Concert Chorale

Texts and Translations

An die Heimat
By Otto Inkermann, as C.O. Sternau

Heimat! 
Homeland! 
Wunderbar tönendes Wort! 
Wonderful sounding word! 
Wie auf befiederten Schwingen 
Like on feathered wings 
Ziehst du mein Herz zu dir fort. 
draw you my heart to you away. 
Jubelnd, als müst ich den Gruß 
Rejoicing, as if must I the greeting 
Jegicher Seele dir bringen, 
of each soul to you bring, 
Trag ich zu dir meinen Fuß, 
carry I to you my foot, 
Freundliche Heimat! 
friendly homeland! 
Heimat! 
Homeland! 
Bei dem sanft klingenden Ton 
With the softly sounding music 
Wecken mich alte Gesänge, 
awaken me old songs 
Die in der Ferne mich flohn; 
that in the distant land me escaped; 
Rufen mir freudenvoll zu 
call to me joyfully 
Heimatlich lockende Klänge, 
homeland-like luring sounds, 
Du nur allein bist die Ruh, 
you only alone are the rest,  
Schützende Heimat! 
sheltering homeland! 
Heimat! 
Homeland! 
Gib mir den Frieden zurück, 
Give me the peace back 
Den ich im Weiten verloren, 
that I in the expanses lost; 
Gib mir dein blühendes Glück! 
give me your flowering happiness! 
Unter den Bäumen am Bach, 
Under the trees at the brook 
Wo ich vor Zeiten geboren, 
where I before times was born, 
Gib mir ein schützendes Dach, 
give me a sheltering roof,  
Liebende Heimat! 
loving homeland! 

Translations and Annotations of Choral Repertoire Volume II: German Texts

This is My Song (Finlandia)                                                                
 

1.    This is my song, O God of all the nations, 
A song of peace for lands afar and mine. 
This is my home, the country where my heart is, 
Here are my hopes, my dreams, my holy shrine. 
But other hearts in other lands are beating, 
With hopes and dreams as true and high as mine.

2.    My country's skies are bluer than the ocean, 
And sunlight beams on clover leaf and pine. 
But other lands have sunlight too, and clover, 
And skies are everywhere as blue as mine.
This is my song, O God of all the nations, 
A song of peace for lands afar and mine.

3.    So let us raise this melody together, 
Beneath the stars that guide us through the night;
If we choose love, each storm we’ll learn to weather,
Until true peace and harmony we find;
This is our song, a hymn we raise together; 
A dream of peace, uniting humankind.

Verse 1 and 2 text by Lloyd Stone, ©The Lorenz Corporation. Used by permission.. Verse 3 text by Blake Morgan © Morgan. Used by permission.

The Lake Isle of Innisfree 
By William Butler Yeats

I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree, 
And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made: 
Nine bean-rows will I have there, a hive for the honey-bee; 
And live alone in the bee-loud glade. 
And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow, 
Dropping from the veils of the morning to where the cricket sings; 
There midnight’s all a glimmer, and noon a purple glow, 
And evening full of the linnet’s wings. 
I will arise and go now, for always night and day 
I hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore; 
While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements grey, 
I hear it in the deep heart’s core.

Text first published1888. Public domain. 

Shenandoah 
Traditional

Oh Shenandoah,                                                                                                           
I long to see you,                                                                                                    
And hear your rolling rivers                                                                                        
Oh Shenandoah,                                                                                                          
I long to hear you,                                                                                                    
Away, you rolling river.                                                                                               
Oh Shenandoah,                                                                                                          
I long to hear you,                                                                                                     
Away, we're bound away                                                                                      
Cross the wide Missouri.
'Tis seven years 
since last I've seen you,                                                                                                    
Away, you rolling river.                                                                                                        
'Tis seven years                                                                                                              
since last I've seen you,                                                                                                 
Away, we're bound away
Cross the wide Missouri.

Author unknown. Text in the public domain. 

Fern Hill 
By Dylan Thomas

Now as I was young and easy under the apple boughs
About the lilting house and happy as the grass was green,
The night above the dingle starry,
Time let me hail and climb
Golden in the heydays of his eyes,
And honoured among wagons I was prince of the apple towns
And once below a time I lordly had the trees and leaves
Trail with daisies and barley
Down the rivers of the windfall light.

And as I was green and carefree, famous among the barns
About the happy yard and singing as the farm was home,
In the sun that is young once only,
Time let me play and be
Golden in the mercy of his means,
And green and golden I was huntsman and herdsman, the calves
Sang to my horn, the foxes on the hills barked clear and cold,
And the sabbath rang slowly
In the pebbles of the holy streams.

All the sun long it was running, it was lovely, the hay
Fields high as the house, the tunes from the chimneys, it was air
And playing, lovely and watery
And fire green as grass.
And nightly under the simple stars
As I rode to sleep the owls were bearing the farm away,
All the moon long I heard, blessed among stables, the nightjars
Flying with the ricks, and the horses
Flashing into the dark.

And then to awake, and the farm, like a wanderer white
With the dew, come back, the cock on his shoulder: it was all
Shining, it was Adam and maiden,
The sky gathered again
And the sun grew round that very day.
So it must have been after the birth of the simple light
In the first, spinning place, the spellbound horses walking warm
Out of the whinnying green stable
On to the fields of praise.

And honoured among foxes and pheasants by the gay house
Under the new made clouds and happy as the heart was long,
In the sun born over and over,
I ran my heedless ways,
My wishes raced through the house high hay
And nothing I cared, at my sky blue trades, that time allows
In all his tuneful turning so few and such morning songs
Before the children green and golden
Follow him out of grace,

Nothing I cared, in the lamb white days, that time would take me
Up to the swallow thronged loft by the shadow of my hand,
In the moon that is always rising,
Nor that riding to sleep
I should hear him fly with the high fields
And wake to the farm forever fled from the childless land.
Oh as I was young and easy in the mercy of his means,
Time held me green and dying
Though I sang in my chains like the sea.

Text by Dylan Thomas, as published in the Collected Poems of Dylan Thomas, ©2010 by New Directions Publishing Corp. Used by permission from the publisher.

Freue dich des Weibes deiner Jugend

Dein Born sei gesegnet,
Let thy fountain be blessed
und freue dich des Weibes deiner Jugend.
and rejoice with the wife of thy youth
Sie ist lieblich wie die Hinde und holdselig wie ein Reh. 
Let her be as the loving hind and pleasant roe
Laß dich ihre Liebe allezeit sättigen 
let her breasts satisfy thee at all times; 
und ergötze dich allewege in ihrer Liebe.
and be thou ravished always with her love.

Text from Proverbs 5:18-19. German translation, Lutherbibel, public domain. English translation, KJV.

Long Road 
By Paulīne Bārda

Es mīlu tevi nakt’ un dien’
I love, I love you night and day
Kā zvaigzni tālās debesīs
As a star in the distant sky
Un skumstu tikai par to vienu,
And I mourn for this one thing alone
Ka mīlēt mūžs man dots tik īss.
That to love, our lifetime was so short, so short

Tāls ceļš līdz spožai debess pļavai,
A long road to heaven's shining meadow
To man mūžam nenoiet.
And never could I reach its end
Vēl tālāks ceļš līdz sirdij tavai,
But a longer road leads to your heart
Kas man kā tāla zvaigzne šķiet.
Which to me seems distant as a star

Līkst augstu gaisā debess loks,
High above the arch of heaven bends 
Un dzidra gaisma lejas,
and light so clear is falling. 
Stāv pasaule kā ziedošs koks,
Like a flow’ring tree the world is blooming.
Sirds mulst un raud, un smej.
Overwhelmed, my heart both cries and laughs.

Text by Paulīne Bārda (1890-1893), public domain. Translation by Alain Singley Lloyd, © Musica Baltica, Ltd. Used by permission.

Preguntale a ese mar 
By Juan Bexoes

Text & translation for this work were not available for reproduction. 

The Inward and the Outward 
 

Oh my heart! Wake, oh wake!

The moon is within me, and so is the sun.
The inward and the outward are become as
One sky, the Infinite and the finite are united.
The hills and the sea and the earth.
The days and the nights.
The rising and the set-ting of the sun.
The oceans and the unnumbered stars.
The limit and the limitless.
The body and the mind.
The beginning, the middle, and the end.
The conscious and the unconscious.

Between the poles of the conscious and the 
Unconscious, there has the mind made a Swing:
Thereon hang all beings and all worlds, and
That swing never ceases its sway. Millions of
Beings are there: The sun and the moon in their
Courses are there. Millions of ages pass, and 
The swing goes on.
All swing! The sky and the earth and the air and
The water.

O brother! He who has seen that radiance of 
love, he is saved: There the sky is filled with 
Music.

Day and night, the chorus of music fills the
Heavens:

The light of the sun, the moon, and the stars
Shines bright. The melody of love swells forth.

Text attributed to Kabir, circa 16th century. Translation by Rabindranath Tagore, from The Songs Of Kabir, published 1915 by Macmillan. Public domain.

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About the Artists

Page Stephens

Page Stephens is a mezzo soprano, voice teacher and arts administrator based in Austin, TX with a soft spot for new music. She is a founding member of VAMP, an all-female vocal quintet which champions music by women and living composers. VAMP's debut album will be released in Spring 2025. Stephens has premiered works by Reena Esmail, Matthew Lyons, Donald Grantham, Katherine Pukinskis, Dana Lyn, Russell Podgorsek, Thomas B. Yee, and others. Stephens maintains a robust performing career in a wide variety of genres. In the last decade, she has performed with Copland House, Voices of Change, River Oaks Chamber Orchestra, Austin Symphony Orchestra, line upon line percussion, Sō Percussion, Texas Early Music Project, invoke string quartet, and many others. In addition to performing, Stephens is on the voice faculty at Austin Community College. She is the assistant director for operations at the Butler School of Music at The University of Texas at Austin, where she also received her master’s and D.M.A. degrees.

Ari Carrillo

Ari Carrillo is a conductor, singer, and music educator currently pursuing a Doctor of Musical Arts in choral conducting at The University of Texas at Austin, studying with Dr. J.D. Burnett. Carrillo earned his Master of Music in choral conducting from Northwestern University’s Bienen School of Music, where he studied with Andrew Megill and served as a graduate assistant with the University Chorale. At Northwestern, he served as chorus master for productions of Bizet’s Carmen and Lehár’s The Merry Widow and as assistant conductor for Missy Mazzoli’s Proving Up. While living in Chicago, he also worked as a professional singer, performing with ensembles including Music of the Baroque, Roots in the Sky, and Stare at the Sun. Carrillo holds a Bachelor of Music in music education from Westminster Choir College, where he studied conducting with James Jordan, Amanda Quist, and Tom Shelton. As a member of the Westminster Symphonic Choir, Westminster Kantorei, and Westminster Williamson Voices, he performed in collaborations with The Philadelphia Orchestra and New York Philharmonic. Prior to graduate study, Carrillo spent four years as a high school choral director in New Jersey, where he directed eight ensembles and served as music director for numerous musical theatre productions. His professional interests include choral-orchestral repertoire, opera, early music, and contemporary choral music.

Seonhyeong Yeo

Korean-born pianist Seonhyeong Yeo is pursuing a Doctoral of Musical Arts in collaborative piano at The University of Texas at Austin, Butler School of Music under Dr. Colette Valentine, where she holds a teaching assistantship and the prestigious Ching and Man-Li Yew Scholarship. As a versatile pianist, she performs across solo, instrumental, and vocal repertoires. Her performances have been featured at Friedberg Concert Hall, Helen K. Persson Recital Hall, Griswold Hall, Goodwin Hall, Kumho Art Hall, Munho Art Hall, and the Axel Springer Auditorium. She also performed as a soloist with the Seoul Orchestra after winning their concerto competition. She earned her Master of Music in piano performance from the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University, studying with Alexander Shtarkman and receiving the Clara Ascherfeld Award and the artistic excellence award. Her experience includes serving as a collaborative pianist at Peabody and a staff pianist for the Peabody Preparatory. She received her Bachelor of Music from Seoul National University under Dr. Min Jung Lee. She has participated in renowned festivals, including the West Palm Beach Piano Festival, National Music Festival, Edward Auer Workshop, SNU Chamber Festival, Tel-Aviv Festival, and Euro Arts Academy.

J.D. Burnett

Dr. J.D. Burnett enjoys a varied career as a conductor, singer, and teacher. In the Butler School of Music at the University of Texas, he serves as director of choral activities, conducts the UT Concert Chorale, and teaches courses in graduate choral conducting and literature. Additionally, he is the founding artistic director of Kinnara, the premier professional chamber choir in Atlanta, Georgia. In March 2021, he was named artistic director of Orpheus Chamber Singers in Dallas, and assumed the role on January 1, 2022. Formerly, he was associate professor of music and associate director of choral activities at the University of Georgia Hugh Hodgson School of Music. He has served as assistant director of the Dallas Symphony Chorus, conductor of the New Jersey Youth Chorus Young Men’s Ensemble, associate conductor of the Masterwork Chorus of New Jersey, and acting director of choral activities at Montclair State University.

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Concert Chorale

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Upcoming Events

Ring in the season with the Butler School’s annual Holiday Concert with music for everyone to enjoy. You’ll hear traditional holiday carols and winter favorites across many genres, including excerpts from Bach’s Magnificat, jazz standards like “I’ll Be Home for Christmas,” and Hanukkah songs from Sephardic and Mizrahi Jewish traditions.

Saturday, December 5, 7:30 p.m.
Sunday ,December 6, 4:00 p.m.
Bates Recital Hall 

Tickets

UNIVERSITY CHORUS
Free Admission
Sunday, November 15,  4 p.m.
Bates Recital Hall
 

Butler Opera Center Presents
MOZART EVERLASTING
Scenes from beloved Mozart operas celebrating his 250th birthday
Free Admission
December 2 & 3, 7:00 p.m.
McCullough Theatre
 

CARLOS ENRIQUE SANTELLI, tenor & RICK ROWLEY, piano
Monday, January 25, 2027, 7:30 p.m.
Bates Recital Hall
 

CONCERT CHORALE
with guest conductor María Guinand
Free Admission
Thursday, April 1, 7:30 p.m.
Bates Recital Hall
 

UNIVERSITY CHORUS
Free Admission
Sunday, April 11, 2027, 4 p.m.
Bates Recital Hall
 

CONCERT CHORALE
Thursday, April 22, 7:30 p.m.
Bates Recital Hall
 

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