EXCITING NEWS . . . Congratulations to Cantala!
Cantala has been invited (through a juried audition process) to sing at the 2011 American Choral Directors Association National Conference in Chicago on March 12, 2011. Join them for their historic national ACDA debut performances at Roosevelt University at 9:00 AM or Orchestra Hall at 2:00 PM. Cantala will present their ACDA preview performance on Saturday, February 26, 2011 at 8:00 PM in the Lawrence Memorial Chapel. This performance may also be heard via live webcast @ http://www.lawrence.edu/conservatory/services/webcasts/
CANTALA, the Lawrence University Women’s Choir, is a select ensemble comprised of women (mostly freshmen and sophomores) whose fields of study represent the broad diversity in a liberal arts education. Founded in the fall of 2000, the choir performs a wide range of unique and challenging literature that includes traditional women’s literature, world folk literature, and contemporary works such as Veroslav Neumann’s Lamento di Arianna abbandonata, R. Murray Schafer’s Snowforms, Susan Botti’s Cosmosis with the LU Wind Ensemble, and Debussy’s Nocturnes with the LU Symphony Orchestra. In addition to its own repertoire, Cantala annually joins forces with the Lawrence University Concert Choir, Viking Chorale, and Symphony Orchestra in performances of choral-orchestral masterworks. These ensembles have combined for performances of Pärt’s Te Deum, Lauridsen’s Mid-Winter Songs, Brahm’s A German Requiem, Britten’s War Requiem, Orff’s Carmina Burana, Verdi’s La Traviata, Handel’s Messiah, Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms, Penderecki’s Credo, and Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. Cantala is proud also to have the opportunity to perform and record new compositions by established and emerging composers from around the world as well as LU faculty and student composers.
ENSEMBLE PERFORMANCE HISTORY:
Although still in its infancy, in the second year of its existence the Women’s Choir (Cantala) was selected to perform at the 2001 Wisconsin State Music Conference. Later that same year, they were invited, along with the LU Concert Choir, to perform as a demonstration choir for the 2002 WCDA convention. In 2003, the Women’s Choir (Cantala) was selected to present its own program at the WCDA State Convention. Recent performances include the North Central ACDA 2006 Regional Convention, Lawrence University President Jill Beck’s Inauguration Ceremony, Oconto Falls Artist Series, guest artists for the Appleton High Schools Women’s Choir Festivals and the Lawrence Academy of Music Girl Choir Spring Concert.
Directors:
David R. Erb, 2000-2002
Phillip A. Swan, 2002-present
Name Change
In the fall of 2006, the LU Women’s Choir officially changed its name to Cantala. Over the course of several years, a choir retreat story tradition was established. “Fireside chat with Mr. Swan” involved a discussion about the five principles we can learn about leadership and community from geese. These principles became a cornerstone for the ensemble. Consequently, in searching for a unique and appropriate name, we wanted to somehow involve the geese. In 2006, our choir president, Heidi Jastram, and her father “invented” a Latin name for the group. Cantala is actually the merging of two Latin words. “Cant” is the Latin root for “to sing” and “ala” translates as “wings.” The intended meaning is: “on wings of song.” The suggestion was an immediate hit and soon adopted as the official name of the ensemble.
Conductor
- Phillip A. Swan
Associate Professor of Music
Phillip A. Swan is the Co-Director of Choral Studies at Lawrence University and Musical Director for LU Musicals. Swan directs Cantala (LU Women’s Choir) and the LU Hybrid Ensemble (jazz, early, contemporary, and world music), teaches courses in conducting, musical theater, music education, supervises student teachers and coaches student organized a cappella groups. He is also active in the Appleton community, serving as choir director at Appleton Alliance Church and conductor for the community choir, the White Heron Chorale. Swan received his BA in music education from Concordia College, Moorhead, MN, MM in Choral Conducting from UT El Paso, and has completed all coursework for the DMA in Choral Conducting at the University of Miami (Florida). His doctoral essay is focused on the choral works of Eric Whitacre.
Swan served as a church music and youth director, performed in El Paso Pro Musica, and taught elementary general music in El Paso, Texas, before moving to Watertown, South Dakota in 1989, where he taught high school vocal music for ten years and was an active clinician and adjudicator. His duties at Watertown High School included: Fine Arts Department Chair, Bel Canto Singers (non-auditioned freshman chorus), Concert Choir (non-auditioned grade 10-12 chorus), Meistersingers (auditioned grade 11-12 chorus, who performed twice at the South Dakota Teacher Inservice), private voice lessons, two auditioned show choirs and director for the spring musicals (Hello Dolly, 1940's Radio Hour, The Wizard of Oz, Singin' In The Rain, and Into The Woods). Swan was also actively involved in the Watertown community as musical director of an auditioned community choir (Kampeska Chorale), Town Players (musical theater productions of Fiddler On The Roof and Camelot), and for nine years served as music director for Ninth Avenue United Methodist Church, directing both the sanctuary choir and praise team. Mr. Swan was also very involved in the South Dakota chapter of the American Choral Directors Association with involvements as the Vocal Jazz Repertory and Standards Chair, South Dakota ACDA Newsletter Editor, Co-chair for the 1999 SD Summer Conference, Registration Co-chair for the 1994 ACDA North Central Division Convention, tenor section leader for the 1993 and 1995 SD Honors Choir and Interim Senior High School Repertory and Standards Chairman. While pursuing his D.M.A. degree in Choral Conducting at the University of Miami, Swan served as senior Graduate Teaching Assistant of the Choral Studies Program, was director of the University Women's Chorale, sang in numerous ensembles (including the prestigious Jazz Vocal 1 and University Chorale) and served as Assistant Director of Music Ministries at Coral Gables Congregational Church.
In May 2008, Swan was honored to be selected by the LU student body as the recipient of the Mrs. H. K. Babcock Award. (The award is given to an individual from the Lawrence community, who through involvement and interaction with students has made a positive impact on the campus community.) Other awards include the South Dakota ACDA Encore Award (outstanding young choral director), Outstanding Young Men of America, Who?s Who Among American Teachers, the 1997 Northwestern University Summer Fellows Program, Alpha Epsilon Lambda (graduate honor society) and Pi Kappa Lambda (collegiate national music honor society). In March 2001, Swan was selected as one of four national finalists for the graduate choral conducting competition at the ACDA National Convention in San Antonio. Swan is an active clinician and recently returned from conducting the seventh annual Festival of Choirs (a regional choir festival involving approximately 200 high school students and teachers) in Muscat, Oman. Swan is a member of the American Choral Directors Association (serving as the Wisconsin Women?s Choirs R & S Chair), the College Music Society, and the Music Educators National Conference.
Contact by e-mail: phillip.a.swan@lawrence.edu
- Stephen Sieck
Assistant Professor of Music
Stephen Sieck joins the Lawrence University Conservatory of Music as Co-Director of Choirs where he directs the Concert Choir and Viking Chorale. Prior to Lawrence, he served as Director of Choral and Vocal Studies at Emory & Henry College in Virginia, where he directed the Concert Choir, Men’s Ensemble, and Festival Choir, and taught private voice, lyric diction, advanced music theory and aural skills, and conducting and choral methods.
Stephen completed his Doctor of Musical Arts and Master’s of Music degrees in Choral Conducting and Literature from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and his bachelor’s degree from the University of Chicago in music theory and musicology. At Illinois he was a recipient of the Schlanger Opera Fellowship, the Best Male Performance in Opera award, the Kate Neal Kinley Fellowship, and the Outstanding Graduate Student in Choral Conducting. Prior to graduate school, Stephen served as the Director of Music at the Brentwood School, a 7th-12th grade college preparatory school in Los Angeles.
As a choral singer, Stephen has performed with ensembles such as the Los Angeles Master Chorale, the Roger Wagner Chorale, and the Renaissance group Ensemble Choragós. As a tenor, Stephen performed the principal tenor roles in productions of The Mikado, The Fairy Queen, Don Giovanni, and Candide, and has sung in master-class with Dawn Upshaw.
As a scholar, Stephen has published on Benjamin Britten, Aaron Copland, and Frank Martin in journals such as Tempo, The Choral Scholar, and The Choral Journal and presented research at conferences in England and Switzerland. An active clinician, Stephen has presented in ACDA and MENC conferences on working with tenors and on teaching diction to choirs.
Contact by e-mail: stephen.m.sieck@lawrence.edu
