Terra Nostra
University of Illinois Oratorio Society, Andrew Megill, conductor
Central Illinois Children’s Chorus, Andrea Solya, conductor
Betany Coffland, mezzo soprano
Steven Soph, tenor
David Govertsen, bass
Terra Nostra is a beautiful new work for soloists, choruses, and orchestra by CUSO Music Alive Composer-in-Residence Stacy Garrop, which celebrates the beauty of earth and humanity’s historic search for living in balance. Cast in three sections (Part I: Creation of the World; Part II: The Rise of Humanity; and Part III: Searching for Balance), this powerful oratorio gives voice to text drawn from the iconic poetry of Edna St. Vincent Millay, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Walt Whitman, Lord Alfred Tennyson, William Wordsworth, Lord Byron, and others.
CUSO Music Alive Composer-in-Residence Stacy Garrop is a nationally recognized composer of works for orchestra, wind ensemble, choir, chamber ensembles, and oratorio. Garrop’s residency is made possible through Music Alive, a program of the League of American Orchestras and New Music USA that demonstrates the power and value of living composers working at the center of American orchestras.
Garrop: Terra Nostra
Pre-Concert Performance and Talk
Terra Nostra ticket-holders are invited to a pre-concert event in Foellinger Great Hall at 6:30pm featuring CUSO musician Amanda Pond, who will perform Stacy Garrop’s Phoenix Rising for solo flute, followed by a pre-concert lecture about Terra Nostra by Maestro Stephen Alltop and Stacy Garrop.
