Sunday, December 6, 2009,  3:00pm

Concert Sponsored by Comcast

de Profundis

a cappella men's ensemble of Albuquerque

The 13-member de Profundis a cappella men's ensemble was founded in 1994 by current artistic director, David Poole.  In the intervening years the group has evolved a repertoire ranging from Gregorian Chant to folk songs to new works, including premieres of pieces commissioned by the ensemble from eminent composers. 

According to the group's Statement of Purpose, "'De Profundis' is a Latin phrase that translates  'out of the deep.'  The group is founded upon the conviction that in making music together, we find not only intellectual challenge but nourishment as well for our  souls.  We would strive, therefore, for musical excellence.  We would prosper as persons and as a fellowship.  We would plumb the depths both of our music and of ourselves, bringing to light that which may be truly profound."

Reviewed often in the local press, de Profundis has been praised for its "rich, resonant tones," "finely-shaded phrasing,"  "subtlety and elegance,"  and "refinement . . . unearthly."  In addition to its own concert series, de Profundis has been featured in programs of the Placitas Artists Series, the Corrales Cultural Arts Series, the Cibola County Arts Series, and Chamber Music Albuquerque.  Highlights have included collaborations with composer/conductor Alice Parker and jazz legend Dave Brubeck.

In addition to his work with de Profundis, David Poole is Music Director at La Mesa Presbyterian Church in Albuquerque, a private voice teacher, published composer and author.

Generous donors enabled de Profundis to establish an endowment fund with the Albuquerque Community Foundation in 2007. This permanent fund will provide a steady income to allow de Profundis to meet its goals of providing unique music to the community and to involve young singers in their concerts.

 The music playing is an excerpt from “Sing Noel” by Alfred E. Sturgis recorded at the December 12, 2004 de Profundis PAS concert.  If the music is not loading, click the play button (►).

 
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Individual Biographies:

Tenor I:

Dave Bailey became interested in choral music in high school where he was a member of the High Chicago Chorale and two other groups. Locally, Dave has sung with the Los Alamos Choral Society, the Los Alamos Chamber Ensemble, Quintessence, and Quodlibet, and in choirs at Immanual, St. Andrew, and Shepard of the Valley Presbyterian churches and at St. Paul Lutheran. He recently retired from the Sangre de Cristo Chorale after singing with that group for 18 years.

Greg Haschke has been with the group since its second season. He has participated in church and community choirs for some eight years. His other hobbies include gardening, landscaping, cycling, and playing with his children. Professionally, Greg is an electrical engineer at Sandia Labs. 

Ken Lienemann started singing at his mother's knee, continued through high school and college, and is determined to get it right someday. He has sung with a variety of groups across several states, most recently with the Sangre de Cristo Chorale in Santa Fe. Ken has degrees in Engineering and Remote Sensing and worked on the International Space Station for 12 years. Most of his interests take on lives of their own and become avocations. He reads extensively and likes woodworking, gardening, hiking and camping, and makes a mean jar of apricot jam.

Tenor II:

John Berry has a rich musical history, beginning with piano and moving on to voice. No stranger to male vocal singing, he sang in a 100-voice chorus at The Citadel and barbershop groups from time to time. Recently he continues as a "rabid" church choir member and has held roles in the Albuquerque Academy's Gilbert and Sullivan productions. John works as an Operations Research Analyst, specializing in test and evaluation for the Defense Department.

Omar Durant has sung locally with many groups, including Opera Southwest, Quintessence, Masterchorale, the NMSO Chorus, and the St. Paul Lutheran Church Choir. Omar works as Library Services Manager for the Albuquerque Public Schools. In his spare time he enjoys photography, backpacking and camping, and writing. 

William (Bill) Foote grew up in a gospel tradition. He sang with the UNM A Cappella Choir and has been a member of the St Paul Lutheran Church Choir for about 30 years. He is a forensic psychologist, and has been quite active in the field, serving on a number of national boards and publishing in journals, and in a book.

Edward Seymour has sung with groups in Ohio, including the Oberlin Musical Union, the Oberlin Chamber singers, and the Oberlin Musical Theatre. He has performed throughout New England as a member of the Dissipated Eight, a male octet, and, in Michigan, was cast in Musket Theatre Productions' production of Cabaret. Holder of a Masters in music from the University of Michigan, Ed is currently employed in Reservations at the Hotel Santa Fe in Santa Fe.

Bass I:

Bruce Castle recalls his father singing to him as a child. He has been singing since, including with MasterChorale, the NMSO Chorus, and many years with de Profundis. He hopes his children remember that their dad sang to them and that they carry on the tradition.

Michael Finnegan is a retired physician and is delighted to be singing with de Profundis. His musical experience includes Men's Chorus at Loyola University of Los Angeles and many leading roles with Musical Theater Southwest and Albuquerque Little Theater. His love of music is exceeded only by his love for his wife, Laurie, and his son, Colin.

Dominic Kollasch received his Bachelor of Music degree in Vocal Performance from the Oklahoma City U. Margaret E. Petree School of Music and Performing Arts. He is an alum of the Boston U. Tanglewood Institute and has performed with the Tanglewood Festival Chorus and the Boston Pops Orchestra under John Williams. He has toured the eastern U.S., Europe, Malaysia, and Singapore. He has soloed in Notre-Dame de Paris and been a guest music minister at Il Sacro Convento in Assisi, Italy. Now with his MA in Counseling Psychology, he loves his work as a Counselor at St. Pius X High School in Albuquerque.

Bass II:

Jon M. Aase started singing as a boy soprano at the age of eight and has had the bug ever since. He has sung with the Pomona College Glee Club, the Yale Russian Chorus, the Anchorage Civic Chorus and Opera, Opera Southwest, the New Mexico Symphony Chorus, and Quintessence. Dr. Jon is a University Hospital pediatrician specializing in dysmorphology (genetics and birth defects). 

Ed Fancovic first began singing in medical school, when his class formed a chorus. He has sung with a number of church and secular groups since then, and currently sings with the Cathedral Choir at St. John's Episcopal Church. He works as an internal medicine/primary care physician at UNM.

Roy Morgan is Office Manager at Immanuel Presbyterian Church. He is formerly Executive Director of the National Information Center for Educational Media, and has worked at the Agency for Instructional Technology, Indiana University, and e-psyche. He has sung in or directed church choirs and handbell choirs. He also sings with Quintessence. Roy is a native New Mexican whose hobbies are weaving, papermaking, bookbinding, and letterpress printing.  

Director:

David Poole holds an M.M. in Choral Conducting and in Vocal Performance and a B.A. in English Literature. He has studied at Indiana University, the University of California at Berkeley, the University of New Mexico, and Westminster Choir College. David is presently the Director of Music at La Mesa Presbyterian Church and a private voice teacher. He is also a published author and composer, who can often be found seeking inspiration along the trout streams of northern New Mexico.  Visit David Poole's web site at www.davidepoole.com.

Reviews:

"The Christmas season has officially begun, and the first out of the gate with its holiday concert is Albuquerque's a cappella men's ensemble de Profundis. Titled "Awed by the Beauty," the program draws from traditions ranging far and wide, beginning with a Quechuan (Peruvian native) language text and finishing off with a set of traditional carols and spirituals. Led by David Poole, the 14-voice choir takes a group of strong individual voices and combines them into a sonorous blend, equally matched from top to bottom. In Sunday's concert, the group gave energetic and elegant demonstration of whispery pianissimos up to full-voiced outbursts, harmoniously filling the cathedral ceiling of the St. Michael and All Angels Episcopal Church."

-Albuquerque Journal Online, November 29, 2005, By D. S. Crafts

"The genre known as "song without words" occupies a small but rich place in classical literature. But as a recital on Sunday afternoon by the de Profundis men's choir aptly demonstrated, the form is by no means limited to classical music nor to any particular place in the world.
The first half of the program title "Mouth Music" exhibit a rich variety of choral works sung to syllables with no specific meaning.
Beginning with two Georgian (Russian) folk melodies, the group immediately established its rich blend of voices, solidly represented from top to bottom.
There also were composed works exploiting the lack of a specific text, most impressively a work from Finland with the intriguing title "Pseudo-Yoik" written by Jaako Mantjarvi. A rousing, boisterous piece sung with particular gusto and rhythmic precision, it has been described by the composer "as an impression of a stereotype that most Finns associate with Lapland and its people."

de Profundis was joined by the 2005 High School FOR MEN ONLY ensemble for a set of American and English folk songs.

-Albuquerque Journal, April 2005 by D. S. Crafts

"Sunday afternoon at St. Michael and All Angels Church the dozen male voices of de Profundis set the air ringing with selections related to Hanukkah and Christmas. Their director, David Poole, has a flair for programming, and the colorful holiday mix was one of his best efforts.
With the brief, joyful call of a trumpet as an opener, the singers traveled among various traditions, including western and eastern Christianity and that of the Ashkenazim, or European, Jewry. They moved about the centuries and glided around the globe as well, speaking in a variety of languages, from Middle English to archaic Spanish to Latin and Latvian and Chinese.
The program also offered various moods, sometimes playful, sometimes deeply spiritual, with many points in between. It shifted musical gears frequently in a spectrum of styles that ranged from the simplicity of pure unison chants to the richness of late Romantic harmonies.
Immediately clear and repeatedly affirmed was the distance de Profundis has traveled under founder/director Poole, who has worked steadily to refine sound and balance. This afternoon's program found the group projecting as an expressive whole that was richer than the sum of its parts. Reaping the rewards of Poole's vision and their own work, the ensemble's singing displayed a new ease and assurance."

-Albuquerque Journal, December 2002 by Joanne Sheehy Hoover