Donald Loach

Last updated

Donald Loach is Associate Professor Emeritus of Music at the University of Virginia where he taught courses in music history and theory, and conducted numerous student choral ensembles including the University of Virginia Glee Club, University Singers, and Coro Virginia. In the Charlottesville community, he was for many years music director of the Charlottesville/Albemarle Oratorio Society now called the Oratorio Society of Virginia and of the senior choir of St. Paul's Memorial Church. In retirement he continued to teach general music courses, primarily for older students, through the UVa School of Continuing and Professional Studies and Osher Lifelong Learning Institute. His principal field of scholarship centers on the history of Renaissance Music.

Loach was born and raised in Denver and became a conducting student of Antonia Brico when he was 14 years old. After completing the BA degree in music studies at the University of Denver, he continued his studies of music theory and organ at the Yale School of Music, earning both a BMus and MMus. After a few years as assistant in instruction at Yale he returned to graduate studies at the University of California, Berkeley, where he received his Ph.D. in musicology. At Yale he studied under Paul Hindemith and managed Hindemith's Collegium Musicum. He also spent one year with Hindemith at the University of Zurich, Switzerland. [1]

Loach joined the University of Virginia faculty in 1964. Loach was popular as a professor, noting in a 1972 Cavalier Daily interview that his classes were oversubscribed and that growth in the music department was inevitable. [2] During his tenure as director of what was then known as the University of Virginia Glee Club he developed a choral section of countertenors, which enabled the ensemble to perform a wider repertory including masterpieces of Renaissance polyphony. These included masses by Josquin des Prez and Cipriano De Rore, Thomas Tallis's "Lamentation of Jeremiah," and many secular pieces. He led the Glee Club in participation in the inaugural Harvard Festival of Men's Choruses in 1977. [3]

In addition to his work with the Virginia Glee Club, Loach also conducted the University Singers and founded Coro Virginia, a smaller mixed-voice ensemble, that he founded in 1989, the year he resigned as Virginia Glee Club conductor. Each December the University Singers produced a Renaissance Madrigal Dinner and Concert, and twice he prepared that ensemble for performances of Bach's St. Matthew Passion with conductor Otto-Werner Mueller. During his time as music director both the Virginia Glee Club and the University Singers embarked on numerous European tours, beginning with a Virginia Glee Club tour of Italy, Austria, Germany, and Switzerland in 1972. Tours to Russia (then the Soviet Union), England, Paris and northern France, Spain, Belgium and the Rhineland, and Italy followed. Often the concerts were performed jointly with choirs from the visited communities.

In addition to the choral ensembles at the University of Virginia, he served as music director of the Oratorio Society of Virginia and as organist/music director of St. Paul's Memorial Church in Charlottesville. In his retirement, Loach continued to lead the university community's annual Messiah sing-in until turning it over to current UVA Director of Choral Music Michael Slon in 2018. [4]

Related Research Articles

Choir Ensemble of singers

A choir is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform. Choirs may perform music from the classical music repertoire, which spans from the medieval era to the present, or popular music repertoire. Most choirs are led by a conductor, who leads the performances with arm and facial gestures.

Robert Shaw (conductor) American conductor

Robert Lawson Shaw was an American conductor most famous for his work with his namesake Chorale, with the Cleveland Orchestra and Chorus, and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and Chorus. He was known for drawing public attention to choral music through his wide-ranging influence and mentoring of younger conductors, the high standard of his recordings, his support for racial integration in his choruses, and his support for modern music, winning many awards throughout his career.

The Harvard Choruses are three choral ensembles at Harvard University, consisting of the Harvard Glee Club, the Radcliffe Choral Society, and the Harvard-Radcliffe Collegium Musicum Each year the three Harvard Choruses combine to perform a large choral-orchestral work.

Harvard Glee Club Choral ensemble

The Harvard Glee Club is a Tenor-Bass choral ensemble at Harvard University. Founded in 1858 in the tradition of English and American glee clubs, it is the oldest collegiate chorus in the United States. The Glee Club is part of the Harvard Choruses of Harvard University, which also include the treble voice Radcliffe Choral Society and the mixed-voice Harvard-Radcliffe Collegium Musicum. All three groups are led by Harvard's current Director of Choral Activities Andrew Gregory Clark.

Jameson Neil Marvin is an American choral conductor, composer, arranger, and editor. Between 1978 and 2010, Marvin directed the Harvard Glee Club, the Radcliffe Choral Society, and the Harvard-Radcliffe Collegium Musicum and has also taught choral conducting at Harvard University. He received a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Choral Music from the University of Illinois, a Master of Arts in Choral Conducting from Stanford University, and a Bachelor of Arts in Music Composition from the University of California, Santa Barbara. He has worked with Howard Swan and Robert Shaw, and his students have gone on to lead major choruses throughout the country. With the Holden Choruses, he has made nearly a dozen appearances at conventions of the American Choral Directors Association, including six national conventions. His academic specialty is the music of the Renaissance, and he serves as principal editor of the Oxford Music Renaissance series. Marvin retired from Harvard at the end of the 2009-2010 academic school year.

Yale Glee Club Chorus from Yale University

The Yale Glee Club is a mixed chorus of men and women, consisting of students of Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. Founded in 1861, it is the third oldest collegiate chorus in the United States after the Harvard Glee Club, founded in 1858, and the University of Michigan Men's Glee Club, founded in 1859. The Glee Club performs several concerts each year in New Haven and goes on tour each January. According to music critic Zachary Woolfe of the New York Times, it is "one of the best collegiate singing ensembles, and one of the most adventurous." Its members are "world famous for their harmonic precision" per New York Times music critic Robert Sherman.

Jeffrey Douma is the Director of the Yale Glee Club and a Professor of Choral Conducting at the Yale School of Music. He is the founding Director of the Yale Choral Artists and serves as Artistic Director of the Yale International Choral Festival.

Radcliffe Choral Society Choral ensemble

The Radcliffe Choral Society(RCS) is a 60-voice treble choral ensemble at Harvard University. Founded in 1899, it is one of the country's oldest soprano-alto choruses and one of its most prominent collegiate choirs. With the tenor-bass Harvard Glee Club and the mixed-voice Harvard-Radcliffe Collegium Musicum, it is one of the Harvard Choruses. All three groups are led by Harvard Director of Choral Activities Andrew Clark. The RCS Resident Conductor is Meg Weckworth. RCS tours domestically every year and travels internationally every four years.

Virginia Glee Club Musical artist

The Virginia Glee Club is a men's chorus based at the University of Virginia. It performs both traditional and contemporary vocal works, typically in TTBB arrangements. Founded in 1871, the Glee Club is the University's oldest musical organization and one of the oldest all-male collegiate vocal ensembles in the United States. It is currently conducted by Frank Albinder.

Frank Scott Albinder is a conductor of male choral music. A former director of Chanticleer, Albinder currently conducts the Washington Men's Camerata, the Woodley Ensemble, and the Virginia Glee Club, and is president of Intercollegiate Men's Choruses, Inc., a national association of men's choruses. Albinder designed the concept and chose the repertoire for Chanticleer's Grammy Award winning album Colors of Love. Albinder holds degrees in conducting and vocal performance. Perhaps his best known work is the vocal solo of Loch Lomond, featured on the Chanticleer album Wondrous Love. He is a past president of the Alumni Association of Pomona College in Claremont, California. Albinder lives and works primarily in the District of Columbia.

Mark Bailey (conductor)

Mark Bailey is an American conductor and baroque violist. He is the founder and artistic director of the American Baroque Orchestra. Bailey specializes in Slavic music of the 17th and 18th centuries, in addition to baroque, classical, and romantic repertoire, and is the current director of the Yale Russian Chorus. Bailey frequently guest conducts ensembles such as the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra, Cappella Romana, The Portland Baroque Orchestra, and Pro Coro Canada. He often gives presentations on Slavic baroque music and historical performance practice, and has been a principal guest speaker for the Great Performers series, the Mostly Mozart Festival at Lincoln Center in New York City, the 2016 Musicking Conference at the University of Oregon, and the Indiana University International Performance Practice Conference.

"The Good Old Song" is the de facto school song of the University of Virginia. It is often said to be the University's fight song, although the actual fight song is "The Cavalier Song". It is set to the music of "Auld Lang Syne", a song frequently sung on New Year's Eve.

Nehemiah Hunter Brown Musical artist

Nehemiah Brown is an American gospel music singer, songwriter, arranger, professional musician, teacher, vocal coach and choral director.

Ernest Campbell Mead Jr. was professor of music and former head of the McIntire Department of Music at the University of Virginia.

The Virginia Belles A cappella group

The Virginia Belles is the University of Virginia's oldest all-female a cappella group based in Charlottesville, Virginia. The group was established in 1977 by Katherine Mitchell as the female counterpart to the Virginia Gentlemen, the university's oldest a cappella group. Completely student-run, the Belles continue to perform an eclectic range of vocal music from oldies and classic rock to indie and R&B. They sing in and around Charlottesville, and up and down the East Coast and all across the U.S., and have received awards and honors from internationally acclaimed organizations such as the Contemporary A Cappella Society, Varsity Vocals, and the Recorded A Cappella Review Board.

Princeton Glee Club University choir for Princeton University

The Princeton University Glee Club is the oldest and most prestigious choir at Princeton University, composed of approximately 100 mixed voices. They give multiple performances throughout the year featuring music from Renaissance to Modern, and also tour internationally biannually. They have performed recently with Bobby McFerrin, Roomful of Teeth, Calmus, and a collection of the world's premier oktavists. Currently the Glee Club is led by Gabriel Crouch.

Ohio State University Mens Glee Club

The Ohio State University Men's Glee Club is an all-male choral ensemble at The Ohio State University. Officially founded in 1875, the Men's Glee Club is one of the oldest student organizations on Ohio State's campus and one of the oldest collegiate glee clubs in the United States. The group has garnered many accolades, most notably winning Choir of the World 1990 from the Llangollen International Musical Eisteddfod.

John Barry Talley was a musical director at the U.S. Naval Academy.

Scott Arthur Tucker is an American conductor. He is most widely known as the artistic director of The Choral Arts Society of Washington, a position he assumed in 2012, and as the director of choral music at Cornell University from 1995-2012.

Steven Sametz is active as both conductor and composer. He has been hailed as "one of the most respected choral composers in America." Since 1979, he has been on the faculty of Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, where he holds the Ronald J. Ulrich Chair in Music and is Director of Choral Activities and is founding director of the Lehigh University Choral Union. Since 1998, he has served as Artistic Director of the professional a cappella ensemble, The Princeton Singers. He is also the founding director of the Lehigh University Summer Choral Composers’ Forum. In 2012, he was named Chair of the American Choral Directors Association Composition Advisory Committee.

References

  1. ↑ "University of North Carolina Women's Chorus and University of Virginia Glee Club (October 7, 1988 performance)" (PDF). 1988-10-07. Retrieved 2009-04-22.
  2. ↑ Lawson, Suzy (1972-03-23). "Loach Describes Music Popularity". Cavalier Daily . Archived from the original on 2011-07-20.
  3. ↑ "Harvard Glee Club Listening Room 4" . Retrieved 2013-08-26.
  4. ↑ Wood, Teresa (2006-01-19). "Hallelujah". Cavalier Daily .
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.