7-movement composition 'Isaiah' to premiere Thursday

Not very many people would describe the oratorio masses of Handel and Mozart as “jamming,” or “grooving really hard,” but composition professor and jazz pianist Stephen Anderson readily does.

Drawing from his extensive jazz background, as well as baroque and 20th-century choral works, Anderson’s varied musical interests are on display in his new seven-movement composition titled “Isaiah,” which will premiere Thursday night in the Hill Hall auditorium. It will be performed by the Carolina Choir, a string ensemble and Anderson on piano.

Anderson said he chose Isaiah because it’s a book in the Bible that is meaningful to people of different faiths.

“‘Isaiah’ incorporates modern harmonies and counterpoint that likewise seeks to make the body want to get up and move, but with a pulse that is relevant to our modern time,” Anderson said.

Isaiah is a book in the Bible that details God’s judgment and salvation.

Accompanying the premiere will be a pre-concert mini-conference on the importance and relevance of Isaiah, led by Jewish Studies professor Yaakov Ariel and graduate student Jason Combs, who is studying Ancient Mediterranean Religions.

“Isaiah” is the result of a commission from the Mormon Artists Group, a New York-based arts organization that reached out to Anderson in 2011.

“I listened to his jazz CDs, and I just loved them,” said Glen Nelson, director of the group. “I wrote to him saying, ‘Would you like to do something together someday,’ and that kind of slowly led to this commission and the performance on Thursday.”

Nelson frequently commissions Mormons of various artistic backgrounds and offers them complete artistic freedom to pursue any project they want.

“I don’t see the point in commissioning things and forcing the artist to write certain pieces about certain things,” Nelson said. “My main goal is to get the best possible work out of the artist.”

Anderson originally found himself struggling to come up with interesting artistic ideas.

“I had no idea what I wanted to do,” Anderson said. “Writing all these symphonic jazz band works, large ensemble works, wind ensemble works, I was getting a little burnt out on that.”

After a chance encounter in the Hill Hall copy room more than a year ago, where Carolina Choir Director Susan Klebanow reminded Anderson that they had yet to collaborate, Anderson decided to write a piece for the choir featuring text from the Book of Isaiah, which had been of interest to Anderson for a while.

“It’s been kind of a lifelong amateur hobby of mine, to study religious history, that’s what I read most of the time,” Anderson said.

“You go the library, there’s got to be 40 to 100 books there. The Protestant scholar says it means this, the Jewish scholar says it means this, and another Jewish scholar says it means this, and they don’t exactly agree on the details.”

Anderson said the varying interpretations of Isaiah made the subject matter more interesting.

Evan Adair, a junior vocal major in the Carolina Choir, said he has enjoyed preparing for Thursday’s premiere.

“‘Isaiah’ is a very intense but also fun piece to perform,” he said. “Especially for a choral work, it’s use of tonality and dissonance is very unique.”

Klebanow said despite its tonality, it remains challenging for the choir.

“It may be largely tonal, but it’s not uncomplicated,” she said. “It’s chromatic, and rhythms are very challenging, Carolina Choir rehearses four hours a week, and we’ve been rehearsing since the first day of the semester.”

Since then, “Isaiah” has grown in scope conceptually and musically into the large ensemble work it is now.

He said the text lends itself to musical interpretation.

“In (The Book of) Isaiah there’s this incredible dichotomy between darkness and light — some parts are very dark, and then a few verses later, the text is suddenly beautiful,” Anderson said.

“If you prepare it right, this dichotomy meshes very well musically.”

arts@dailytarheel.com