Repertoire/Commissions

The Music

Commissions

Dream of What the World Could (2016)
  • SSAA/piano/electronic audio collage, composed by Selena Wellington
  • commissioned by Resonance for performance in The Quiet Work of Centuries: a post-election concert, on Nov. 19, 2016

Mountains and Rivers (2016)
  • SATB/two trumpets/handbells, composed by Nathan Hall
  • co-commissioned by GALA Choruses and the Colorado member choruses of GALA Choruses (Denver Gay Men's Chorus, Denver Gay Women's Chorus, Harmony: A Colorado Chorale, Out Loud: Colorado Springs Gay Men's Chorus, Phoenix: Colorado's Trans Community Choir, Resonance, Sine Nomine, Sound Circle
  • premiered on July 2, 2016
Mountains and Rivers was a site-specific commission. 400 singers performed the piece standing on the four tiers of the Denver Performing Arts Center Parking Garage overlooking the DPAC Galleria, singing to attendees of the 2016 GALA Festival. Click here to watch a video of the performance.

Opalaria (2015)
  • SSAA/piano, composed by Marjan Helms
  • commissioned by the knitters’ group of Resonance
Opalaria was composed by Marjan Helms for Resonance in a process that began when the Resonance Knitters decided to raise money through sales of their knitted goods to fund a commission for Resonance. Their request was that the new work suit the chorus’ unique voice, that it speak to and for this community of women. Marjan Helms was a natural choice as the composer. We have sung and loved several other pieces by her, and we felt she would be sensitive to the inner life of this chorus. She spent a weekend with the chorus, during which individuals shared their thoughts about what “a piece for us” would sound like. Then she went home and created a piece that none of us ever could have imagined. About Opalaria, Marjan says: “I’ve been watching murmuration patterns ever since our workshop. These have profoundly influenced the piece, although I’d be hard-pressed to explain. Maybe it’s a certain quality of movement or the play of instantaneous expansiveness and concentration? Just a layer of delight and wonder hovering somewhere in mind…I was seeing the sounds in my head as the song of an opal—not a single color, but lots of tiny flashes singing together…”   

the celestial bodies resemble atoms from below, as above (Matthew’s Song) (2014)
  • SSAA/piano/electric guitar, music by Gary Grundei, mostly textless, with spoken text from Matthew Sueper
  • commissioned by Donna Sueper in loving memory of her son Matthew Sueper, who ended his life on September 2, 2011, at the age of 22.

Imagine Such a World (2013)
  • SSAA/piano, music by Deborah Schmit-Lobis, poetry by Linda Millemann
  • commissioned by Carol Peterson and members of her community in memory of Carol’s partner, Shirley Guenthner, and in honor of Shirley’s deep commitment to women’s music

Under the Harvest Moon (2013)
  • SSAA/piano, music by Gary Grundei, poetry by Carl Sandburg
  • based on harmonic progressions of J.S. Bach’s Goldberg Variations
  • commissioned by Mireille Key in memory of her husband, Bob Key

strange thing (2010)
  •  SSAA/piano, music by Gary Grundei, haiku text by Kobayashi Issa
  • commissioned by Resonance

Salmon Run (2007)
  • SSAA/piano, music and words by Marjan Helms
  • co-commissioned with Grand Rapids Women’s Chorus

Contact Resonance for information about these works and their creators.