Gerald Neufeld

Gerald Neufeld
Associate Professor

DMA (University of Iowa, 1990)

E-mail: gneufeld@uwo.ca

Dr. Gerald Neufeld specializes in choral conducting and performance practices in choral music. In addition to teaching graduate and undergraduate courses in choral techniques and literature, he conducts choral ensembles and advises graduate students in choral conducting at the Faculty of Music. In 1999 he formed a small vocal ensemble, Thames Scholars, dedicated to historically informed performances of vocal repertoire from the Renaissance to the 19th century.

Since 1980 Gerald Neufeld has been the artistic director of the Guelph Chamber Choir, a 35-voice chamber choir that performs a five concert series each year. In addition to presenting choral masterworks with the Music Viva Orchestra, a professional ensemble of period instrumentalist specialists, the choir performs standard choral repertoire and new works. Of particular interest are performances accompanied by period instruments which have included Monteverdi's Vespers of 1610, Handel's Messiah, Mozart’s Requiem and works by Monteverdi, Schütz, Vivaldi, and Rosenmüller. Innovative performances with dancers (Dancetheatre’s David Earle) have included Honegger's King David, Fauré's Requiem, and Bach's Christ lag in Todesbanden and Jesu meine Freude.

Choirs under Dr. Neufeld's direction have performed in music festivals such as the Toronto International Choral Festival, the Edinburgh International Festival, the Oregon Bach Festival, the Guelph Spring Festival, the Elora Festival, as well as festivals in Salzburg (Austria), Kroměříž, and Opava (Czech Republic). They have also been prize winners in the CBC Radio Choral Competition (six times, most recently in 2008) and the Wallace Laughton Award for best post-secondary ensemble (two times). He has broadcast several concerts on CBC Radio with the Guelph Chamber Choir.

In addition to commissioning new choral works and a choreography by David Earle for Honegger’s King David, Gerald Neufeld has produced four recordings with the Guelph Chamber Choir as well as recording new Canadian repertoire for two other CDs. He has also recorded one CD with the Thames Scholars. Choirs under his direction have toured in Ireland, England, Scotland, Wales, Germany, Sweden, Austria, the Czech Republic and have given numerous concert tours in Ontario and Quebec. In Ireland the Guelph Chamber Choir and Antler River Project were guest performers at the College Music Society’s International Conference in Limerick. His choirs have also performed at the national convention of the Association of Canadian Choral Conductors and at the Canadian Music Educators national convention. In 1982 he was the conductor of the Ontario Youth Choir.

Dr. Neufeld is regularly engaged as guest conductor and clinician with amateur choirs and served as adjudicator for Kiwanis festivals and jury member for numerous festivals as well as the Juno Awards. He also gives lecture presentations on choral music and the arts to the choral community and other interested groups. He was a winner of the Leslie Bell competition for choral conductors and won two Canada Council Grants for graduate studies.

Teaching Areas: Choral techniques, choirs, choral literature, Early Music Studio

Research Interests: Historically informed performance practices in vocal music,
Text declamation in the interpretation of choral music, Music festivals as a social phenomenon

Recordings:

  • Chiaroscuro: Shades of love, life, and beyond. Repertoire includes Schütz, Musikalisches Exequien, Janequin, La guerre, and works by Monteverdi, Josquin, and Schütz as well as Brier, a new work by Jeff Smallman. Performers: Thames Scholars
  • Goode Cheare. Commissioned arrangements by Oliver Whitehead of lesser known Christmas carols for jazz ensemble and choir as well as newly composed Christmas repertoire by Canadian composers. Performers: Guelph Chamber Choir and Oliver Whitehead Jazz Ensemble (Oliver Whitehead, guitar; Fiona Wilkinson, flute; Mark Eisenman, piano; Andrew Downing, acoustic bass).
  • Songs of the New World. Canadian and American repertoire. Performers: Guelph Chamber Choir and Kevin McMillan, baritone.
  • On Christmas Night. Christmas repertoire from various lands and cultures including recent Canadian pieces. Performers: Guelph Chamber Choir, Leslie Fagan, soprano, and Erica Goodman, harp.
  • Noel. Five-movement commissioned work by Nancy Telfer and other Christmas repertoire. Performers: Guelph Chamber Choir and Maria Lorcini, harp.

Articles:

  • "Structure, Symbolism, and Thematic Transformation in Edward Elgar's The Dream of Gerontius," The Choral Journal 36/8 (March 1996): 9-14.
  • "The Sight-Singing Movement and Choral Societies: A Social Phenomenon in Nineteenth Century Britain," Anacrusis 16/2 (Winter 1997): 5-11.
  • "Text Declamation and Consonants: Means to Expressive Choral Singing," Sharing the Voices: The Phenomenon of Singing. Proceedings of the International Symposium, St. John's Newfoundland, June, 1997: 155-160.

List of Selected Works Performed with Orchestra (more than one performance shown in brackets):

  • Aldrovandini: Dixit Dominus
  • J.S. Bach: Mass in B Minor (2), Magnificat (2), St. John Passion (2), Christmas Oratorio (3), Cantatas No. 4 (3), 21, 51 (2), 56, 140, 147 (2), 150, 191, 202, 209, Brandenburg Concerto Nos. 3, 4, 5, 6
  • C.P.E. Bach: Magnificat
  • Beethoven: Mass in C (3)
  • Bernstein: Chichester Psalms
  • Bloch: Sacred Service (2)
  • Brahms: Requiem (4), Academic Festival Overture
  • Bruckner: Mass in E Minor (3), Te deum
  • Buxtehude: Magnificat (2)
  • Britten: St. Nicholas Cantata (2)
  • Carissimi: Jephte (2), Magnificat
  • Charpentier: Messe de Minuit pour Noel (3)
  • Faure: Requiem (4)
  • Fanshawe: African Sanctus (3)
  • Finzi: In terra pax (4)
  • Handel: Messiah (18), Israel in Egypt (3), Samson, Dixit Dominus, Dettingen Te Deum,"Brockes" Passion (2), Silete Venti, Utrecht Te Deum
  • Haydn: Creation (2), Mass in Time of War (2), Lord Nelson Mass (3), Missa Cellensis in C
  • Honegger: King David
  • Mendelssohn: Elijah (2)
  • Monteverdi: Vespers of 1610 (2), Magnificat a 8 voci
  • Mozart: Requiem (4), Grand Mass in C minor, Regina coeli KV 108 and KV 276, Coronation Mass (4)
  • Orff: Carmina Burana (6), Catulli Carmina (3)
  • Pergolesi/Durante: Magnificat (2)
  • Poulenc: Concerto in G Minor for Organ
  • Purcell: Dido and Aeneas, Ode for St. Cecilia, My Heart is Inditing
  • Rutter: Requiem (2), Gloria (3)
  • Rosenmüller: Magnificat (2)
  • Saint-Saens: Christmas Oratorio (2)
  • Schütz: Psalm 150, Lobet den Herrn
  • Somers: North Country Suite
  • Vivaldi: Dixit Dominus (2), Magnificat (2), Gloria (4), Concerto Grosso in d minor, Op. 8, No.7
  • Vaughan Williams: Sea Symphony (2), Dona nobis pacem (3), Fantasia on Christmas Carols (4)
  • Whitehead: Mass for All Creatures (7)

List of Selected Works Performed A Cappella with Keyboard Accompaniment or with Small Instrumental Ensemble: (more than one performance shown in brackets)

  • J.S. Bach Motets: Lobet den Herren (9), Der Geist hilft, Komm, Jesu, Komm, Jesu meine Freude (2)
  • Bernstein: Choruses from "The Lark" (3)
  • Brahms: Liebeslieder Waltzer, Op. 52 (2), Neueliebeslieder Waltzer, Op. 65 (2)
  • Britten: Hymn to St. Cecilia (2), Rejoice in the Lamb (4), Ceremony of Carols (2)
  • Buxtehude: Missa brevis
  • Daley: Requiem (10)
  • Distler: Dance of Death
  • Durufle: Requiem (3), Quatre motets (3)
  • Enns: The Sunne of Grace, Missa Brevis (2), Te Deum (2)
  • Finzi: Magnificat (2)
  • Gounod: Missa Solennelle
  • Hovahness: Glory to God
  • Josquin des Prez: Missa Pange linqua (2), Praeter rerum seriem
    Jannequin La guerre (2), Le chant des oyseaux (3)
  • Kodaly: Pange lingua (6)
  • Liszt: Psalm 13
  • Martin: Mass for Double Choir (4)
  • Mercure: Cantate pour une joie (3)
  • Monteverdi: Magnificat a 6 voci, Gloria (3), Lagrime d’Amante al Sepolcro dell’ Amata
  • Pärt: Magnificat (2), Beatitudes (3)
  • Palestrina: Stabat Mater (2), Missa Hodie Christus Natus est (2)
  • Pinkham: Christmas Cantata (3)
  • Poulenc: Gloria (2), Quatre Motets pour Noel
  • Rachmaninoff: Vespers (3)
  • Raminsh: Magnificat (5)
  • Reger: Drei Chore (2)
  • Rossini: Missa Solenelle
  • Rutter: Christmas Day
  • Saint Saens: Requiem
  • Schubert: Mass in G (2)
  • Schütz: St. John Passion, Musikalische Exequien
  • Sirett: In Praise of Music
  • Telfer: Noel (2), The Spell of Times Long Past (10)
  • Vaughan Williams: Mass in G Minor (2), Five Mystical Songs (3), Shakespeare Songs
  • Walton: Te deum
  • Watson Henderson Missa Brevis (8), Voices of Earth, In Memoriam Elmer Iseler
  • Willan: An Apostrophe to the Heavenly Hosts, The Mystery of Bethlehem (2)

Commissioned Works:

  • Cabena: Ode to the City of Music (choir and orchestra)
  • Robertson: Another Spring (choir and orchestra)
  • Wuensch: Noel D’accord (choir and brass quintet)
  • Daigneault: In Flanders Fields, Op. 212 (choir and flute)
  • Sienkiewicz: Wintersunstill
  • Olson, Tawnie: Sero te amavi
  • Telfer: Noel , The Spell of Times Long Past (choir and piano)

 

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