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WHAT IS THE WHEATLAND CHORALE?

Since its founding in 1987 by Artistic Director Robert J. Upton, the Wheatland Chorale has earned a reputation as one of Pennsylvania's premier choral ensembles. The singers, all volunteers, are selected through audition, and travel from throughout Lancaster and Berks counties and beyond for rehearsals in Lancaster. The Chorale is named after the Wheatland Hills neighborhood where Mr. Upton lived in Lancaster at the time the group was formed.

The popularity of the Wheatland Chorale has grown steadily. The regular season includes a two concert subscription series, performed in three different locations in December and April. The Chorale has been recognized by the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts for artistic excellence with annual grants to support the choir's mission - "to promote and perpetuate choral music through excellence in performance." The ensemble now numbers 39 singers and has performed throughout Central Pennsylvania, as well as at St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York City, the National Cathedral and the White House in Washington, D.C., and on tours in Austria, Germany, and England. The choir has also performed several times with the "Celebrate Bach!" orchestra of the Mt. Gretna Music Festival and with the Harrisburg Symphony. The Wheatland Chorale has been heard on WITF-FM public radio and was featured on the premiere season of "The First Art", a public radio program featuring American choral groups.

The choir's repertoire is very broad, and features selections from all periods. The group has also commissioned several works. The first commission, "Child of Our Time", renamed "The Stolen Child", by composer Scott Robinson, premiered in 1992. A recording of that performance was broadcast twice on "The First Art".

ABOUT THE DIRECTOR

Founder and Artistic Director Robert Upton is a graduate of Westminster Choir College, Princeton, NJ, and the Dickinson School of Law, Carlisle, PA. Before forming the Wheatland Chorale, Mr. Upton resided in Harrisburg, PA, where he was founder and director of The Chamber Singers of Harrisburg. While in college, he performed in choruses under such notables as Leonard Bernstein, James Levine, and Seiji Ozawa. Although his legal career took him to Philadelphia very soon after founding the Wheatland Chorale, he has continued to make the weekly commute to Lancaster for the last 18 years, September through April of each year. Mr. Upton is currently Senior Counsel, AAA Mid-Atlantic, Inc.

ROBERT UPTON ON THE FINE ART

OF CONCERT COMPOSITION

"To me, picking out music for a concert is one of the most enjoyable jobs of a conductor. For weeks, or months, sometimes even years, before I actually select the music for the next season, ideas for sections of a concert play through my mind. Although I have absolutely no talent for writing music myself, I feel the thrill of composition as a concert program begins to take shape.

When this process is going on, I enjoy coming across new music in a store, at a convention or concert, or brought to me by a choir member or someone from our audience. These pieces often trigger ideas for new or different grouping of pieces than I had in mind. What is it I'm looking for? I'm listening for interesting combinations and contrasts, threads of themes, concepts that weave their way through a series of numbers, an ebb and flow of emotional reactions, intellectual challenges, fresh musical ideas. And of course I'm looking for all these things packaged in beautiful, inventive music that showcases the Chorale's wonderful sound and musicianship.

Armed with these ideas, and boxes and boxes of music I've accumulated over the years, I finally sit down at my piano. I start with a pile of "must sings" and a pile of "hopefuls" and build from there. I play the pieces over and over in various combinations. Sections of the concert form, sometimes to dissolve away, sometimes to reappear in other configurations. Sometimes a favorite just has to wait for another year.

I love interesting transitions between pieces almost as much as the pieces themselves. So, the emotional, intellectual and musical movement between them is always on my mind. Is the transition too abrupt? Or is something abrupt just what we need at this point? Do we need to keep historical consistency for one more piece, or is it time to make a shift in musical periods that nonetheless might point out some interesting consistency or comparison between them? Do we need an intellectual or musical challenge, or a restful interlude?

After much work, and though it may not be apparent from recent programming, the concert usually takes shape except for a hole here and there. I then dive back into my boxes, or call a friend or trusted adviser at a music store, and look for pieces with very specific characteristics. Maybe a certain mood, or complexity of construction, or text or style of composition is needed at a particular point. I love the thrill of coming up with just the right piece-usually something new to me-to fill that spot. Then it's off to our treasurer to make sure my ideas fit our budget.

I don't think going to a concert should feel like taking medicine. Nor should it be like a music history lesson or a museum collection of choral classics, one after the other with no real connection to each other. To me, a concert should feel like a satisfying, varied journey with a sense of organic development tying the whole experience together. It should have time for introductions, time for surprising new ideas, time for intellectual challenge, and time to relax with old friends. And, like an evening with any of the arts, we should leave with the surprising sense that we are more humane than when we started-a bit more aware, more grounded, or more enlightened-and if we've done it right, tingling in our fibers with a renewed sense of life."