— DIGITAL PROGRAM —
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Vivaldi Gloria & Holiday Pops
Sunday, December 14, 2025, 5pm
Norcross First Global Methodist Church

—DIGITAL PROGRAM —
About this Performance
CONCERT PROGRAM

CONCERT PROGRAM
Approximately 110 Minutes Including a 15-minute Intermission


Processional for Christmas (O Come all ye faithful)
Arr. by Benjamin Harlan

Five Favorite Holiday Songs
Arr. by Alan Billingsley

Gloria, RV 589
Antonio Vivaldi
1. Gloria in excelsis Deo (Chorus)
3. Laudamus te (Sopranos I and II)
Lacy Wheeler & Rachel O’Dell, Soprano Duet
4. Gratias agimus tibi (Chorus)
5. Propter magnam gloriam (Chorus)
7. Domine, Fili unigenite (Chorus)
8. Domine Deus, Agnus Dei (Contralto and Chorus)
Eleni Dandelakis, Alto
9. Qui tollis peccata mundi (Chorus)
11. Quoniam tu solus sanctus (Chorus)
12. Cum Sancto Spiritu (Chorus)


INTERMISSION


Sleigh Ride
Leroy Anderson

A Christmas Festival (Singalong)
Leroy Anderson

Wonderful Child
Jay Rouse
Lynn Renshaw, soloist

Noel
Heather Sorenson
Beth Strabala, soloist

Betelehemu
Barrington Brooks
Adelmo Gimenez & Cesar Gimenez, soloists

Glory, Glory, Glory to the Newborn King
Moses Hogan
Rachel O’Dell, soloist

O Holy Night
Adolphe-Charles Adam, Arr. by Rene Clausen
Meet the Artists
RICK SMITH, conductor
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RICK SMITH, conductor

Rick Smith is an active Music Director, educator, and arts entrepreneur. He currently serves as Music Director and Conductor of the Gwinnett Symphony Chorus and Chamber Singers, and as Director of Music Ministries at Johns Creek Christian Church, a position he has held since July 2011. Prior to this, he served for over nine years as Music Minister at First Christian Church of Atlanta (Disciples of Christ) in Tucker, GA. He is also Executive Director of the New School of Music, one of the region’s leading community music education institutions.

Widely recognized for his charismatic podium presence and immediate connection with audiences, Smith brings a vibrant, communicative style to every performance. His conducting is marked by expressive clarity, infectious energy, and an instinctive ability to draw singers and listeners alike into the emotional core of the music.

A lifelong musician, Smith began formal piano studies at the age of seven in a musical household where every family member played an instrument or sang. By age twelve, he was serving as the pianist for his local church, a role he held through high school. His passion for music deepened during his time at Shorter College in Rome, GA, where he earned dual Bachelor’s degrees in Church Music and Music Education. While his primary instrument is piano, his studies also included private voice and extensive choral training under the mentorship of Dr. John H. Ratledge III, a distinguished choral conductor and student of the world-renowned composer Morten Lauridsen. Under Ratledge’s direction, Smith participated in the world premiere of Lauridsen’s Les Chansons des Roses at Carnegie Hall in 1994 and performed with the Shorter Chorale in St. Petersburg, Russia, in 1992. Throughout his career, Smith has combined artistic excellence with a strong commitment to community engagement and education. His work reflects a deep understanding of both the choral tradition and the people he serves, fostering inclusive, high-level music-making in every ensemble he leads.

A leading force in music education, Smith co-founded New School of Music in 1997 and continues to lead the organization as Executive Director. Today, NSM operates five campuses across the metro Atlanta area, offering private and group music instruction to more than 1,200 enrolled students. Under his leadership, the conservatory has grown into a cornerstone of community music education, supported by a dedicated faculty and staff of approximately 60 professional musicians and educators. He also maintains an active studio of piano students, many of whom have gone on to study music at major universities and conservatories, and have been recognized with regional honors and top placements in local and state-level competitions.

Smith has held a leadership role with Gwinnett Symphony Orchestra & Chorus since 1997. In 2007, he founded the Gwinnett Symphony Chorus (GSC), which performs regularly with the Gwinnett Symphony Orchestra on several concerts throughout each concert season. The chorus, comprising singers of all levels, presents a wide-ranging repertoire including sacred works, classical masterworks, and selections from film and popular music. In 2020, Smith founded the Gwinnett Symphony Chamber Singers, an auditioned ensemble drawn from the Symphony Chorus that focuses on chamber choral literature, with an emphasis on stylistic nuance, precision, and expressive depth across sacred and secular traditions. Under Smith’s direction, the Gwinnett Symphony Chorus was honored to perform at Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center in New York City on September 11, 2011, for the 10th anniversary of 9/11. The concert featured René Clausen’s Memorial and was conducted by the composer as part of the Distinguished Concerts International New York (DCINY) series.

MEET THE ORCHESTRA
GSO MUSICIANS PERFORMING TONIGHT

Violin I
Pamela Davis
Yohei Nakamiya
Dan Amano
Craig Frankel
Martha Woodruff
David Bang

Violin II
Catherine Blankenship
Chelsea Shankles
Cristian Trevizo
Hannah Burneka
Susmitha Cinthala

Viola
Mariya Tzvetkova
Courtney Whyte-May
Samhitha Cinthala
Vy Do
Sebastian Hoyos
Honor Maltos

Cello
Miri Kim
Abby Nichols
Margaret Leith
Jonathan Roaquin
Kathryn Encisco

Bass
Peter Hildebrandt

Flute
Teodora Stoyanova
Peggy Chatfield

Oboe
Eutimio Pacheco Blanco
Zachary Kusumo

Clarinet
Robert Gabbitas
David Wilkes

Bassoon
Jason Lee
Jacob Davis

Horn
Christopher Nichols
Christi Lenz
Ben Vickrey
Ethan Atkinson

Trumpet
Evan Atwell
Alvin Brown

Trombone
Matt Scott
Austin Teas
Dwight Davis

Tuba
Brent Vokes

Percussion / Timpani
Harrison Cho
Justin Iadonisi
Jakob Alexandrian

Keyboard
Jose Garcia

MEET THE CHORUS
GSO CHORUS MEMBERS PERFORMING TONIGHT

Soprano
Ahmora Matthews
Amelia Shelton
Annie Lee
Beth Strabala
Cara Jensen
Cecilly Shelton
Chelsea Ampadu
Claudia Ward
Debbie Jones
Diana Gable
Diane Lanier
Donna Pracht
Haley Perez-Arche
Katie Linn
Kimora Matthews
Lacy Wheeler
Lois Simon
Melissa Anderson
Melissa Black
Pam Cook
Rachel O’Dell
Sarah Stoneking
Soo Jeong
Tara Kunesh

Alto
Amanda Henderson
Bianca Leon
Brianne McKenna
Carol Matthieson
Cheri Lawson
Eleni Dandelakis
Emma Elliott
Georgia Rebula
Kelly Haggard Olson
Kim Johnston
Leah Kruszka
Lynn Renshaw
Miriam Rodriguez
Nancy McDaniel
Novita Tombeng
Pepi Virginia Santiago-Tosado
Riannon Constantino
Sanya Simmons
Susie Parow
Tami Scheinman
Tori Davis
Tricia Clayton

Tenor
Adelmo Gimenez
Cesar Gimenez
Eutimio Pacheco Brito
Ora Ball
Scott Anderson
Sebastian Ganoza
Steve Pearson
Steve Young

Bass
Brian Baker
Clayton Duffie
Duane White
John Kilpatrick
Landry Padgett Ferguson
Mike Rhoton
Robert Daniel

Program Notes
Gloria, RV 589
Gloria, RV 589
Antonio Vivaldi

ABOUT THE MUSIC

Although Vivaldi did compose a substantial body of sacred music, it was never his main interest. The host of pioneering concertos he wrote – for the Ospedale della Pietà, the famous Venice orphanage for girls and women, and then for wealthy music lovers throughout Europe – formed his day job, as it were, and opera was his chief distraction from it. But on at least two occasions the post of chorus master at the Pietà fell vacant for an extended period, and Vivaldi stepped in to supply music for the chorus.

One of these periods came in the years 1713-1719, and Vivaldi worked prodigiously to fill the musical void. In June 1715 the board of the Pietà voted to award Vivaldi the chorus master’s annual bonus for “his excellent musical compositions… a complete Mass, a Vespers, an oratorio, over 30 motets, and other labors” and to “stimulate him to make further contributions and to perfect still more the performing abilities of the girls of this our chorus.”

This Gloria was undoubtedly one of the works of this period. More controversially, scholarly opinion now holds that all the vocal parts were sung by the women’s chorus of the institution and at pitch (i.e. without male tenors or basses and without transposing those parts up an octave, at least not consistently).

The scoring and style is quite characteristic of Vivaldi’s other music for the Pietà, including the better-known concertos. This means ebullient and joyful music such as the opening chorus, with its distinctive solo oboe and trumpet, and deeply expressive slower music, such as the following movement, with its chromatic polyphony and suspensions over a steadily pulsing bass line.

There are several movements with vocal solos, which would have been sung by members of the chorus. “Laudamus te” is a duet for two sopranos, set up like a concerto movement with instrumental ritornellos between the passages for the intertwined singers. “Domine Deus” is a sweetly rocking Siciliano pairing soprano and oboe, and “Domine Deus, Agnus Dei,” with its combination of soloist and chorus, apparently caused Vivaldi the most trouble, at least on manuscript evidence. “Qui sedes” is another concerto-like movement, of the fiery finale type.

For the actual finale, Vivaldi created a vividly effective and very efficient composite. The brief “Quoniam tu solus sanctus” picks up his celebratory opening music, serving mainly to set up the concluding double fugue on “Cum Sancto Spiritu.” Unlike Haydn, Vivaldi was not highly skilled in strict counterpoint, and for this fugue he appropriated the conclusion of a recent Gloria by Veronese composer Giovanni Maria Ruggieri. Vivaldi “borrowed” music more frequently than was once thought, and every bit as creatively as Handel did more famously. Superbly apt in this case, it hardly needs apology or explanation.