Community Arts

The Singers' Composers Lab was one of the artistic highlights of the 2015-2016 Season. The choir presented more new works than originally intended, sang for a very appreciative audience, included new technologies into the concert, and performed at a world class level. It was an evening that connected our audiences to the composers and music-making process in ways we had not yet accomplished in our subscription concert programming. The Singers successfully created an experience that was part concert and part workshop. The composers spoke to the audience before their new works were performed, and Artistic Director Matthew Culloton also shared on-the-spot insight into the works. Instead of printing scores for each audience members, a 12x12 ft screen and projector shared the music with the audience in an attempt to save the resource of paper. Audience feedback was very positive because of the intimate Sundin Hall venue at Hamline. The use of this technology is being explored for future use as both an environmentally-friendly choice, as well as a cost savings to the organization. Our guest composers who also shared comments with the audience were Craig Carnahan, Timothy Takach, Linda Kachelmeier, and Tesfa Wondemagegnehu. The choir shared the world premiere of newly-composed works written for this occasion. The choir also premiered a new work by Robert Sieving and a collection of pieces written for The Singers by former Composer-in-Residence Joshua Shank. The programming and pacing of the night was very successful, and audience members were very excited by the diversity of music performed on a "new music" concert. No changes to the programming aspect will be necessary in the future. Craig Carnahan's new work allowed for a collaboration with members of the Twin Cities Gay Men’s Chorus and OneVoice Mixed Chorus, two of the metro's LGBTQ organizations. Carnahan's new work was about the human rights atrocities toward the homosexual population in Uganda, and the work's librettist was also in attendance. In the future, we would like even more collaborative time built into the rehearsal process because it was such a positive experience for us to join singers from other ensembles for such a powerful project. The inclusion of a work that tackles these social issues deepened the experience of our artists and our audience. The other strengths of the project dealt with the artistic ability to mount this project in a relatively compact period of time. In fact, in the future, we may explore a similar project and rehearse in a more compact timeframe. This would allow the organization to keep the project on the calendar while minimizing the impact on the remainder of the season. We know that many audience members were insistent that we keep repeating Composers Lab on an annual basis, so we would like to consider that in the near future. The audience for this event was as diverse a population as any we have sung for this season. That diversity was represented in age, race, sexual orientation, and socio-economic status. We are proud to report that the audience, artists, and collaborators reflected who we hoped to impact while developing this program. The one difference from the proposed plan was fewer 19-24 year olds in the audience than we estimated. Our primary marketing outside of the postcards and social media efforts is our relationship with Minnesota Public Radio, and it is likely that the demographics of listeners to that station do not reach a lot of the 19-24 year old audience members. Another reason for diversity in the audience came out of the premiere of Craig Carnahan's "Until the Struggle is Won" and the musical collaboration with the Twin Cities Gay Men's Chorus and One Voice Mixed Chorus. Aside from members of those ensembles, we also had a number of people from Wingspan Ministry, a local group that actively supports the homosexual community in Uganda, especially offering support during the time of human rights atrocities that are occurring there now. We believe collaborations of this sort in the future will provide more meaningful musical experiences for artists and audience alike. Nearly 150 audience members and 70 artists participated in this inaugural Composers Lab program. Access to four composers and the conductor during the event heightened the audience's experience and access to new music.