Eric Johnson
NIU Professor of Music and Head of Choral Studies Eric Johnson had been waiting to have just the right mix of the number and kind of singers to take on a piece by Argentinian composer Ariel Ramírez, and last spring he had that mix, and enlisted the help of two fellow School of Music faculty members in the project.
“The piece is called Misa Criolla,” Johnson said. “Ramirez composed it in the 1960s, and I had been looking for the opportunity to put it on stage here at NIU. I reached out to some of my colleagues, including Professor Greg Beyer who is director of percussion studies. He has significant experience and expertise in Latin American percussion traditions and music, especially of Brazil and Argentina. An Tran is a new faculty member in guitar and he has in interest in world music.”
The piece was originally commissioned by the Pope shortly after Vatican II who wanted Ramirez to create a mass using traditional music from his countries–the music of Bolivia and Argentina, and features specific rhythms and melodic constructs within a traditional mass setting.
Greg Beyer
Beyer gave presentations to the NIU Chamber Choir about the important historical and sociopolitical importance of the composition.
“When Greg looked at the arrangement that had been published by an American company he told us that they weren’t the right traditional rhythms,” Johnson said. “So he created his own using indigenous instrumentation to make it closer to what Ramirez would have imagined for the instruments that he was modeling for his composition.”
After the spring performance, Johnson and Beyer agreed that there was more they could do with this. They had discovered so much in the score and learned so much when they brought in traditional instruments and rewrote the percussion parts that they wanted the piece to exist on a larger scale.
Johnson put together a proposal, including an audio recording of the performance, to the Illinois Music Education Association. The hope was that a presentation and performance of the piece would help high school directors who choose to perform it approach it with an understanding of historical context and a deeper understanding of the ethnic representations involved and get a more hands-on experience of what the percussion instruments are and how they inform the music.
Johnson and Beyer will be presenting “Celebrating Ariel Ramírez’s Misa Criolla: A Fusion of Latin American Folk Music and Social Justice” at the IMEC Conference in Peoria, Thursday, January 27.
NIU will be well represented at the conference.
Johnson is also the Founding Artistic Director of Cor Cantiamo, artists in residence in the NIU School of Music and they will be performing at 7:30 p.m., on January 27.
Thomas Bough, professor and director of athletic bands will lead a clinic, “Diversify Your Band Literature by Exploring the Music of Black Composers”, at 1:30 p.m. on January 27.
Rodrigo Villanueva-Conroy, professor of jazz studies, has a clinic titled “FUNdamental Grooves of the African Diaspora” at the conference at 3 p.m. on January 27.
Mary Lynn Doherty, assistant director of the School of Music and coordinator of Music Education, is co-presenting on two topics, “The Prevalence of Women Conductors and Composers in the ILMEA All-State Choirs” at 3 p.m., January 27, and “Are Your Students Worth It? Bias, Representation and Access in Music Selection” at 11 a.m., Friday, January 28.
