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Graduate student conductors to lead final choral performance

(Felicia Ramirez/Daily Bruin staff)

By Alicia Sontag

April 4, 2014 1:16 a.m.

In an a cappella piece titled “Zephyr Rounds” and composed by Richard Vuichard, eight distinct parts are sung at once. Listeners can hear the different voices, but cannot make a distinction of which section will sing next, creating a spatial sense of coming and going as the musical wind blows where it pleases.

This opening piece is appropriate for choral conducting graduate students Alexander Blake and Han Na Jang, who are preparing to graduate at the end of the quarter. The conductors organized the event together, recruiting an a cappella group and a chamber orchestra of about 25 students each to perform a wide array of music in the Powell Library rotunda, to showcase their skills in their final UCLA performance.

Each conductor chose five pieces for the performance. Among them, Blake will conduct “Ubi caritus,” a Gregorian hymn of the Catholic mass and “Wade in the Water,” a spiritual piece originally sung by American slaves, arranged by Blake. Jang will conduct “May the Words of My Mouth,” composed by Joshua Fishbein, and “Hostias” from Mozart’s Requiem.

“We unintentionally put together a survey of sacred works,” Blake said. “They include a spiritual theme in some way, and span as early as baroque to contemporary music.”

Many of the pieces proved challenging for the conductors, singers and musicians, Blake said. The time signatures of many of the pieces are complex, while others are not in English, such as the Latin “Ubi caritus,” and “May the Words of My Mouth,” which is sung in Hebrew.

The pieces range in emotion from joyful and peaceful to painful, with a slow and fast mix in the variety of choral music, Jang said. The songs all share a similar theme of deep spirituality.

“I tried to find a text that was most meaningful for me,” Jang said.

Because she’s a religious person, Jang said, she chose text relating to the Bible.

Blake said the acoustics of Powell Library come to life as the a cappella echoes through the building. The library, which was inspired by Italian churches, allows the music to resonate like it would in a stone church.

“A piece like ‘Ubi caritus’ would have been sung in a similar stone building, and it is the perfect setting for where that piece would have been sung traditionally,” Blake said.

The choir and orchestra also performed these same pieces in a Christmas concert in fall quarter, and is using Saturday’s performance as a way to demonstrate their improvement since the beginning of the year and highlight the conductors’ talents, said Kelly Noe, a second-year music education student and member of the choir.

The choral conducting degree focuses on conducting singers, but the program also gives Blake and Jang a chance to work extensively with the orchestra. Blake said working with the orchestra is a valuable skill for the future because many large choral groups include orchestras.

“Firsthand experience is the most important part of conducting for me,” Jang said. “It has been the most meaningful to work and cooperate with both the singers and the orchestra.”

The concert is an independent project that also tested the conductors’ administrative skills. Jang said she and Blake were in charge of all logistical details, such as organizing the rehearsal schedules and locations.

“We learned to become energized communicators in order to spark interest and keep the singers and musicians interested,” Blake said.

Additionally, the conductors also had to recruit singers for the choir. The choir is composed of both undergraduate and graduate students of many different fields of study, while the orchestra is mainly composed of music performance students.

Noe said she learned from Blake, who was her teaching assistant for her choral class in fall quarter, that they were looking for singers. She then auditioned for the choir and was given a spot.

“It is really incredible to watch (Blake and Jang) conduct,” Noe said. “They are less than five years older than us, and they are incredibly talented. It is cool to see students a few stages ahead of me and see how they work and how they improve.”

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Alicia Sontag
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