Landmark season will open in October; a Handel masterpiece will top the March concerts

By Jim Flint for Ashland.news

Choral music fans have a lot to be excited about in Southern Oregon Repertory Singers’ 40th anniversary season, but none perhaps so much as George Frideric Handel’s virtuosic “Dixit Dominus.” The tour de force will be performed at the March concerts, accompanied by a period Baroque orchestra.

Handel’s early masterpiece is widely regarded as his first major choral work. Critics often point to the work’s ability to vividly portray the text through music. For example, Handel uses percussive chords to depict military victories, and his “ruinas” passage conveys the idea of collapsing structures.

“I’m always excited to present pieces that I know are going to be moving and inspiring for our audiences,” said Paul French, Rep Singers music director. “Written when Handel was just 22 years old, it is full of youthful exuberance and considered by many to be among his finest compositions.”

The 2025-26 season will feature four weekend concerts. Three will be performed twice at the Southern Oregon University Music Recital Hall — at 7:30 p.m. Saturdays and 2 p.m. Sundays. The holiday concert, “A Ceremony of Carols,” will be performed in Medford on Friday, Dec. 19, at a venue and time to be announced. It will play in Ashland at 2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, Dec. 20-21, in the SOU Recital Hall.

Music from across time

In addition to the Handel piece, other highlights of the coming season include Benjamin Britten’s ode to the patron saint of music, “Hymn to St. Cecilia”; Morten Lauridsen’s “Chanson des Roses”; and Britten’s “A Ceremony of Calls,” accompanied by harp.

“The season will include music from across time,” French said, “as well as spirituals and folk music from around the world, and music by our two composers in residence, Craig Kingsbury and Jodi French.”

Kingsbury’s lyrical “There Is No Rose” will be performed at the holiday concerts in December. In addition to composing, Kingsbury worked for many years in the Los Angeles area as a choral conductor, musical arranger, and singer. He spent two years in Europe singing opera and oratorio.

From art song to major work

Jodi French, maestro French’s wife, is the Rep Singers’ accompanist and current composer in residence. Her work “The Stranger Among You” grapples with social injustice through the texts of Oregon poet laureate Lawson Inada.

“Inada wrote about his childhood in the Japanese internment camps of World War II, where the father of our guest soloist, baritone Christopher Nomura, was also imprisoned,” Paul French said.

In 2019, Jodi French composed an art song, “Legend of Leaving,” for Nomura to perform.

“Nomura loved Jodi’s piece and suggested she expand the song into something larger,” French said. “The performance of the choral/orchestral work will be the fulfillment of that request.”

Nomura, who will be featured in the piece, has performed internationally and with many of the leading North American orchestras. He was hailed as “one of classical music’s rising stars” by the Wall Street Journal.

Rep Singers has come a long way since its founding four decades ago by SOU director of choral studies Ellison Gattly and Brian Tingle, an SOU music graduate. It began as a 20-voice ensemble that had next to no budget. It performed a two-concert season to very small audiences.

Buying their own music

“In the early years, the singers had to buy their own music,” said French, who came on board in 1990. “No one, including me, was paid. We all participated for the love of what we were doing.”

Which is what they all still do, but now with a budget and infrastructure that permits them to offer much more — and pay core singers.

Today, Rep Singers is 65-strong, presents a four-concert season, and has an annual budget of about $400,000.

“We have a full-time executive director, pay 25 core singers, have a fairly extensive staff, and we have commissioned scores of new music,” French said.

Nearly 70 commissioned originals

Among the nearly 70 original compositions the group has commissioned, many have been featured in the James M. Collier New Works Festival, first launched in the 2018 season. The festival was established, and continues this day, through the support of Collier, a patron of the arts and Medford resident who died in 2023.

The pieces commissioned by Rep Singers include a number of feature-length works for choir, soloists, and orchestra.

“Internationally known composers know about us and are writing music for us,” French said.

From its humble beginnings, Rep Singers now performs to very full, often sold-out, houses. There is a growing list of donors, many of whom communicate their appreciation of the music and how inspiring it is.

“I can’t tell you how rewarding that is to hear,” French said.

French, who retired from his position as director of choral/vocal Studies at SOU in 2022, is in his 35th year with Rep Singers. Under his leadership, the ensemble has grown into a nationally recognized choral group, known for its high-quality performances and contributions to the choral arts.

Season at a glance

The new season begins with “The Skies Sing” Oct. 25-26. The featured work will be Britten’s “Hymn to Saint Cecilia.” In addition, the group will perform Lauridsen’s “Chansons,” folk songs from Haiti and Scotland, and a Duke Ellington piece, among others.

“A Ceremony of Carols” is scheduled for Dec. 19-21. It will feature Britten’s masterpiece work for choir of the same name. Also on the program will be a work by former composer-in-residence Kingsbury, a performance by the Grants Pass Concert Choir, and sacred and secular carols from around the world. The show will include a new arrangement of the American classic “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” by Jodi French.

“Grace Before Sleep” March 7-8 will feature Handel’s “Dixit Dominus” along with another Kingsbury composition, folk music from Finland and Estonia, and the spiritual “Ezekiel Saw the Wheel.”

The fourth concert, May 9-10, is the New Works Festival. It will feature two major commissions for choir and orchestra by Peter Relph and Jodi French.

“We believe both will make a very significant contribution to the worldwide choral/orchestral repertoire,” French said.

Rep Singers is currently fulfilling season ticket renewal requests. Single ticket sales and new season tickets will go on sale to the public at a later date. For updates and more information about Rep Singers, visit repsingers.org.

Freelance writer Jim Flint is a retired newspaper publisher and editor. Email him at [email protected].