Unbound Angels - Joseph Gregorio - Harmonium Choral Society

Snow Angel - December 2024
Under the direction of Dr. Anne J. Matlack
Harmonium Choral Society
Location: The Presbyterian Church at Morristown
Musician: David Davis, piano
East coast premiere

The music of Joseph Gregorio ‪@josephgregoriomusic‬ has been broadcast on American Public Media's Performance Today and WQXR's Choral Mix, has garnered prizes in several competitions, and has been performed at such venues as Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center, the National Cathedral, and the Basilica di San Marco in Venice. Gregorio has received numerous awards and commissions including a 2015 Commissioning Grant from the Ann Stookey Fund for New Music and commissions from Cantus and the ACDA Women's Commission Consortium. Gregorio has studied composition with Steven Stucky, David Conte, Richard Brodhead, Alice Parker, and Matthew Greenbaum. He holds a M.M. in composition from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, a M.M. in choral conducting from Yale University, and a B.A. magna cum laude in music from Cornell University. Gregorio’s professorships include music theory and musicianship at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, and Temple University from 2011-2012 (where he earned a D.M.A. in composition) as well as recently directing the choirs at Swarthmore College. In 2011, he founded the chamber choir Ensemble Companio, which won the 2012 American Prize in choral performance, and which he directed until 2016.
Gregorio’s Unbound Angels was commissioned and premiered by The South Bend Chamber Singers (Dr. Nancy Menk, conductor) in December 2022. He sets a poem he commissioned for this piece from Mohja Kauf, a professor of comparative literature and a member of the Middle East Studies faculty at the University of Arkansas. Born in Damascus, Syria, Kauf grew up in the United States (Utah, Indiana, and New Jersey) and earned a Ph.D. in comparative literature from Rutgers University. She is the author of the poetry collections Hagar Poems (2016) and Emails from Scheherazade (2003) and the novel The Girl in the Tangerine Scarf (2006) and is a member of the Syrian Nonviolence Movement. Gregorio requested a short poem gently connecting the meaning of Christmas to the imperative of welcoming refugees. This work speaks of radical hospitality in a time when it is greatly needed. https://www.josephgregoriomusic.com

Full program notes available on our website: http://www.harmonium.org/repertoire/
Video/audio production: http://www.showfocused.llc/

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