UC Davis Department of Music
Choruses of UC Davis: "Sorrow and Joy: An American Story"
If the American Dream includes the hope of a better life in a promised land, then the story we tell must also acknowledge that the dream has not always been equally available to all Americans. This concert gives us both sentiments of this “American Story.”
Rollo Dilworth set his choral and wind ensemble work “Weather” to the poem of the same name by Claudia Rankine. “Weather” (the poem) appeared in the New York Times Magazine shortly after the murder of George Floyd in 2020. It captured in a few pointed phrases the pain of the pandemic and of America’s racial conflicts. Using American-born musical traditions, including the Blues, Rollo Dilworth juxtaposes Rankine’s words against a musical fabric, which challenges us to accept this part of our American story, and in time weather that challenge.
André Thomas, a composer known around the world for his spirituals, wrote his “Mass of Love and Joy” (filled with moving and joyous spirituals) in 2018 upon his own retirement, and which concludes and lifts up this choral concert. Thomas says of his work, “anyone can relate to spirituals. Everyone goes through trials and everyone looks for comfort.”
This event is not eligible for a Mondavi Center subscription package.
Program List
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A Jubilant Song
Norman Dello Joio
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“Anthony O’Dally” from Reincarnations
Samuel Barber
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Soon-Ah-Will Be Done
William L. Dawson
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Amen!
Carlos Simon
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Weather
Rollo Dilworth
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Mass of Love and Joy
André Thomas
Artist Bios
Nicolás Dosman
Nicolás Dosman
Nicolás Dosman is Director of Choirs at UC Davis. Previously, Dosman was the Director of Choral Studies and an associate professor of music at the University of Southern Maine. He was also the artistic director of the Community Chorus at South Berwick, the Chorus Master for the Portland Symphony Orchestra’s Magic of Christmas series, and Opera Maine. He began his collegiate teaching career as the Director of Choral and Vocal Activities at Colby College and worked as an adjunct voice professor at Molloy University.
Under his leadership, his choirs have appeared in Carnegie Hall, Merrill Auditorium, Vietnam, performed for the Governor of Maine and have been invited as a feature group at the ACDA and NAfME music conferences. Additionally, his choirs have recorded for a motion picture that is currently a semi-finalist for the American Prize in Choral Performance. He frequently conducts honor choirs and All-State choirs and has been invited to guest conduct in Vienna and Salzburg in 2024. Dosman has served as a choral clinician at Latin America choral festivals. He has also presented his research at national and international conferences.
His research includes choral pedagogy, social justice and policy in music education, and the evolution of gender and male recruitment in choral programs. He is currently under contract with Rowman and Littlefield to publish a choral pedagogy text in the coming months.
Rollo Dilworth
Composer
Rollo Dilworth
More than 150 of Dilworth’s choral compositions and arrangements have been published—many of which are a part of the Henry Leck Creating Artistry Choral Series with Hal Leonard Corporation. Additional publications can be found in the catalogs of Santa Barbara Music Publishing and Colla Voce Music, Inc. Dilworth is a contributing author for the Essential Elements for Choir and the Experiencing Choral Music textbook series, both published by the Hal Leonard Corporation/Glencoe/McGraw-Hill Publications, and for Music Express! Teachers Magazine. He has authored 3 books of choral warm up exercises intended for elementary and secondary choral ensembles, entitled Choir Builders: Fundamental Vocal Techniques for General and Classroom Use (2006); Choir Builders for Growing Voices (2009); and Choir Builders for Growing Voices 2 (2014).
A frequent presenter at local, state, regional and national conferences, Dilworth has conducted 43 all-state choirs at various levels (elementary, middle school, high school), and has conducted 6 regional honor choirs and 4 national honor choirs (ADCA, OAKE and NafME). He has most recently appeared as guest conductor for international choral festivals and master classes in Australia, Canada, Taiwan, Ireland, and China as well as all-state choirs in North Carolina, Oklahoma, Ohio, Arizona and Massachusetts. He has also led honor choirs for the Central and Southwest regions of the American Choral Directors Association. International festival and clinic invitations include Canada, Singapore, Austria and France.