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Grinnell Singers awarded MTC grant

Meet The Composers Foundation allows Singers to perform Pulitzer Prize winner's Latin a cappella piece abroad

by Hai Tran

Last November, after a slew of last-minute phone calls, e-mails and faxes, Grinnell Singers conductor John Rommereim, Music, postmarked an application five minutes before the deadline. Now, Latin phrases and steady a cappella rhythms pour out of the Grinnell Singers' practices, despite that instance of procrastination.

Awarded a grant from the Meet the Composers Foundation (MTC), the Grinnell Singers, together with a consortium of other professional choirs, have commissioned work from Steven Stucky.

A Pulitzer Prize-winning composer from Cornell University, Stucky will visit Grinnell this week to work on his piece "The Three Motets" with the choir. During spring break, the group will perform the piece in eastern Europe.

According to its website, MTC is a "professional national organization that seeks to enable composers to make a living writing music and to increase their visible presence as creative artists." With this vision, MTC has supported various collaborations between U.S.-based composers and artists of all disciplines, which include the Grinnell Singers and Steven Stucky.

"It's really useful to work with a professional composer because later on, you will work directly with them," said Erin McBurney '09.

The project has been proceeding steadily. Starting last semester, the Singers have met three times a week for hour and a half rehearsals. After fine tuning with Steven Stucky, who came to Grinnell Thursday, the piece will be completed and ready to perform in public.

"We are helping to bring a new work of art into the world," said Rommereim.?"The music itself is beautiful, with rich, complex harmonies and melodic materials that work well for the voice."?

Stucky's works range from large-scale orchestral compositions to a cappella choral pieces. They include solo piano pieces, an eight-minute song for five percussionists and chamber music for ensembles, including piano quartet, string quartet, wind quintet, voice with piano and saxophone with piano. "The Three Motets" was written for a double choir and consists of 16 separate parts.

"Stucky has a really unique musical style. His work is a blend of a cappella Latin text with spoken rhythm and dissonant," Mitchell Parks '08 said. "It has been both incredibly exciting and challenging to work with such a composer."

After the premiere, the piece will be performed publicly in Romania, Bulgaria and Turkey during spring break. Currently the group is preparing the paperwork and every member who has been involved since the start of the academic year will be eligible to go, which includes the majority of the group.

The rehearsal performance will be open to the public at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday in Sebring-Lewis Hall. At 10 a.m. Saturday, Stucky will lead a composers' workshop, which also open to the public.

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