…America…
Sunday, March 8, 2026, 3:30pm
Monday, December 8, 2026, 7:30pm
Christ United Methodist Church, Greensboro, NC
Program Order, Texts & Translations (PDF)
Season Playbill, Directions, and More
Choral Arts Collective Choral Educator Honorees
Jeremy M. Nabors is a music educator, conductor, and church musician in the Triangle region of North Carolina. A native of Birmingham, Michigan, he holds degrees from both the University of Michigan (BM in Music Education) and Michigan State University (MM Choral Conducting) where he studied with Jerry Blackstone, David Rayl, Jon Reed, and Sandra Snow.
Nabors has been a public-school educator in North Carolina since 2004, first at Chapel Hill High School and now at the Durham School of the Arts (DSA). As a member of the DSA choral faculty, he co-directs a middle and high school choral program of 15 sections of choir.
In addition to his work at DSA, he is the Director of Music at Chapel in the Pines Presbyterian Church in North Chatham, North Carolina, a guest conductor, and lecturer to choirs throughout North Carolina, and the Founding Artistic Director and Conductor of Vox Virorum TTBB Chorus of the Triangle. Mr. Nabors is also an active composer with pieces published by Hinshaw Music, Santa Barbara Music, National Music Publishers, and Chorister’s Guild.
Diana Campuzano is a choral director currently based in Jamestown, North Carolina. She earned her Bachelor of Music in Choral Music Education from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro in 2022 and began her teaching career at Reidsville Middle School, where she taught choir and served as the Performing Arts Lead for two years. In August 2024, Campuzano joined the faculty at Ragsdale High School as Director of Choirs, where she fosters a supportive environment that encourages musical growth, confidence, and meaningful engagement in choral performance. In addition to her work in public education, she remains an active vocalist in the community and occasionally performs with local churches for special services and community events.
Jordan Rosser is a native of Durham, NC. He graduated from the University of North Carolina Greensboro School of Music in 2018 with a Bachelor of Music Education degree. He studied voice Dr. Donald Hartmann and conducting with Drs. Carole Ott and Welborn Young. Rosser is currently the choral director and piano teacher at Western Guilford High School. In addition, he is a veteran Bel Canto Company singer and is a vocalist in the community and sings with local churches.
Program Notes from Artistic Director Welborn Young
Traditions, Beliefs, Questions
On the eve of America’s two hundred and fiftieth anniversary Bel Canto Company and Gate City Voices present a choral concert of music that excites the love for our country and muses upon her history. This love is often complex because it is born out of both a celebration of the beauty of our nation and its founding beliefs of equality and the pursuit of happiness while at the same time recognizing and grappling with the challenge of our country’s disparity. Although first and foremost, this concert is a celebration, it also provides us an opportunity to deeply reflect on the privilege and responsibility of freedom.
The Choral Arts Collective also honors three exceptional high school choral music educators in our state: Mr. Jeremy Nabors, Durham School Of The Arts; Diana Campuzano Ragsdale High School Jamestown, and Jordan Rosser Western Guilford High School Greensboro. In addition, members of the Ragsdale Varsity Choir and Western Guilford Concert Choir will be performing with Bel Canto Company and Gate City Voices.
The music on this program I have chosen because of its beauty and the outstanding text. For purposes of these notes, I have loosely grouped the titles by broad themes, American Anthems and Encouragement and Challenges. Of course, each title could easily fit under either title. These notes are a synthesis of notes from publishers, music history texts, and, don’t judge me, Wikipedia.
There is no better way to begin this program than with one title I have not placed in either category, Ambe. The text is from the indigenous Anishinaabe people called Ojibwe. The Ojibwe are also known as Chippiwa. The Ojibwe also include the Saulteaux, Nipissings, and Oji-Cree people. The text is an invitation to join the ceremonial life or follow the red road or take whatever path you are led to follow because everything happens “with spirit and in spirit.” Andrew Balfour’s composition is driven by rhythmic ostinato, angular, syncopated melodic lines, and a joyful energy.
I have included in the American Anthems category arrangements of America The Beautiful (An American Hymn), My Country ‘Tis Of Thee, Lift Every Voice And Sing, and The Star-Spangled Banner. Cecil Effiger’s An American Hymn is a beautiful arrangement of America The Beautiful. Katherine Lee Bates composed the text in 1895 while atop Pikes Peak, which was the original title of the poem. Samuel A. Ward composed the hymn tune in 1882. The marriage of text to tune occurred in 1910 under the title America The Beautiful. Over its one-hundred plus years, there have been efforts to assign legal status as a national hymn of equal rank to and even replacing our national anthem. The arrangement of My Country ‘Tis Of Thee is a grand work illuminating the composer Mack Wilberg’s flair for drama and cinematic composition. Samuel Francis Smith wrote the lyrics in 1831. The poem was set as a contrafactum to the British de facto national anthem God Save The King. My Country ‘Tis Of Thee served as our national anthem until The Star-Spangled Banner was legally adopted as our national anthem in 1931. Promoted by the NAACP as the “Negro National Anthem” in 1917, currently called the “Black National Anthem,” Lift Every Voice And Sing is a hymn with lyrics by James Weldon Johnson set to music by his brother J. Rosamund Johnson in 1905. The text with its Exodus imagery from slavery to freedom is a prayer of thankfulness to God and a prayer for faithfulness and freedom. Heather Sorenson’s arrangement contemporizes the hymn by setting it in a gospel music style with some unexpected harmonizations and striking rhythmic variations. In 1931 during Herbert Hoover’s presidency, Congress passed a joint resolution making The Star-Spangled Banner America’s national anthem. The text by Francis Scott Key comes from his poem “Defence of M’Henry” written in 1814 and set to the British song The Anacreontic Song popular in England and in America. Just for your information The Anacreontic Society was a gentleman’s club, i.e. professional men such as lawyers, doctors, business men, etc., whose members were also amateur musicians. Eric Whitacre’s arrangement begins simply enough but rapidly expands into multidivisi writing, expansive ranges, rhythmic variation, and mixed meter which is both exciting and challenging.
Encouragement and challenges may be too weak label for the power of the music and the message of the text in each piece that I’ve included here. The titles Plain-Chant For America, The Times They Are A-Changin’, A Day May Come, Would You Harbor Me? share the common element of conflict in various forms. Finlandia, Measure Me, Sky!, and Homeland stir the heart and extol a fervor for our country. Some titles will receive more attention in these notes than other titles in the category. I know myself well enough that I could write a dissertation. Plain-Chant for America was a 1941 collaboration between the “Dean” of Black American composers, William Grant Still, and Katherine Garrison Chapin (Biddle), wife of the Attorney General under Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Chapin wrote the poem following a meeting after which she wrote, “I had spent a few days in the company of some persons who were sympathetic with the Fascists, whose talk showed me vividly the gap between totalitarianism and the American democracy in which I believed.” As a key figure in the Harlem Renaissance, William Grant Still’s compositional output included over 200 symphonies, operas, ballets, and choral works. He was the first African American to conduct a major symphony orchestra, to have a symphony performed by a major orchestra, to have an opera performed by a major opera company, and to have an opera performed on television. Plain-Chant for America is an eight minute work of musical, dramatic, and contextual significance. The scope of the music is similar to an expanded late-romantic ballad and also to an operatic scena. The text opens with dire warnings to us if we do nothing and ends with these stirring words, “Our earth has been hallowed with death for freedom; our walls have been hallowed with freedom’s thought. Tell them, America! Say it again! Our star, once acclaimed, will not wane!” Bob Dylan’s song The Times They Are A-Changin’ from 1964 is a response to the need for social and political change. This significant protest song is a call for awareness and action. Matthew Podd’s arrangement manages to maintain the general character of the message of the text while also casting it in a more reflective compositional style. This next title, A Day May Come, moved me openly and still does at every rehearsal and performance. I heard it for the first time while browsing YouTube. The Voces8 performance popped up on my screen and I was almost immediately reduced to tears. The text calls for us to find courage. It simultaneously recognizes that we all fear action but we may be called to honor those who, like us, lived fully, had families, friends, jobs but accepted the call. Set in a modified strophic motet style, the marriage of text and music is striking. I have long been a fan of Ysaye Barnwell. She is a singer, composer, unofficial social activist and a member of the African American women’s ensemble Sweet Honey And The Rock. Would You Harbor Me? is a bold composition. The power of repetition, stasis, and directness challenges the listener with a series of questions but then, it challenges the performer by asking the same questions of them. The heart of the matter is who, in fact, would you harbor and nurture, and keep safe?
I finish these notes with three pieces that also move me to tears because…well, I’m deeply moved by their optimism, their beauty, and their sincerity. Bel Canto Company also performed This Is My Song (Finlandia) arranged by Blake Morgan of Voces8 last season. The summa of the text by Lloyd Stone with additional text by Blake Morgan simply stated is, “This is our song, a hymn we raise together; A dream of peace, uniting humankind.” The strophic structure and expanded hymn form combined with Morgan’s heartfelt harmonization leaves a permanent impression of optimism. Measure Me, Sky! Elaine Hagenberg was commissioned for the 2022 Choirs of America Festival for a Carnegie Hall performance. In the composer’s words, “The effect of the poetry (Leonora Speyer) in Measure Me, Sky! is instantaneous. It’s as if one’s arms have been opened wide and their eyes turned to the heavens to take in the expanse both around and above…I wanted to launch singers into flight and to invite listeners into the same breathless exclamation.” The exuberance and joy emanating from this work are the qualities I experience when I allow myself to embrace the best qualities of my life in my country. I conclude the concert with Homeland based on music of Gustav Holst, the text creates a round large compositional structure. The text by British diplomat Sir Cecil Spring-Rice and Z. R. S. under the title I Vow To Thee, My Country holds a historical perspective. Not all lines of text resonate with our contemporary ideas, however, the sentiment of devotion to one’s country is the final message.
Respectfully, Bill