74TH SEASON

OF CONCERTS

FEBRUARY 7, 2016 • NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART
Photo by Curtis Johnson 2 • National Gallery of Art

3=30• West Building, West Garden Court

Cantus

The Four Loves

Jimmy Van Heusen (1913-1990)

But Beautiful

Arr. Paul John Rudoi

Eric Whitacre (b. 1970)

Lux Aurumque

Malcolm Dalglish (b. 1952)

Little Potato

Bobby McFerrin (b. 1950)

23rd Psalm

(dedicated to my mother)

Ysaye Barnwell (b. 1946)

Tango with God (Premiere)

Joseph Willcox Jenkins (1928-2014)

Sim Shalom, op. 159, no.1

Francis Poulenc (1899-1963)

From Quatre petites prieres de Saint Francois

d'Assise

III. Lord, I pray you

William Walker (1809-1875)

From Southern Harmony

Wondrous Love

Kurt Elling (b. 1967)

Those Clouds Are Heavy, You Dig?

Arr. Blake Morgan

A. R. Rahman (b. 1967)

Zikr

Arr. Ethan Sperry

Joseph Gregorio (b. 1979)

To My Brother (Premiere)

Maura Bosch (b. 1958)

From The Turning

III. If I could say

Ysaye Barnwell

Wanting Memories

Intermission

Roger Treece (b. 1963)

Philia (Premiere)

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)

Abschiedsgesang, WoO 102 (Farewell Song)

Richard Peaslee (b. 1930)

WhenI Would Muse in Boyhood

Edvard Grieg (1843-1907)

Brothers, Sing On!

Arr. Howard McKinney

Arnold Schoenberg (1874-1951)

Six Pieces for Male Chorus, op. 35, no. 6 

Verbundenheit (Obligation)

Lee Hoiby (1926-2011)

Last Letter Home

Michael McGlynn (b. 1964)

Ceann Dubh Dflis (Her Sweet Dark Head)

David Lang (b. 1957)

Manifesto (Premiere)

Bobby Troup (1918-1999)

Their Hearts Were Full of Spring

A. R. Rahman

Wedding Qawwali

Arr. Ethan Sperry
The Musicians

The nine-member men's vocal ensemble Cantus is known worldwide for its trademark

warmth and blend and its engaging performances of music ranging from the Renaissance

to the twenty-first century. Cantus performs more than sixty concerts each year both in

national and international touring, and in its home of Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota. Past

performances have brought Cantus to the stages of Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center,

UCLA, San Francisco Performances, Atlanta's Spivey Hall, and Bravo! Vail Valley Music

Festival. The 2015-2016 season sees Cantus perform twice in New York with Carnegie Hall

Neighborhood Concerts and Music Mondays, and in Denver, Tucson, Detroit, and Washington, DC, among other North American engagements. The ensemble made its first visit to

Colombia in September 2015.

As one of the nation's few full-time vocal ensembles, Cantus has grown in prominence with its distinctive approach to creating music. Working without a conductor, the 

ensemble members rehearse and perform as chamber musicians, each contributing to the 

entirety of the artistic process. This collaborative work style allows the group to be more 

flexible, adaptive, and ready to embrace new ideas.

Committed to the expansion of the vocal music repertoire, Cantus actively commissions new music for men's voices. In addition to composers commissioned for The Four

Loves— David Lang, Roger Treece, Ysaye Barnwell, and Joseph Gregorio —Cantus has

commissioned Sarah Kirkland Snider, Nico Muhly, and Byron Adams. Cantus has received

commissioning grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, American Composers 

Forum, and Chamber Music America. The ensemble also actively unearths rarely performed repertoire for men's voices such as the music written by Antonin Dvorak and Leos

Janacek, heard on the ensemble's 2013 album Song of a Czech.

Cantus has a rich history of collaborations with other performing arts organizations,

including the Minnesota Orchestra, the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, the Boston Pops, the 

Guthrie Theater, the James Sewell Ballet, and Theater Latte Da. The ensemble is heard

frequently on public radio as regular guests on A Prairie Home Companion, with Garrison 

Keillor, Performance Today, and the annual Thanksgiving program Thanksgiving with Cantus,

heard each year on more than three hundred public radio stations nationwide. In the fall of

2014, Cantus released A Harvest Home — the seventeenth recording on the group's self-titled

label —of repertoire from the Thanksgiving with Cantus program.

4 * National Gallery of Art

Integral to the Cantus mission is its commitment to preserve and deepen music 

education in the schools. Cantus works with more than five thousand students each year

in master-class and workshop settings across the country. Now in its eighth year, the

award-winning High School Residency program brings Cantus into Minnesota schools 

several times a year for mentoring with a culminating public concert in the spring.

Tenors

Zachary Colby 

Adam Fieldson

Paul John Rudoi

Paul Scholtz 

Joe Shadday

Baritones

Matthew Goinz

Matthew Tintes

Basses

Chris Foss

Samuel Green

74th Season • 5
Program Notes

Love has been the inspiration for artistic expression since the dawn of time. It is such 

a complex idea that the ancient Greeks broke it down into four different kinds of love:

romantic, familial, friendly, and unconditional. In The Four Loves, Cantus regards this

unquantifiable emotion —our greatest and most fragile gift —from all sides, with music

by Poulenc, Grieg, Beethoven, and Bobby McFerrin, paired with newly commissioned

works exploring each of the four loves by Pulitzer Prize-winner David Lang, as well as

Roger Treece, Joseph Gregorio, and Ysaye Barnwell. In their trademark excellence of

programming juxtaposition, Cantus shapes The Four Loves to span multiple cultural

traditions, including pairing the Beach Boys' "Their Hearts Were Full of Spring" with

Indian composer A. R. Rahman's "Wedding Qawwali" and Michael McGlynn's setting

of the traditional Gaelic "Ceann Dubh Dflis" (Her Sweet Dark Head).

Upcoming Events of the SeventyFourth Season of The William

Nelson Cromwell and F. Lammot

Belin Concerts

Cann Duo

Music by Leonard Bernstein, Margaret

Bonds, Jeffrey Mumford, Richard Rodgers,

and Michael Leibowitz. Presented in honor

of African American History Month

February 14, Sunday, 3:30

West Building, West Garden Court

Bennewitz Quartet

Music by Czech composers

February 21, Sunday, 3:30

West Building, West Garden Court

BEETHOVEN TRIO FEST

Complete instrumental trios of Ludwig 

van Beethoven in four days. Sponsored by

the Billy Rose Foundation.

Concerts in the West Building,

West Garden Court

Members of Inscape

Beethoven Trios

February 25, Thursday, 12:00 and 2:00

Mendelssohn Piano Trio

Beethoven Trios

February 26, Friday, 12:00 and 2:00

DEKA Trio

Beethoven Trios

February 27, Saturday, 12:00 and 2:00

North Carolina Symphony Trio

Beethoven Trios

February 28, Sunday, 12:00 and 2:00

West Garden Trio

National Gallery of Art Orchestra

Dingwall Fleary, guest conductor

Triple Concerto

February 28, Sunday, 4:00

General Information

Admission to the National Gallery of Art

and all of its programs is free of charge,

except as noted.

The use of cameras or recording equipment

during the performance is not allowed.

Please be sure that all portable electronic

devices are turned off.

Concerts are made possible in part

through the generosity of donors to the

National Gallery of Art through The Circle.

Reserved seating is available in recognition

of their support. Please contact the

development office at (202) 842-6450 or

circle@nga.gov for more information.

www.nga.gov

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www.twitter.com/ngadc

www.facebook.com/nationalgalleryofart

The department of music produced these

program notes. Copyright © 2016 Board of

Trustees, National Gallery of Art, Washington

Cover Francois Boucher, Allegory of Music

(detail), 1764, National Gallery of Art,

Washington, Samuel H. Kress Collection

Back cover West Building, East Garden 

Court, Photo by Rob Shelley, National Gallery

of Art, Washington