Lindsey Lang, soprano
Hans Bridger Heruth, piano

For Annie

Christina Adams, mezzo-soprano
Hans Bridger Heruth, piano

Music by Hans Bridger Heruth, text by Edna St. Vincent Millay

Lament

Anna Yannessa, voice
Hans Bridger Heruth, piano

Music by Hans Bridger Heruth, text by Ellison Land

Dear Danger

Anthony Blatter, baritone
Hans Bridger Heruth, piano

Music by Hans Bridger Heruth, text by Edwin Arlington Robinson

The Mill

This Path, for SATB voices
Music by Hans Bridger Heruth
Text by Robert Bode
Commissioned by Dr. R Paul Crabb for the 2022-2023 University Singers of the University of Missouri, Columbia

Premiered on April 8th, 2023 by the University Singers of the University of Missouri under the direction of Dr. R Paul Crabb

This Path

Purchase from Santa Barbara Music Publishing: http://www.sbmp.com/SR2.php?CatalogNumber=1392

In today's time, there is much turmoil and distress. I personally believe that it is a requirement for us as musicians that we use our talents and our gifts to spread hope and love to those in the world who need it most. Sara Teasdale was a poet that lived a very difficult life, and I decided that this poem of hers would aptly carry a sentiment shared with me by Dr. Allen Hightower: "There can be no joy without pain". The exposition of this composition is warm and bouncy and characterizes someone that is young and full of hope. The liveliness subsides into a middle section that is hollow and ethereal, possessing a feeling of distress. The women echo each other's words in a haunting ostinato while the male voices sing variations of the phrase, "I am loved, I will sing," in such a way that seems as if they are reassuring themselves of the statement. After the climactic end of this section, the choir enters with the phrase: "I am loved, I will love". This phrase isn't truly in Teasdale's poem, but it's one I've pieced together using other lines in the text. It's sung in unison and is accompanied by the hopeful piano motif from the beginning of the piece. The music revvs back up into the first choral melody, yet once the piece reaches the height of this phrase, the listener can hear that our "character" now sings these melodic lines with a tinge of pain in their heart; pain, however, that they've overcome. This pain is represented by drawn out melodic lines and harmonic dissonances within otherwise major chords. As the choir begins to hum, two soprano soloists begin to sing their own line. I'd like to think that the first soloist represents the young, unadulterated character from the beginning, while the second soloist that joins the first represents the character's older self who has triumphed through the hard lessons life has to offer. The piece comes to a gentle close with the same line of: "I am loved, I will love". It is a powerful line of text, with an even more powerful message to carry. Whether or not you agree with Dr. Hightower's sentiment, you must agree with the fact that our world is suffering, and only the power of love and the music that we share with people can heal it. We must love others, and we must share with them our hope. This is a piece that I dearly hope you enjoy - I think when you are done letting it become a part of you musically, it will have a special place in your heart and the hearts of those in the audience. I wish you all the absolute best!

Performed by the Liberty High School Concert Choir; conducted by Dr. Rika R. Heruth; Baker Purdon and Hans Bridger Heruth, piano

As soon as I heard that I would have the opportunity to write for the fantastic musicians of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, I was overwhelmed by the musical possibilities that I had at my disposal. When I was told that my composition would be on a concert of baroque music, I immediately thought of Villa-Lobos’ stunning Bachianas Brasilieras, pieces for varying instrumentations that filter Bach through a Brazilian style of composition. I decided that I would endeavor to accomplish something similar. I chose to utilize material from the prelude of Bach’s Prelude and Fugue in C minor. Throughout the piece, you’ll hear glimmers of the ostinatos that make up Bach’s prelude, paired with syncopated rhythms and rich violin melodies, all infused with Brazilian flair! I truly hope that you enjoy [bach]: infused!

[bach]: infused

Extase by Victor Hugo

J'étais seul près des flots, par une nuit d'étoiles.
Pas un nuage aux cieux, sur les mers pas de voiles.
Mes yeux plongeaient plus loin que le monde réel.
Et les bois, et les monts, et toute la nature,
Semblaient interroger dans un confus murmure
Les flots des mers, les feux du ciel.

Et les étoiles d'or, légions infinies,
A voix haute, à voix basse, avec mille harmonies,
Disaient, en inclinant leurs couronnes de feu ;
Et les flots bleus, que rien ne gouverne et n'arrête,
Disaient, en recourbant l'écume de leur crête :
- C'est le Seigneur, le Seigneur Dieu !

Translation:
Extasy by Victor Hugo

I was alone beside the sea, upon a starry night
And not a cloud was in the sky, and not a sail in sight;
Beyond the limits of the world far stretched my raptured eye,
And the forests and the mountains, and nature all around,
Seemed to unite in questioning, in vast and mingled sound,
The billows of the ocean, and the splendour of the sky. 

And the golden stars of heaven, in their unnumbered crowd,
WIth harmonies ten thousand, with voices clear and loud,
Replied, as low they bended down their radiant crowns of flame
And the blue floods that nought has power to govern or arrest,
Replied, as low they bended down, the foam upon their crest—
'The Lord, our great Creator, His glory we proclaim!'

Vox Nova at the 2018 MMEA Conference

Extase

After the brutal murder of one of Watson’s dearest friends, Sherlock attempts to solve the case with the help of an unlikely ally – a medium! As Sherlock prods the family with questions and the Medium contacts the spirit world for answers, tension rises as the pair grows closer to solving the case and unmasking the perpetrator of this heinous crime!

Premiered by the University of Missouri Show-Me Opera
Directed by Christine Seitz
University Philharmonic conducted by Dr. Barry Ford

In order of appearance:
Sherlock Holmes - Marques Jerrell Ruff
Dr. John Watson - Connor Cochran
Ada Blake - Martha Allen
Jasper Blake - Savon Hayes
Constance Blake - Madison Claire Page
Madame Desrochés - Aubrey Smith
The Spirits - Chorus

Interlude

Chapter I: "Come now, Sherlock. They only want closure." (221B Baker Street)

Chapter I: "Sherlock, are you home?" (221B Baker Street)

Prelude to "A Certain Madness"

HANS BRIDGER HERUTH (b. 1997) is an award-winning composer whose music has been praised as “lovely and delicate” and “impressively stylish” (The American Prize), and for having an “invigorating richness” (KC Metropolis). In addition, he is a conductor, pianist, singer, and violinist of distinction. A lifelong musician, Heruth was born in Kansas City, Missouri and began studying piano at the age of three and voice at the age of five, training as a boy soprano. He began studying violin at the age of nine, and started composing shortly after.
 
As a composer, his works have been performed by many different ensembles, most notably the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, the Gay Men’s Chorus of Los Angeles, Wilmington Concert Opera, Nightingale Opera Theatre Company, (art) Song Lab, KC Vitas Chamber Choir, the Boulder Chorale, Vox Nova, the University Philharmonic and the University Singers of the University of Missouri, the Festival Singers of Florida, the Midwest Chamber Ensemble, Canticum Novum Mizzou, the Show-Me Opera Program, the Heartland Men’s Chorus, the Volker Brass Quintet, Deviant Septet, and many All-State Choir Ensembles. Heruth is also the inaugural composer-in-residence for the American-Prize-winning choral ensemble Vox Nova, and will serve as a composition fellow for the 2022 Cortona Sessions for New Music. In addition to these ensembles, his works have been performed by renowned solo and chamber musicians, including tenor Steven Tharp, baritone Darrell J. Jordan, baritone Patrick Graham, pianist Paola Savvidou, pianist Peter Henderson, violinist Eva Szekely, and chamber musicians from the St. Louis Symphony, including Jessica Cheng, Kyle Andre Lombard, and Bjorn Ranheim. 
 
Influenced by his wide range of performance experiences, Heruth’s oeuvre ranges from opera and orchestral works to intimate chamber music and art songs. His award-winning chamber opera, A Certain Madness, was premiered with great acclaim and to sold out houses – based on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s famous detective, critics raved “Sherlock Holmes has never sounded so good” (KBIA). It will receive its fifth production in July of 2022 with the Nightingale Opera Theatre.  His most recent projects include song cycles for some of his most frequent collaborators: Piano Lessons, with poetry by Billy Collins, for baritone Patrick Graham, and Verses Written in Her Book of Hours, commissioned by Catherine Sandstedt, soprano, as well as Wytchkraft for the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Stephanie Childress. Heruth’s works have been performed all across the country in venues such as Carnegie Hall, Powell Hall, Abravanel Hall, the Folly Theatre, the Kauffman Center, the Sheldon Concert Hall and Art Galleries, and even in performance venues across Canada, Europe, and China. Heruth has received many accolades for his compositions, most notably as a winner of the 2019-2020 American Prize in Composition in both the opera and the vocal chamber music categories, and a finalist for the 2019-2020 American Prize in Composition in both the instrumental chamber and choral music categories, the 2017-2018 American Prize in Composition in both the choral music and the vocal chamber music categories, the 2015, 2016, and 2019 Sinquefield Prizes in Composition, and the 2016 and 2022 ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composers Award. Heruth is a member of ASCAP and is published by Santa Barbara Music Publishing, MusicSpoke, and Heruth Publications. Heruth has studied composition with Stefan Freund, Ian David Coleman, Paul Seitz, and W. Thomas McKenney, and has also worked with Jake Heggie, Chen Yi, James Mobberley, Ke Chia Chen, William Averitt, Yevgeniy Sharlat, David Liptak, and Don Freund.

Heruth is also in demand as a vocal coach and collaborative pianist. His repertoire as a collaborative pianist includes over 500 works for the voice, spanning all manner of genres from opera arias and art song to musical theatre works and cabaret songs. He has accompanied vocalists in many competitions, including at the national level, and regularly plays for singers in recitals, concerts, and masterclasses. Heruth has also been a collaborative pianist for the flagship choral ensemble at the University of Missouri, the University Singers, and also the Kansas City Chorale, the Show-Me Opera Program, Nightingale Opera Theatre Company, Ars Nova, the Bach Collegium Choir, and the Columbia Youth Choirs. Adept on a wide variety of keyboard instruments, he has additional collaborative experience playing the fortepiano, the harpsichord, and the organ. He was recently named a winner of the 2021-2022 Ernst Bacon Memorial Award for the Performance of American Music for his interpretations of the songs of John Duke, as well as some of Heruth’s own art songs. He has played for many renowned artists in recitals and performances, including Steven Tharp, tenor, Eva Szekely, violinist, Darrell J. Jordan, baritone, Lindsay Lang, soprano, and Eli Lara, cellist, as well as upcoming performances with Christina Adams, mezzo-soprano, and Patrick Graham, baritone.

As an extension of his orchestral experiences, Heruth is also a budding young conductor, and has made a number of appearances with various ensembles. He conducted Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte with the Show-Me Opera Program. His engagements to conduct Gilbert and Sullivan’s Pirates of Penzance as well as another production of his chamber opera A Certain Madness were cancelled by the COVID-19 pandemic. Heruth has also made appearances at the Mizzou International Composers Festival conducting the Mizzou New Music Ensemble, has conducted Vox Nova as part of the Odyssey Chamber Music Series, and is the former music director and conductor for the Exit-128 Chamber Orchestra. 

As a lyric baritone, Heruth is both a frequent chorister and recitalist. He has performed with the Simon Carrington Chamber Singers, the Kantorei Choral Scholars, the Bach Collegium Choir, Ars Nova, and the University Singers of the University of Missouri. Heruth made his symphonic debut in 2013 as the winner of the Liberty Symphony Orchestra’s Young Artists Competition. As an opera singer, Heruth has performed various roles such as Leporello in Mozart’s Don Giovanni, Basilio in Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia, Ford in Verdi’s Falstaff, and Dr. Malatesta in Donizetti’s Don Pasquale in scenes, and Bartolo in Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro and Simon Stimson in Ned Rorem’s Our Town in full productions, all with the Show-Me Opera Program. He is also a strong advocate for new music, and has performed a great deal of works by living composers John Adams, Jake Heggie, and Tom Cipullo, notably creating the first recording of Cipullo’s song cycle “Excelsior” in the Fall of 2020. Heruth is a former student of Steven Tharp, and has participated in masterclasses and coachings with Grammy award-winning baritone Daniel Belcher and Russell Miller.

As a violinist, Heruth is a frequent performer as both a chamber and symphonic musician. He has performed with the Kansas City Symphony, the Missouri Symphony Orchestra, the Odyssey Chamber Orchestra, the Bach Collegium Orchestra, the Southside Philharmonic Orchestra, and the University Philharmonic at the University of Missouri. Heruth has also performed with the acclaimed American musical group The Piano Guys. He has worked with conductors such as Aram Demirjian, Kirk Trevor, Andre Thomas, Steven Amundson, Steven Davis, and Barry Ford. Heruth has studied violin with Eva Szekely, Tony Brandolino, Francesca Anderegg, and Charles Gray.

Hans Bridger Heruth

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