Sharing Local Compositions

by Megan Collier

One of the hallmarks of Choir of the Sound is the wide range of repertoire. One of the reasons members stay with the group year after year (up to 45 years in one case!) is for the opportunity to experience and share everything from chant music to major classical works to Broadway to singer-songwriters to pop hits. This concert series we share works from as long ago as “Fair Phyllis,” an English madrigal by John Farmer published in 1599, and as new as the work of three contemporary composers who are local to us in Washington State. We are pleased to share compositions by Reginald Unterseher, Keith Loftis, and John Muehleisen.

Reginald Unterseher is Music Director and Composer-in-Residence at Shalom United Church of Christ in Richland, Washington. He takes inspiration for his compositions from his love of nature. We’ll be performing his piece “A Little Song of Life,” in which both the poem that provides the text (by Lizette Woodworth Reese) and the rolling melody celebrate life as it goes through seasons.

Keith Loftis has been active in the music community in Tacoma, Washington, for decades, including composing, performing, directing, and teaching. In his piece “Autumn Gives Her Hand to Winter,” Autumn looks back wistfully at the joys that the year has brought and slowly agrees that the time has come to lie down and rest through the winter. Both the words and the music are Loftis’.

John Muehleisen has over 150 published compositions, more than 80 of which have been recorded by professional choral groups. He has served as composer-in-residence with multiple local arts organizations including Choral Arts Northwest, and most intensively with Opus 7 Vocal Ensemble, who have performed 25 of his works. Choir of the Sound first encountered his piece “Life Has Loveliness to Sell” at the 2013 Seattle Sings Choral Festival, where we performed it with other choirs as one of the Group Sing pieces. The piece, a setting of a poem by Sara Teasdale, encourages us to find life’s joys and beauties to balance its sorrows and stresses. Every life cycles through all of these phases and times, but remember always to find the beauty in life.

We enjoy learning and performing local compositions, and, when possible, we invite these composers to work directly with us to bring even more meaning and interpretation to their work.