoes from Abroad | April 26th, 2025 | 7:00 PM | Union Colony Civic Center

Program Notes by Nicholas Gilmore and Adelyn Wimmer

Dr. Jill Burgett, Director of Choral Activities at the University of Northern Colorado

Dr. Jill Burgett is the Director of Choral Activities at University of Northern Colorado, where she has taught for 14 years. Prior to her tenure at UNC, she was Associate Director of Choral Activities at Ball State University. In her position at UNC she conducts the UNC Concert Choir and Chamber Choir and teaches graduate choral methods and conducting coursework. She has been active in vocal music-teacher preparation for K-12 schools in Colorado and Indiana. Her doctorate is in choral conducting, with a cognate area of study in music education from Ball State University, where she was the Don Neuen fellowship recipient. She holds a Master of Music degree (choral conducting/voice secondary area) from Ball State and a Bachelor of Music in music education - vocal emphasis (magna cum laude) from Heidelberg University. For over a decade, Burgett conducted choirs in the Indiana public schools. She has served on the Indiana and Colorado American Choral Directors boards and Central Division board as Student Activities R&S Chair. She currently serves on the National Collegiate Choral Organization board, and was President, and now Past President of Colorado ACDA. She has also served on the National ACDA Arts Equity Taskforce and Colorado CMEA Collegiate Council. Burgett is an active festival clinician, conference speaker, and All-State Choir conductor. Having maintained a voice and piano studio for more than 20 years, she has served as a staff voice teacher for the Denver School of the Arts (6-12) where she taught in classic, music theater, and vocal jazz styles. She has been a featured mezzo-soprano soloist with the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra and the Toledo Philharmonic. Burgett is published in the Choral Journal and New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. Her conducting venues included Varna (Bulgaria), Beijing, Barcelona, Montserrat, Prague, Vienna, Budapest, London, Paris, and Rome. She made her Carnegie Hall debut conducting Carmina Burana with UNC Choirs and Alumni in May 2023. She has led conducting and choral masterclasses in Rome, Bangkok, Beijing and Barcelona. Workshop topics have included Arts Leadership Development, Building Choral Tone, and Preparing Masterworks. Burgett’s research and publications have included the following topics: The Sacred Choral Music of Villa-Lobos, The Choral Treasures of Catalonia (Spain), and a current focus on The Sacred Choral Music of Colonial Mexico. Dr. Burgett is experienced in working with students and community singers of all age-levels, with a studentcentered approach to learning that is engaging, focused on musical excellence and student success.

Dr. Clelyn Chapin, Associate Director of Choirs at the University of Northern Colorado

Dr. Clelyn Chapin serves as the Associate Director of Choirs at University of Northern Colorado. As a clinician and presenter throughout the country, she focuses on a combination of rehearsal practices and leadership strategies that promote artistic singing and community building within ensembles. In addition to her work at UNC, Clelyn serves as the Artistic Director for the Denver Women’s Chorus, a 140-voice choir founded for members and allies of the LGBTQ+ community with a focus on social justice.

Before beginning at UNC, Clelyn spent 14 years teaching and conducting secondary, collegiate, and community ensembles in Texas, Colorado, and Michigan. Her choirs have been invited to perform at state conferences and she frequently serves as an adjudicator and clinician for choral festivals. She completed her doctorate in Choral Conducting at Michigan State University where she studied with Dr. David Rayl and Dr. Sandra Snow, and graduated with a Masters in Music Education from University of Northern Colorado.

Amy Maples, soprano, is a Chattanooga, Tennessee native who currently resides in Golden, CO, with her husband, son, miniature tiger (tabby), and 100lbs goldendoodle. Quickly gaining a reputation for her crystalline coloratura, relentless high notes, and witty theatrics, Amy compels audiences with her fearless artistry and attention to detail. While her reach extends far beyond the borders of Colorado, Amy has become the go-to soprano in the Centennial State. She performs frequently with such Colorado companies as Opera Theatre of the Rockies, Central City Opera, Opera Colorado, Loveland Opera Theatre, Boulder Opera, Opera Fort Collins, the Colorado Springs Philharmonic, Colorado Chamber Orchestra, The Larimer Chorale, and the Parish House Baroque Ensemble.

Possessing a special talent for all things florid, iconic roles include Gilda, Manon, Baby Doe, Cunegonde, Susanna, Adina, Lakmé, Thérèse, and Mabel. Her arsenal of modern repertoire includes Stephanie in Jake Heggie’s To Hell and Back (Opera Steamboat), Mariana in Joe Illick’s Frida Kahlo and the Bravest Girl in the World (Central City Opera), Sylvia in Paul Fowler’s Behold the Man, Soprano Soloist in Joseph Schwantner’s Sparrows (Chamber Orchestra of the Springs), and Younger Alyce in Tom Cipullo’s Glory Denied (Chamber Orchestra of the Springs).

Amy received her MM in Voice Performance from Florida State University where she studied with tenor Stanford Olsen, after receiving her BM in Voice Performance at Lee University in her home state of Tennessee.

Phèdre Overture (10’)

Similar to many composers during the Romantic Era, Massenet focused his works on pre-existing stories, especially Greek mythology. Massenet’s Phèdre evokes Racine’s tragedy, wherein Phèdre, the Queen of Athens and wife of the hero Theseus, falls in love with her stepson, Hippolytus, confesses her love to him, and goes through the tragic consequences of her actions. The overture follows the dramatic telling of the play (a work filled with horses, chariots, gods, and a sea monster) beginning with a massive and foreboding statement that returns throughout, surrounding lighter melodies of love, loss, and longing that feature the woodwinds and strings which counter the darker opening.

Escales (Ports of Call) (14’)

In 1922, Ibert was in Rome as a resident for winning the Prix de Rome, where he composed Escales as evidence of his studies. Also referred to as Ports of Call, this orchestral suite is considered a depiction of his honeymoon in Spain with his wife, Rosette Veber. The order of each movement is the reverse of their trip. For Palmero, Ibert uses tarantella rhythms and imitations of the swelling sea. The theme heard in “Tunis Nefta,” according to Ibert, is based on a tune he heard in the desert. Concluding with Valencia, Ibert quotes Chabrier’s España.

Mignon Overture (9’)

Written in 1866, Mignon is Thomas’ most famous opera. There were over a thousand performances of the work in Paris by 1894, making it the most successful opera in French history. The story is based on Goethe’s novel Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre, with an adapted happy ending in accordance with the Opéra-Comique style. The overture paints a pastoral setting with harp before moving into the whimsical “I am Titania” melody and closes by leaping into a spirited dance. When the opera was brought over to Germany, the audiences had a distaste for the happy ending, so it was rewritten with the original tragic ending in Goethe’s novel.

Trois Chansons (Three Songs) (7’)

In 1914 Germany invaded France, and the deeply patriotic composer Maurice Ravel attempted to join the French Air Force as a pilot. He thought his short stature would be a good fit as an aviator but was rejected for a small heart complaint and the fact that he was nearly 40 years old at the time. As he waited to be enlisted, he composed what would be his only a capella work for voices, Trois Chansons, and dedicated the work to anyone that would help him join the war effort. The three songs are all set to lyrics by the composer in the style of 16th Century French chansons and tell fairy-tale style stories featuring fair maidens, suitors, rich landlords, and all manner of fairytale creatures. Ravel did finally become a lorry driver for the French military until his health kept him from continuing in his efforts in 1916.

Gloria (25’)

Francis Poulenc wrote his Gloria in 1959 with a commission by the Koussevitzky Foundation and it premiered under Charles Münch with the Boston Symphony Orchestra two years later. Poulenc claimed that Gloria had its inception during his work on the opera Dialogues des Carmélites, and it has also been claimed that the second movement, “Laudamus te” was inspired by the composer witnessing a group of Benedictine monks playing a soccer game. The work has become one of the most performed in the French repertoire, and for good reason. Poulenc keeps the audience on their feet with fast meter changes, tempo fluctuations, changes of mood, and non-chord tones that always find their way to resolution. The six movements take the listener on an emotional journey that has brought audiences back time and again for over 60 years.

Echoes from Abroad Program Notes