The time and venue may be the same, mid-afternoon Sunday at St. Mark’s Church, but the former Durango Chamber Singers have been transformed. Now known as the San Juan Symphony Chamber Singers, the elite group of musicians will continue to present innovative programs under the leadership of Artistic Director Elizabeth Crawford.
At 3 p.m. Sunday, Crawford and her singers will offer a program titled “The Young Americans: Emerging Composers.”
“It took me much longer than usual to program this concert,” Crawford said. “I wanted to represent American composers, aged 40-ish, of diverse gender and ethnic background. I also wanted the styles to be as diverse as possible.”
Once the theme was chosen, Crawford said, the search turned out to be more complicated and time consuming than anticipated.
“Some new composers are self-published and hard to find if you search only the traditional corporate publishers and distributors,” she said. “There are a lot of Eric Whitacre clones out there, with all due respect to Whitacre, whose music I love.”
Among the composers whose work you will hear Sunday, few names may be known – for now. They include Daniel Schreiner, whose “Cantate (A New Song)” will open the concert, and Dan Forrest, whose “The Sun Never Says,” will feature cellist KJ Troy. Works by Andrea Ramsey, Jake Runestad, Susan LaBarr and five more fill out the program.
If you go
WHAT: “The Young Americans,” a musical program by the San Juan Symphony Chamber Singers, directed by Elizabeth Crawford.
WHEN: 3 p.m. Sunday.
WHERE: St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, 910 East Third Ave.
TICKETS: Adults $24, students $5. Available online at durangoconcerts.com or at the door.
MORE INFORMATION: Email sjschambersingers@gmail.com or call 799-0148.
“Themes are often based on realism – middle age, life’s hardships and social justice,“ Crawford said. ”Musically, there is heavy use of mixed meter, a challenge for the conductor, and mixed tempos, often reflecting conversational text and style. There’s a widespread use of harmonic dissonance, but it remains pleasing to the ear.“
One work in particular, “Nyon, Nyon,” by Jake Runestad, 37, experiments with unusual vocal sounds and nonsense language, which the title may suggest, Crawford said. Runestad is a busy composer-conductor who has been dubbed “one of the best of the younger American composers” by the Chicago Tribune. In 2022, his choral symphony won an Emmy Award. Runestad holds a master’s degree in composition from the Peabody Conservatory of The Johns Hopkins University.
The concert will close with Elaine Hagenberg’s “Alleluia.”
“I love her music, and I could program a whole concert of music just by her,” Crawford said.
Elizabeth Crawford, artistic director and founder of the San Juan Symphony Chamber Singers, is a multitalented musician. She studied voice, flute, piccolo, music theory and conducting at Columbia University. She has sung in professional choral groups and other musical organizations from San Francisco to Sydney. As many musicians before her, she has also pursued a parallel career in another field. Crawford is now a retired investment portfolio manager and finance instructor with an MBA and a CFA. She and her family moved to Durango in 2002. She immersed herself in the local music scene as a singer with the Durango Choral Society, as a director of choirs at several churches, and she performs as a flutist with the Southwest Civic Winds.
Judith Reynolds is an arts journalist and member of the American Theatre Critics Association.
