"This Amazing Day" showcases the National Concert Chorus in a program of shorter choral works that celebrate the wonder of our natural world and the journey toward our most fulfilled selves. Enhanced by stunning artistic projections, this performance promises to be a visually and musically immersive experience, featuring a world premiere by acclaimed screen and choral composer Jennifer Lucy Cook. The first half of the concert features a powerful performance by the West Michigan Opera Project & Philharmonia.

DANIEL BARA, GUEST CONDUCTOR

Dr. Daniel Bara is the John D. Boyd UGA Foundation Professor of Choral Music and Director of Choral Activities at the Hugh Hodgson School of Music at the University of Georgia, where he oversees seven university choral ensembles and the graduate choral conducting program. His choirs have performed by juried invitation at state, regional, and national conventions of ACDA, MENC, and IMC. In 2014, the UGA Hodgson Singers won the Grand Prix at the International Choral Competition Ave Verum in Baden, Austria. His former conducting students now hold collegiate appointments and lead church and school choral programs nationwide. Previously, Dr. Bara served as Director of Choral Activities at East Carolina University, where he received multiple teaching awards and released two internationally distributed choral recordings with Gothic Records.  

A past-president of NC-ACDA, Dr. Bara has served as Artistic Director of the New York State Summer School of the Arts – School of Choral Studies and as conductor of the World Youth Honor Choir at Interlochen Arts Camp. He is a frequent guest conductor and clinician, having led all-state and honor choirs in 17 states and at Carnegie Hall. He holds a DMA in conducting from the Eastman School of Music and degrees from the University of Michigan and Interlochen Arts Academy. At UGA, he conducts the UGA Hodgson Singers, the University Chorus, and The Repertory Singers while also serving as Repertoire and Standards Chair for Youth and Student Activities for ACDA’s Southern Division.

JENNIFER LUCY COOK, COMPOSER-IN-RESIDENCE

Jennifer Lucy Cook (she/her) is a composer and lyricist based in Los Angeles. Jen specializes in music for the stage and screen, choral work, and pop songwriting. Recent choral commissions include Phoenix Chorale, the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus, and Vox Femina. She is the recipient of the Chorus Austin Composition Prize, the Cantus Emerging Composer Award, the HerVoice Female Composer Prize, and the Edwin Fissinger Composition Prize. She is an alumnus of the Johnny Mercer Foundation Writer’s Grove with Goodspeed Musicals, and her recent dark comedy musical Salem recently underwent a professional development and industry reading in New York, with plans for a full commercial production in 2025.

Other theater commissions include Full House Theatre Co., British Youth Musical Theatre, and Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre in London, and her musical recaps of the Bachelor recently went viral on TikTok. She earned a Master’s degree in Musical Theater Writing from Goldsmiths University in London and a Bachelor’s in Media Music from Brigham Young University. Despite writing music in such a wide range of genres, Jen’s music is united by a keen love for storytelling with song. She prioritizes specific, highly emotional lyrics, melodic earworms, and infectious rhythmic grooves, and conceives of every piece from a dramatic, narrative-driven perspective.

PROGRAM

SATURDAY APRIL 12, 2025 at 1:00 PM
CARNEGIE HALL

National Concert Chorus 
Dan Bara, Guest Conductor
BARNUM Responsorial 1: As Deep to Deep shouting through one valley calls
HAILSTORK Wake Up, My Spirit
FORREST I Thank You God For Most This Amazing Day
COOK Monster, Monster [WORLD-PREMIERE]
KIRCHNER Tu Sangre en la Mia
HAGENBERG Measure Me, Sky

FEATURE PERFORMANCE BY: 
West Michigan Opera Project & Philharmonia
Carrie Ann Ledet, Conductor