Compline on May 19th
2128 Barton Hills Drive
Austin, Texas 78704
Join us for a night of meditative music and immersive art, where you will be surrounded by sound, color, and light. The music for the evening includes the sounds of the choir, lush cello playing, and peaceful Himalayan singing bowls. The choir will premiere six pieces of new music by local in-house composers Evan Blache, Ross Smith, and Christa Tumlinson. The sights of visual art are conceived and curated by local artist Mary Margaret Hayes. We invite you to listen, watch, and be enveloped by this beautiful program presented by the St Mark's Music and Art Commissions.
We’ll be singing works by the following composers:
Christa Tumlinson
Christa Tumlinson is a singer, multi-instrumentalist, and composer/arranger based in Austin, Texas. She grew up in Kansas, went to school and began her professional career in Southern California, continued performing in the San Francisco Bay Area, before finally settling in Austin in 2015. Christa specializes in performing and promoting new classical music, with the goal of bridging the gap between ancient, classical, and modern song. She has sung countless premieres and commissions in groups across the United States, and she is thrilled to be joining the ranks of so many composers she respects, being given the opportunity to write more music to be included in the modern canon.
Currently, Ms. Tumlinson is a proud section leader, ensemble member, and soloist in Austin’s Panoramic Voices, Inversion Ensemble, and the St Mark’s Choir, and she maintains an active teaching studio in South Austin. Christa is currently studying as a sound healing practitioner in the Nepalese tradition, and adding the traditional Himalayan Singing Bowls to her world has brought peace and vibrance in musical and healing ways that she is excited to be sharing. She looks forward to opening her musical world even further with compositional ventures as these journeys continue.
Evan Blaché
Evan Blaché is a non-binary choral composer based in San Marcos, Texas.
Never known to mince words, Evan has composed works combining classical style with topics of social justice. Evan studied music at Austin Community College. While there, they were a part of the Austin Community College Chamber choir and was the Bass 2 section leader for the Texas Two Year All-State Choir for three years.
Their most recent accomplishments include being invited to Orange County, California for a one week residency with The Choral Arts Initiative and San Antonio, Texas with Unheard of Ensemble. They are currently in the undergraduate program at Texas State University for their B.M in Music Studies and Composition while singing in the Texas State University Chorale under the direction of Joey Martin and studying composition with Dr. Jack Wilds.
While at Texas State, Evan has been commissioned by various groups, including
Conspirare, led by Craig Hella Johnson and Vocem Cordis, led by Texas State Graduates, Nathan Thompson & Christian Clow. Evan currently sings in the groups, Tinsel Singers, Inversion Ensemble, and is an Insight Fellow in Conspirare.
Dan Forrest
Dan Forrest (b. 1978) has been described as having “an undoubted gift for writing beautiful music….that is truly magical” (NY Concert Review), with works hailed as “magnificent, very cleverly constructed sound sculpture” (Classical Voice), and “superb writing…full of spine-tingling moments” (Salt Lake Tribune). Dan’s music spans a wide spectrum of genres and difficulty, ranging from extended major works for chorus and orchestra and significant concert choral repertoire to more accessible works for church and community choirs, as well as instrumental works ranging from wind ensemble pieces to solo instrumental sonatas.
Dr. Forrest's work has become well established in the choral repertoire in the U.S. and around the world, and has received numerous awards and distinctions including the ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer’s Award, the ACDA Raymond Brock Award, the ALCM Raabe Prize, and many others. His choral works have been recorded by professional choirs including Seraphic Fire and VOCES8, have been featured on the BBC Proms series and numerous national US radio and TV broadcasts, and are regularly performed in Carnegie Hall choral festivals and other prominent international venues. His major works Requiem for the Living (2013) and Jubilate Deo (2016) have quickly become standard choral/orchestral repertoire for ensembles around the world, and his LUX: The Dawn From On High (2018) is now gathering similar critical acclaim. His most recent major work, the breath of life, was premiered by the Bel Canto Company just before the COVID pandemic.
Dan is highly active in the music publishing industry, currently publishing his concert choral music through his own company, The Music of Dan Forrest (distributed by Beckenhorst Press), and his church choral anthems with Beckenhorst Press. He also maintains a sizable presence in the Hinshaw Music catalog, and has published with a dozen other publishers. Dr. Forrest spends significant time mentoring and supporting other composers through his position as chair of the national ACDA Composition Initiatives Committee (2020-2024), his ongoing oversight and teaching with the annual John Ness Beck Foundation Choral Composer's Workshop and Scholarships, and his intensive editing work at Beckenhorst. He adjudicates regional and national composition contests, and keeps a full schedule of commissions, workshops, recordings, and residencies with universities, churches, community and professional ensembles, collaborating as accompanist, presenting his music, and teaching composition and music theory. Dan also serves as Artist-in-Residence at his home church, Mitchell Road Presbyterian (PCA) in Greenville, SC.
Dan holds a doctorate in composition from the University of Kansas and a master’s degree in piano performance, and is a Fellow of Melodious Accord. His academic background includes several years as a professor and department head (music theory and composition) in higher education. Dan professes lifelong gratitude to his parents' investment in his musical training, as well as the teachers that shaped his musicality: James Barnes (doctoral advisor), Alice Parker (multiple fellowships with Melodious Accord), Joan Pinkston and the late Dwight Gustafson (college composition teachers), Frances McLaren and the late Joanne Snyder (childhood piano and music teachers).
Larry Peyton King (1932-1990)
Organist and composer Larry King was a graduate of the University of Redlands, California; the Royal Academy of Music, London, England; and the School of Sacred Music at Union Theological Seminary, New York City. In his lifetime, he served as associate organist and master of the choristers at Westminster Abbey; assistant to the director of music of the Episcopal Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City; organist and choirmaster at St. Clement’s Episcopal Church in St. Paul, Minnesota; organist and choirmaster at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in San Diego, California, before returning to assume the position of organist and music director of historic Trinity Church at Broadway and Wall Street in Manhattan where he remained for twenty-one years.