INTERSTELLAR – November 16, 2025

Program Notes

*Canadian Composer
°with organ

North Sky Chorale

AMAZING GRACE° – arr. Stephen Hatfield*, text by John Newton
Joel Peters, organ

Amazing grace! How sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me.
I once was lost, but now I’m found, was blind but now I see

’Twas grace that taught my heart to fear, and grace my fear relieved.
How precious did that grace appear the hour I first believed.

When we’ve been there ten thousand years, bright shining as the sun,
We’ve no less days to sing God’s praise than when we’ve first begun.

This arrangement of “Amazing Grace” is adapted from the coda  of “Ower The Hills”, a Scottish Suite for treble voices and bagpipes commissioned by the Amabile Youth Singers of London, ON. Although “Amazing Grace” is closely associated with the pipes, it has been arranged so many times that Hatfield thought is best to avoid it, until it came to him that the choir should never sing the melody. Instead the voices have a counter-melody that is both serene and triumphant.

For today’s performance, the pipe organ will take the part of the pipes.

John Newton (1725-1807) – With great passion often comes great struggle, and it is for this very reason that Newton’s story resonates with people hundreds of years after his passing. In his autobiography, Newton attributes most of his struggles to his own debauchery and poor choices. Plainly, he believed himself to have been a failure on almost every front. His conversion from a creature sinking into despair to a soul redeemed is recorded everywhere in his voluminous writings, but nowhere more plainly or beautifully than in the words of the hymn, “Amazing Grace.” (From “A Wretch Like Me – the story of John Newton”)

Stephen Hatfield (b. 1956) is a resident of Vancouver Island, where he composes for the theatre. He has taught band, chorus, stage band, vocal jazz, guitar, keyboard, steel drum and music appreciation, as well as university English and graduate courses in teaching techniques. Hatfield is noted for his exciting arrangements of world music, and for his original works which weave influences from diverse cultures into a fresh and distinctive idiom. His choirs have earned gold medals in national festivals, and he has received various awards for his work in education, music and poetry, including the Governor General’s Gold Medal. He is often featured as a guest conductor and workshop leader throughout the world

HEILIG – Felix Mendelssohn

One of Mendelssohn’s most beloved choral compositions, “Heilig” is written for two SATB choirs. The opening phrases cascade from upper voices to lower voices as if the heavenly beings lead the song of praise around the throne of God.

Felix Mendelssohn (1809 -1847) was a German composer, pianist, musical conductor, and teacher, and one of the most-celebrated figures of the early Romantic period. In his music, Mendelssohn largely observed Classical models and practices while initiating key aspects of Romanticism—the artistic movement that exalted feeling and the imagination above rigid forms and traditions.

Mendelssohn was born of Jewish parents, Abraham and Lea Salomon Mendelssohn, from whom he took his first piano lessons. Though the Mendelssohn family was proud of their ancestry, they considered it desirable in accordance with 19th-century liberal ideas to mark their emancipation from the ghetto by adopting the Christian faith. Accordingly, Felix, together with his brother and two sisters, was baptized in 1816 as a Lutheran. In 1822, when his parents were also baptized, the entire family adopted the surname Bartholdy, following the example of Felix’s maternal uncle, who had chosen to adopt the name of a family farm.

HYMN FOR KATJA° – Jordan Wiens*
Joel Peters, organ

PREMIERE PERFORMANCE

Sleep now, and rest thine heart, 
though sweet soul and body part,
We to your maker now entrust, 
for our world is hateful and unjust.
Through heavy heart and weary shoulder,
Some carry pebbles, but you held boulders,

Come home, my child, our world fades from view
As hosts of heavenly angels guide thee with sweet “Sanctus”

Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!
Sanctus, sanctus, sanctus, 
Sanctus Dominus Deus Sabbaoth.

“Hymn for Katja was written after a friend passed away too young. Her being quite musical herself, it seemed a fitting tribute to someone who made a large mark in a short period of time. The piece itself is a transition from grief, through spiritual flight, and finally resting in the embrace of God and the angels.

“The three phases of the piece each have their own character, with the beginning being deliberate and hymn-like, the middle being uninhibited and unencumbered by conventional metre, and the final aspect being a reflection of my own growing up with men’s choir heralding the final arrival into paradise.” – Jordan Wiens

Jordan Wiens (b. 1993) is a Saskatoon-based singer, political activist, and agrarian. Originally from Herschel, SK, Wiens has been an active choral member in many groups in Saskatoon, including North Sky Chorale, Saskatoon Chamber Singers, and Saskatoon Symphony Orchestra Chorus. Outside of his work as an agronomist and his passion for music, Wiens spends time woodworking in his shop, curling, playing volleyball, and skiing.

STICK WITH LOVE – Aaron Manswell*, text from Martin Luther King Jr.
Leah Klaassen, soprano
Finn Nichol, tenor
Audrey Falk Janzen, piano

I have decided to stick with love. 
Hate is too great a burden to bear. 
I realize that hate is just made of something related mainly to fear.

Don’t be afraid when you don’t understand, 
Search and you’ll find the truth.
Then when you’ve found it,
Release all your fear to make room for love.

“I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear” is a timeless quote from civil rights activist Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Manswell joined his own words, expanding on this powerful quote in order to write this song.

“A typical reason why we hate is out of fear, and we fear what we don’t understand. “Stick with Love” is a reminder that if we search for all information to understand a subject before landing on a conclusion there would be less hatred in the world.” – Aaron Manswell

Aaron Manswell is a composer of soulful music, painting vivid pictures to contemporary themes using an assorted palette. A native of Toronto, Ontario, his songs have been premiered and recorded across North America by ensembles including the Grand Philharmonic Choir, the Amadeus Choir of Greater Toronto, the Nathaniel Dett Chorale, the Aeolians of Oakwood University and Choral Arts Initiative – a Southern California-based choir who featured his song “Stick with Love” on their 2024 album Tapestry of Becoming which debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Traditional Classical Albums chart. This song made him the winner of the 2022 Grand Philharmonic Choir Canada-wide Composition Contest and the runner-up for the 2023 American Choral Directors Association Brock Prize for Student Composers.

Manswell has earned music composition degrees from Oakwood University (where he is included on the 2025 Gold Society Top Alum Achiever “40 Under 40” list) and the University of Memphis. He recently completed a Doctor of Musical Arts in Composition at the University of Toronto and has been appointed Assistant Professor of Music, Industry & Technology at the University of Guelph.

NO NIGHT THERE! – Craig Curry, text by J. Paul Williams
Audrey Falk Janzen, piano

No night there! There’ll be no night there!
When we reach our home above, we will walk in Jesus’ love.
There’ll be light glorious and bright, 
‘Cause there will be no night there!

Heaven will resound as the angels sound
All in one accord.
Saints will join the song, and all will sing along:
“Jesus Christ is Lord!”

No sorrow there! There’ll be no sorrow there!
As we walk the streets of gold and our Saviour behold,
Only joy will flow,
‘Cause there will be no sorrow there!

We’ll hear heaven resound as the angels sound
All in one accord.
Hear the saints join the song as we sing along:
“Jesus Christ is Lord!”

No death there! There’ll be no death there!
We will live forever more, our Redeemer we’ll adore,
In His glory most bright,
‘Cause there will be no death,
There will be no sorrow,
There will be no night,
There will be no heartache
There will be no pain,
And there will be no night there!

In this exuberant gospel ‘banger’, the choir is given one simple instruction by Curry for the final pages of “No Night There!”: to “CUT LOOSE!” The unbounded joy and hope is wrapped up in the final cluster “AY-MEN!”.

J. Paul Williams (1937–2010) made notable contributions to the field of church music. His catalog of published lyrics exceeds 925 songs, running the gamut of sacred and secular texts. A leader of choral clinics and composer symposiums, he was also a member of the American Society of Composers and Publishers (ASCAP).

Craig Curry is an award-winning composer, arranger, and pianist with a passion for creating music that inspires, uplifts, and delights. He specializes in sacred choral music and jazz-infused hymn arrangements. With more than 275 of his compositions currently in print, Curry’s music is regularly performed throughout the North America and abroad. He has received multiple ASCAP Plus Awards (American Society of Composers, Arrangers, and Publishers) to recognize his contributions in music composition and the many live performances of his works.

Joel Peters, organ

SILHOUETTE OF A CLOUD II° – Joel Peters* & Adrian Foster*
Organ and Fixed Electronics

The inspiration for Silhouette of a Cloud II came about the way inspiration often does for me: a variety of themes, tensions, and questions that had been occupying my mind found their release in one idea, one piece of art, and, more often than not, in music.
In this case, there were at least five themes on my mind: clouds; canons (musical rounds); repeated notes; the idea for a story about a composer who loses faith in himself and becomes inspired to design buildings shaped by clouds; and, finally, the spark that ignited the piece.

I had recently returned from Germany—deprived of the Saskatchewan sky, deprived of my home, and in spiritual crisis—when I read a passage by Italo Calvino:
“When the human realm seems doomed to heaviness, doomed to turn to stone, I often feel the need to fly. I am not talking about escaping into dreams or into the irrational. I mean that I feel the need to change my approach, to change my way of thinking and seeing.”

And so, sitting on the hood of my car on an empty Saskatchewan highway, I looked up at the clouds. I looked up and saw the forms of things most unlike stones that I could imagine. I imagined what they might sound like as music. I imagined that the memory of this moment would stay with me for a long time, though the clouds themselves would last only a moment.

And so Silhouette of a Cloud II is an elegy—for those clouds, for clouds yet to be, and for clouds that teach us to change our approach: clouds that have gone away and long been forgotten, and clouds that you or I will never see at all.

INTERSTELLAR SUITE° (from the movie “INTERSTELLAR”) – Hans Zimmer, arr. Richard McVeigh
Organ solo

Hans Zimmer (b. 1957) has scored more than 500 projects across all mediums, which combined, have grossed more than 28 billion dollars at the worldwide box office. Zimmer has been honoured with two Academy Awards^®, three Golden Globes^®, five Grammys^®, an American Music Award, and a Tony^® Award. His work highlights include Interstellar, Top Gun: Maverick, Gladiator, The Thin Red Line, The Dark Knight trilogy, Inception, Thelma and Louise, 12 Years A Slave, and Dunkirk, as well as David Attenborough’s Prehistoric Planet, and Denis Villeneuve’s Dune 2 movie series.

Beyond his award-winning compositions, Zimmer is a remarkably successful touring artist, having recently concluded his first North American “Hans Zimmer Live” tour, after the tour’s second round in Europe. Due to the great success and the never-ending demand, an extended, brand-new tour through Europe will follow from fall 2025 to spring 2026. (edited from hanszimmerlive.com)

Richard McVeigh is a British organist. He operates the Youtube channel Beauty in Sound and produces a variety of Hauptwerk and real-life organ-related videos and recordings. His Youtube channel is particularly noteworthy for the Virtual Church series and professional-quality real-life recordings of him and other organists.

INTERVAL (10 minutes)

North Sky Chorale

LACRIMOSA° (from “REQUIEM FOR MY FRIEND”) – Zbignew Preisner
Emma Gillingham, soprano
Joel Peters, organ

In 1998, “Requiem for My Friend” premiered. It was Preisner’s first large scale work not written for film. It was originally intended as a narrative work directed by Krzysztof Kieślowski, but it became a memorial to Kieślowski after the director’s death. The “Lacrimosa” is often performed as a stand-alone piece, and reflects the deep sorrow felt by friends in mourning.

Zbigniew Preisner (b.1955) is a Polish film score composer, best known for the music composed for the films directed by Krzysztof Kieślowski. His “Song for the Unification of Europe“, based on the Greek text of 1 Corinthians 13, is attributed to a character in Kieślowski’s “Three Colors: Blue” and plays a dominating role in the story. After working with Kieślowski on “Three Colors: Blue“, Preisner was hired by the producer Francis Ford Coppola to write the score for “The Secret Garden“, directed by Polish director Agnieszka Holland.

AD ASTRA – Jacob Narverud
Audrey Falk Janzen, piano

Ad Astra Per Aspera
to the stars …
Sursum, sursum, sursum (upward, upward, upward)

When you’re tired and troubled and you have lost your way, 
Don’t let hard times lead you astray.
Though you may be weary, just know you’re not alone, 
for the stars will guide you home.

Movere, deinceps, sine cura, post omnes.
Move forward, look upward, leave all cares behind.

Ad Astra Per Aspera
to the stars … to the stars!

“Ad Astra Per Aspera” is the state motto of Kansas. Jacob Narverud wrote this song as a commission for the 2020 Kansas All State Honor Choir. It is filled with unbounded optimism; no matter the challenges we face the future remains bright.

Jacob Narverud (b.1986) is an American Choral Composer and Arranger. A native Kansan, Jake is the Founding Artistic Director of the Tallgrass Chamber Choir, a professional ensemble of musicians from across the Great Plains. He is the Editor of Santa Barbara Music Publishing, Inc. As a sought-after composer, Dr. Narverud has been commissioned to write new music for more than sixty organizations nationwide, as well as ensembles in Australia, Canada, and Japan.

THIS STILL ROOM – Jonathan Adams, text by John Greenleaf Whittier

And so I find it well to come for deeper rest to this still room;
For here the habit of my soul feels less the outer world’s control.
The strength of mutual purpose pleads more earnestly our common needs;
And from the stillness, multiplied by these still forms on either side.
The world that time and sense have known falls off,
And leaves us God alone.

Where do you go when you are looking for peace? Many find it in solitude, or in quiet dark rooms. This lovely setting of Whittier’s solemn text implies an individual’s quieting soul refreshed in the company of equally earnest seekers.

John Greenleaf Whittier (1807-1892) was an American Quaker poet and advocate of the abolition of slavery in the United States. Frequently listed as one of the fireside poets, he was influenced by the Scottish poet Robert Burns. Whittier is remembered particularly for his anti-slavery writings, as well as his 1866 book Snow-Bound.

Jonathan Adams (b. 1962) is a cum laude graduate of Arkansas State University where he received both his bachelor of music ed. and his master of music ed. degrees. While at ASU, he studied choral music with the late Alfred Skoog and composition with Jared Spears. He is currently choral director at Nettleton High School in Jonesboro, AR. Adams has been composing since age 18 and has many works in print. In 2000, 2004 and 2005 Adams was included in “Who’s Who Among America’s Teachers.” Adams currently resides in Jonesboro, Arkansas with his wife Kim and their daughters, Olivia Ann and Madeline Claire.

THE PEACE OF WILD THINGS – Dan Forrest, text by Wendell Berry
Kaitlyn Janzen, soprano
Audrey Falk Janzen, piano

When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water,
I go and lie down where the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought of grief.
I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light.
For a time I rest in the grace of the world,
and I am free.

Wendell Berry’s much-loved text receives a haunting new treatment in this tone poem from Dan Forrest for SATB chorus, piano, and optional percussion and bowed vibraphone. Ethereal soprano solo lines evoking bird calls float over a serene vision of peaceful calm.

Poet, novelist, and environmentalist Wendell Berry (b. 1934) lives in Port Royal, Kentucky near his birthplace, where he has maintained a farm for over 40 years. Mistrustful of technology, he holds deep reverence for the land and is a staunch defender of agrarian values. He is the author of over 50 books of poetry, fiction, and essays. His poetry celebrates the holiness of life and everyday miracles often taken for granted.

Dan Forrest (b. 1978) has been described as having “an undoubted gift for writing beautiful music….that is truly magical” (NY Concert Review), with works hailed as “magnificent, very cleverly constructed sound sculpture” (Classical Voice), and  “superb writing…full of spine-tingling moments” (Salt Lake Tribune). His music has sold millions of copies, has received numerous awards and distinctions, and has become well established in the repertoire of choirs around the world via festivals, recordings, radio/TV broadcasts, and premieres in prominent international venues.

Forrest’s work ranges from small choral works to instrumental solo works, wind ensemble works, and extended multi-movement works for chorus and orchestra. His “Requiem for the Living” (2013) and “Jubilate Deo” (2016) have become standard choral/orchestral repertoire for ensembles around the world, with “LUX” (2018), “the breath of life” (2020), and his new “CREATION” oratorio (2023) also receiving critical acclaim.

Forrest holds a doctorate in composition and a master’s degree in piano performance, and served for several years as a professor and department head (music theory and composition) in higher education. He has served as Chair of the American Choral Director’s Association Composition Initiatives Committee and adjunct faculty at Furman University; he currently serves as Vice President of Publications and Editor at Beckenhorst Press and Artist-In-Residence at Mitchell Road Presbyterian Church (Greenville, SC). (from www.danforrest.com)

OMBRA MAI FÙ° (LARGO from “XERXES”) – G.F. Handel, arr. Adam Podd & Matt Podd
Audrey Falk Janzen, piano
Joel Peters, organ

Commonly known as Handel’s ‘Largo of Love’, “Ombra mai fù” is the opening aria in the 1738 opera “XERXES“. Sung by the character Xerxes I of Persia, the vocal part is composed for a countertenor (male soprano.) Perhaps the most striking element of this aria is the vocal range used, as the high register for the countertenor creates an angelic atmosphere. To set the scene of the aria, there is an instrumental intro featuring a reed solo (played on the organ in today’s concert). The Podd Brothers have given the aria a modern touch with a soothing and flowing piano underscore and SATB treatment.

The title of the aria translates into ‘Never was a shade’, and within the context of the opera, Xerxes is singing about the admiration and love he has for the shade of the trees in the forest in which he is walking.

Twin brothers Adam Podd & Matt Podd (b. 1986) are Vermont-bred, Brooklyn-based music directors, pianists, composers, and arrangers. Making their mark on the music industry’s top institutions, they work in prominent performance spaces and concert halls throughout New York City with choirs, orchestras, and popular artists across all genres. From dive bars to Carnegie Hall, the Podds proudly make the best music they can, whenever and wherever possible.

As experienced improvisers who were classically trained, their creative work expertly blends a wide array of musical influences. Their catalog draws heavily from music beyond the classical canon, especially informed and influenced by gospel, pop, R&B, folk, and jazz. Adam and Matt have both been making and directing music in bands, theaters, and churches since their early teenage years in New England and continue to do so in a wide variety of artistic projects throughout New York City and beyond.

Collectively, they’ve worked with some of the top artists and organizations in their field including The Boston Pops, The National Symphony Orchestra, The New York Pops, Barbra Streisand, Renee Fleming, The Young People’s Chorus of New York City and more in such venues as Carnegie Hall, The Kennedy Center, The Apollo Theater, Jazz at Lincoln Center, Broadway theaters, and others.