Crosscurrents

The Program

With Guest Conductor and Composer Marques L. A. Garrett

These concerts conclude our 41st season, Confluence. We’ve spent a full year exploring the musical implications of pairings. Streams became a river in October. Darkness and light complemented one another in December. February found the movement inside sound. April put water to work against brass and gearing. May is downstream of all of that energy, arriving and culminating here.

Crosscurrents is a program of rich and meaningful American choral works, assembled and conducted by one of our country’s rising choral stars, Marques L. A. Garrett.

Featured works include Marques’ own Cor Amoris (2026), co-commssioned by Ars Nova Singers and presenting the Colorado premiere at these concerts. The theme of the work is love, including some of its different expressions such as birth, the Divine, unity, sacrifice for another, eros, and celebration. Other works include Hold Fast to Dreams by Blake Morgan; Gently, Lord, O Gently Lead Us by R. Nathaniel Dett; Arise, Beloved by Rosephanye Powell; and more.

Featured Artist

Marques L. A. Garrett

A Virginia native, Dr. Marques L. A. Garrett (he/him) is Associate Professor of Choral Studies at the University of North Texas. After completing the Doctor of Philosophy degree in Music Education (Choral Conducting) at Florida State University, he was an Assistant Professor of Music in Choral Activities at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln.

Marques is an active conductor serving as the founding conductor of the Nebraska Festival Singers and has served as a guest conductor or clinician with several school, church, community, and festival/honor choirs throughout the country in addition to leading conducting workshops at other universities and conferences. As a composer, his works are available through several publishers and have been performed by festival/honor, all-state, professional, community, and university choirs such as the Los Angeles Master Chorale and the Oakwood University Aeolians. Recent commissions include songs for the Des Moines Choral Society, Mendelssohn Chorus of Philadelphia, The Concordia Choir, and UNT A Cappella Choir.

His research has resulted in published articles and presentations on the choral music of Black composers and rehearsal techniques for state, regional, and national conferences. For more information, visit mlagmusic.com.

Guest Ensemble

Astrodon String Quartet

We are also pleased to feature the Astrodon String Quartet, the graduate string quartet in residence at the University of Colorado Boulder, on the Garrett premiere.