‘Charm Me Asleep’ concerts feature works by Schubert, Badings and more

By Julia Sommer for Ashland.news

Southern Oregon Repertory Singers’ spring concert, dubbed “Charm Me Asleep,” is a “hugely varied program of lyrical, romantic, life-enhancing choral music,” says music director Paul French. “The program title is taken from Robert Herrick’s lyrical ode on the transformative power of music to bring healing and restoration in times of physical and emotional distress.

“While music can accomplish transformation in a variety of ways, this concert focuses on my personal favorite device: musical color, what musicians call musical timbre.”  

Dr. Paul French is Professor Emeritus of Choral/Vocal Studies at Southern Oregon University, where he taught for 34 years before retiring in 2022. He became music director of Repertory Singers in 1990.

The concert’s featured work, Gabriel Fauré’s jewel-like Requiem, will be performed in the original chamber orchestra version which accentuates the work’s graceful melodic writing and optimistic character, says French. The 65-voice choir and chamber orchestra will be joined by soprano Taylor Pulsipher and guest artist, baritone Dan Gibbs.

Pulsipher, a graduate of South Medford High School and Brigham Young University-Idaho (music education), is choir director at Grants Pass High School. She has worked with internationally known artists Kristen Chenowith, Voces 8, Frederica von Stade, David Archuleta, among others.

Gibbs graduated from SOU in 2011 with a BA in Vocal Performance, where he studied with Paul French, Ellie Holt Murray, and Laurie Ann Hunter and sang with Southern Oregon Repertory Singers. In the past few years he has appeared with Portland Opera, Opera Modesto, Vashon Opera, and OperaBend, among others. He is currently a private voice teacher in Vancouver, Washington.

Gibbs will also sing the rousing baritone solos in Adolphus Hailstork’s “Motherless Child” and “Go Down, Moses.” “I’m thrilled to be singing them, I love his music,” says Gibbs. “I miss Rep Singers terribly. I’ve always wanted to come back to be a featured soloist.”

Other works on the program include a playful serenade by Franz Schubert for men’s voices with mezzo-soprano Shelly Cox-Thornhill; an exotic set of French songs by Dutch composer Henk Badings; and an atmospheric setting of Native American poetry for choir and flute by former Repertory Singers composer -in-residence, Craig Kingsbury.

“In music, the masters of color are French composers from the late 19^th century who, like their Impressionist contemporaries in painting, use color not to build tension but rather to give immediate pleasure,” explains French. “Fauré’s breathtaking Requiem is an early example of French Impressionism in music: colorful, lyrical, emotionally restrained, avoiding the dramatic gesture in favor of a gentle, urbane humanism. This music sounds to me like what I imagine it must be like to be inside a beautiful jewel… radiant color compressed into perfection, transforming all from darkness to light.”

“Trois Chansons” (Three Songs) by Dutch composer Henk Badings is written with a similarly French harmonic palette. Born in Java, Badings employs an even richer, more colorful harmonic style, bordering on the exotic.

Craig Kingsbury’s “Chants from the Southwest” brings a more sparse, open harmonic palette, beautifully capturing the vastness and sweep of the open land.

“Beauty comes in an infinite variety of colors and we, the listener, are ever on the trail of beauty, for beauty has the power to stop us in our tracks long enough to experience the fragility and purpose of life, and in so doing, live a more fulfilling life,” says French.

Southern Oregon Repertory Singers was founded in 1986 by French’s predecessor at SOU, Ellison Glattly, and Brian Tingle, an SOU music graduate. The two of them recruited about 24 singers, including another SOU music grad, alto Clancy Rone, who only recently retired from the alto section. She now creates super titles for Repertory Singers concerts and is co-librarian of the group’s extensive music library.

“Repertory Singers has been my church, it’s been my family,” she says. “It’s been a wonderful ride.”

“I began with Repertory Singers in September of 1990,” recalls French. “It has been such a thrill to watch the organization grow. I started with a 20-voice, all-volunteer group with no budget to speak of. Our first donor event brought in $25.

“We’ve grown into a truly professional organization with an annual budget of about $300,000 and sold-out concerts. For me, creating concerts of life-enhancing beauty remains the goal. Especially at this moment, amid all the terror in the world, music can offer comfort and healing and, more than that, actually inspire us towards creating a better world.”

Email freelance writer Julia Sommer of Ashland at [email protected].