Chorale, Low Brass Choir concert will honor composer Moses Hogan

Conductor James Patrick Miller leads the Cornell Chorale and the Low Brass Choir in a concert April 17 in Sage Chapel. Dewey Neild

Both directed by James Patrick Miller, the Cornell Chorale and Low Brass Choir will present a concert Saturday, April 17, at 8 p.m. in Sage Chapel to honor the passing of composer Moses Hogan (1957-2003), best known for his arrangements of spirituals. The program, titled "Ceremony," will honor Hogan's life by surrounding his music with beautiful, austere works from different areas of the choral repertoire. Director Miller is assisted by guest conductors Heidi Gilbert and Elizabeth Swanson, both graduate conducting students at Ithaca College, as well as organist William Cowdery.

The Low Brass Choir opens the concert with works by Frigyes Hidas (Scherzo e Corale per Quattro Tromboni) and Kazimierz Serocki (Suite fur vier Posaunen). The Chorale opens with Henry Purcell's Music for the Funeral of Queen Mary, assisted by trumpets, trombones and percussion; soloists include Chorale members Kandice Stetson, soprano; Elizabeth Swanson, alto; Thom Baker, tenor; and Dimitri Shapovalov, baritone. A cappella works by Igor Stravinsky (Ave Maria), Hogan (We Shall Walk Through the Valley in Peace) and Ralph Vaughan Williams (The Turtle Dove) round out the first portion of the concert.

The second half of the program is devoted to a single work: Morten Lauridsen's Lux Aeterna, scored for mixed chorus and chamber orchestra. It was composed for the Los Angeles Master Chorale and conductor Paul Salamunovich and was premiered by them in 1997. The work is in five movements with texts drawn from sacred Latin sources, each containing references to light. Lauridsen has received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts; the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers; and Chorus America.

Active as a conductor, composer and serious promoter of new music, Miller currently serves as assistant conductor of Wind Ensembles and conductor of the Chorale at Cornell. In February 2003 Miller won the American Choral Directors Association National Conducting Prize at the graduate level, becoming the youngest recipient of this honor. Diligently promoting new music, Miller has been involved with the commissioning of more than 20 works for instrumental and choral ensembles in the past five years. He received his master of music degree in conducting from Ithaca College and holds a bachelor of music education degree from St. Olaf College in Minnesota.