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THE SAINT MARY'S COLLEGE WOMEN'S CHOIR, a select 40-voice ensemble, regularly commissions and performs new works for women's voices. An outgrowth of this emphasis is the publication of the Saint Mary's College Choral Series, a collection of new works for women's voices, published by earthsongs of Corvallis, Oregon. The Choir has performed throughout the United States and has appeared before state and division conventions of the Music Educators National Conference and the American Choral Directors Association. In February 2005, the Choir appeared before the national convention of the American Choral Directors Association in Los Angeles, performing in Wilshire Christian Church and the new Walt Disney Concert Hall. Each November the Choir hosts the annual Saint Mary's College High School Women's Choir Festival, in which 20 choirs from neighboring states perform for each other and a panel of commentators. The Choir tours nationally every other year, and regularly performs with the University of Notre Dame Glee Club in joint performances of major works with the South Bend Symphony Orchestra. They have appeared in concert at Carnegie Hall in 1999 and 2001, and returned there in November 2005 to perform music by Gwyneth Walker for women’s voices and orchestra. The Women’s Choir has recorded four compact discs on the ProOrgano label: Ave, Ave!, recorded in 1997, Amazing Day!, recorded in 2002, Anima mea!, recorded in 2004, and Across the Bar..., recorded in 2007.
The Saint Mary's College Women's Choir tours nationally every other year during the spring semester. In March 2002, the Choir toured the Pacific Northwest, presenting concerts of music for women's voices and harp. The tour concluded in a joint concert with Elektra, Canada's internationally known women's choir. In March 2004, the Choir visited Chicago, Ill., Evansville, Ind., Cincinnati, Ohio, Pittsburgh, Penn., Baltimore, Md., and Washington, DC. The spring of 2007 found the women touring the Southwest.
Women's Choir Graduating Seniors 2008
The Saint Mary's College Women's Choir in performance for the
American Choral Directors Association national convention,
Walt Disney Concert Hall,Los Angeles, CA, February 5, 2005 (see more)
ACDA photos by Karl Walter
Composers Gwyneth Walker and Paul Carey with Nancy Menk.
Both composers came to campus in 2004
to work with the SMC Women's Choir.
The Choir in Pittsburgh on their 2004 Spring Tour
Performing at St. Andrews United Methodist Church
in Plano, Texas on March 15, 2007
The Women’s Choir’s first compact disc recording, “Ave, Ave! Twentieth Century Music for Women’s Voices” received an excellent review in the November 1998 issue of The Diapason, a national journal for organists and church musicians. Among the positive comments were the following: “. . . the conductor, Dr. Nancy Menk, revels in, and at times bathes us in, pure vocal effects and rich sonorities . . . Flawlessly executed avant garde vocal techniques abound . . .”.
Their second CD, "Amazing Day!" was released on the ProOrgano label in 2002, and in 2004, they "Anima mea! New Music for Women's Voices"
In the spring of 2007 they released "Hearken All!", a compilation of Christmas music from the Madrigal Dinners presented at Saint Mary's College. This disk comes in a fiber-board sleeve rather than a jewel case.
The latest CD, released in the fall of 2007, is "Across the Bar".
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The Saint Mary’s College Choral Series is a collection of select new music for women’s voices edited by Dr. Nancy Menk. Music in the series is available from the publisher, earthsongs.
Michael Cleveland: Pie Jesu (ssa, opt. piano) (latin) This beautiful, mostly homophonic piece opens with a tender plea for comfort and eternal rest. The middle section expresses the mood of the more joyful procession of the soul’s entrance into heaven, then a brief return of the original statement brings the piece to a close. Works well a cappella, but an optional accompaniment is provided. Medium difficulty.
Tae Kyun Ham: Kashiri (S, ssaa, piano) (korean) This very dramatic setting of a traditional Korean poem was first composed for mixed voices and then arranged for female chorus for the Seoul Ladies’ Singers who performed it at the 1993 IFCM World Symposium in Vancouver and at the 1995 ACDA National Convention in Washington, DC. Difficult, but very effective and worth the effort! Requires a good pianist.
William Hawley: Ave Maria (sssaaa) (latin) A beautiful, lush, a cappella setting of the traditional Ave Maria text by New York composer William Hawley, whose works have recently been performed and recorded by the Gregg Smith Singers, the Dale Warland Singers, and Chanticleer. The piece builds to a gorgeous polyphonic climax based on a falling motive. Moderately difficult, but well worth the effort.
William Hawley: Regina Caeli (ssa) (latin) This setting of the Marian antiphon begins with chant and then expands into intricate, three-part polyphony. Beautiful! Medium difficulty.
William Hawley: Ave Regina Caelorum (sssaaa) (latin) Another beautiful, lush, a cappella setting of the Marian antiphon, composed by New York composer William Hawley for the Women’s Choir’s March 2002 tour. Difficult, but well worth the effort.
William Hawley: Salve Regina (saaa) (latin) The third in Hawley's beautiful a cappella settings of the Marian antiphons, composed for the Women's Choir's March 2004 tour. Freely composed in polyphonic and homophonic passages, as well as in textures integrating both approaches. Difficult.
Andrejs Jansons: Two Latvian Carols (ssaa) (latvian/english) Ziemas svetki sabraukusi, a Latvian folksong which describes the coming of the steed of Winterfest, and Balts sniedzins snieg uz skujinam, an original carol which describes the joy of riding on the sleigh to church on Christmas eve, with “sleighbell” accompaniment. May be sung in Latvian or English. A translation is provided and a pronunciation guide and tape are available. Easy.
Ron Jeffers: Missa Brevis in tempore violentiae (ssaa) (latin) This short mass ( Kyrie and Gloria) was composed for ELEKTRA, an excellent women’s chorus from Vancouver, BC. The Kyrie is a cry for mercy with a different dynamic and sharp dissonances in contrast to many other settings of this ancient text. The more joyful and exuberant Gloria offers a contrasting tempo, texture, and character to the Kyrie. Difficult.
Ron Jeffers: The Serpent (ssa) Oregon composer and publisher Ron Jeffers sets Theodore Roethke’s humorous poem about the “serpent who had to sing” with rhythmic vitality and mild dissonances that help to bring the story to life. Medium difficulty.
Ron Jeffers: To a Long Loved Love (ssa) Mild expressive dissonances seek to convey the spirit of the sensitive thoughts of this poem from Madeleine L’Engle’s Weather of the Heart. A challenging piece, but very possible for good choirs.
Ron Jeffers: Victimae paschali laudes (ssaa) (latin) These three pieces are all based on the well-known Latin sequence for Eastertide. In the first the various moods of the text are heard as the original Gregorian chant is presented canonically and heterophonically. The second is a chromatic variation of the chant which emphasizes the agony and the pain of the Victimae. In the final setting the original chant is part of shimmering whole-tone clusters of sound that offer laudes (“praises”). Difficult.
Ron Jeffers: Warning (ssa, 2 flutes) The well-known poem by Jenny Joseph (“When I am an old woman”) is most audacious and full of “warnings” from a lady who plans to grow old in her very own, strongly independent way. Humorous and challenging.
Theodore Morrison: French Songs for Treble Voices (ssaa/sma) (french) The fluid rhythms and voluptuous harmonies of these lovely choral settings are reminiscent of Hindemith’s “Six Chansons,” but these settings of the German poet Rainer Maria Rilke’s original French poems (La Biche, Puisque tout passe, and Un Cygne) provide a fresh musical approach to the melodious texts. Medium difficulty.
Zae Munn: Grandma’s Alleluia (ssaa) Ann Kilkelly’s text provides a memorable and moving portrait of “Grandma” who, despite family resistance, decides to embark on a train trip from St. Paul to Montana to visit her cousin Marge. She is lulled by the repetitive sounds of the train into memories and dreams of her past. As she remembers, she rejoices in her life. Medium difficulty.
Zae Munn: The Muse, The Stove, and The Willow Plate (ssa) A set of three poems by Ann Kilkelly. In the first a poet bemoans the fact that her muse is a bit more troublesome than most. The second describes a woman who rebels against her cantankerous old stove by pounding it to bits. And in the third, a woman uses the images on a willow plate to sing a love song. Medium difficulty. May be performed separately.
Michael Sitton: Ubi Caritas (ssa/ssa) (latin) This setting of the Maundy Thursday antiphon is for double ssa choir, a cappella. Virginia composer Michael Sitton uses a strict rondo form, treating the two choirs antiphonally at times, but bringing them together for the returning Ubi caritas theme. The piece increases in intensity for the final gaudium quod est immensum . . . (“and let there be immeasurable joy both now and for evermore”), and closes quietly on the lovely final refrain. Difficult.
Gregg Smith: Latin Madrigals (MS, ssa, piano) (latin) Echoes of Gershwin and other jazz idioms can be heard in these attractive settings of three secular Latin poems (Redit aestas, Importuna venerit, Ver redit). Choral music’s foremost champion of American music writes with skill and authority for treble voices and a good pianist. Translations provided.
Nancy Telfer: Butterfly (ssa) From the stillness of the cocoon to the first uncrumpling of frail wings to the joys of first flight, this imaginative piece by one of Canada’s most prolific composers flitters and darts and soars and then disappears, leaving only a soft humming sound. An especially delightful piece for children’s choruses. Medium difficulty.
Nancy Telfer: The Blue Eye of God (ssaa) Dolphins, herons, humpbacks and orcas all play a part in this setting of a strong ecological statement by the Canadian poet Barbara Powis. Sharp dissonant cries contrast with whispered murmurings, and long arching melodies stand out in bold relief against imaginative accompanimental textures in this well-written piece. Demanding vocally and interpretively, but very possible for good choirs.
Clyde Tipton: Songs of Innocence (ssa div) This is a set of five short pieces with texts by William Blake (Little Lamb, Spring, The Shepherd, Nurse’s Song, and Laughing Song). The songs make use of a wide variety of textures from unison to eight parts, and several require soloists. May be performed separately.
The Saint Mary’s College Department of Music sponsors the High School Women’s Choir Festival, held each year in O’Laughlin Auditorium. 20 choirs from four states (IN, IL, MI, OH) participate in this annual event. Each choir performs a program of three or four pieces for each other and a panel of guest commentators. Following their performance, each receives written comments from two of the commentators, while a third works with the choir on stage in an open-rehearsal format so that all in attendance may observe. 
A highlight of each day is a noontime performance by the Saint Mary’s College Women’s Choir. Lunch in the Dining Hall is provided for all participants, and campus tours are included.
In honor of the 15th anniversary of this festival in 1999, the event was celebrated in New York City at Carnegie Hall with a concert of music for women's voices and orchestra, under the direction of Dr. Nancy Menk.
The 23rd annual Festival will be held on January 31 and February 1, 2008.
