Photography by Matt Marcinkowski
When Sarah Bryan Miller, the classical music critic for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, announced with her typical candor that the breast cancer she’d fought back in 2010 had returned, there was a remarkable response from the artistic community. The interaction between performer and critic can be contentious, but occasionally a professional relationship develops in which well-directed criticism can elevate an artist to new heights. That’s the type of relationship that has been established over the past two decades by Miller, known as Bryan to family and friends. Since 1998, she has covered events great and small, from solo recitals to symphony performances. Her readers are better informed about the scene, and no branch of music has fared better under her gaze than choral music.
So when Bryan revealed that the cancer had traveled to her liver and she would be undergoing treatment at Siteman, several leading choirs—including two Episcopalian church choirs, musicians from Congregation Shaare Emeth, the music department at Washington University, and the Saint Louis Chamber Chorus—formed a consortium to commission a new piece in her honor, a celebration of all she has brought to the artistic community in St. Louis. For the first time, the Saint Louis Chamber Chorus will perform the complete psalm, at 3 p.m. February 16 at the Second Presbyterian Church, in the Central West End.
Because Bryan has always looked both within and beyond the city, it seemed only right to identify a composer who might live far from St. Louis but had experience writing for some of its musical institutions. Composer/singer Judith Bingham is quite British, having trained at the Royal Academy of Music. Although she has written for instrumental groups, it’s in her choral music that she’s found particularly powerful expression. This springs not only from experience but also from a deep-seated sensitivity to text. Early in the composer’s time in St. Louis, Bryan critiqued the premiere of Aquileia, commissioned by the Saint Louis Chamber Chorus. Bryan’s positive response was validated when the piece won the 2004 Barlow Prize for composition.
“Composers don’t often become friends with critics,” Bingham says, “but over the years, I’ve come to really appreciate Bryan’s knowledge of music, her never-failing curiosity in the arts, and her wonderfully dry sense of humor.”
Now Bingham offers her support to the critic during her illness with “I Lift Up Mine Eyes Unto the Hills.” The new work premiered in a reduced choral version in September at the Third Baptist Church and, 11 days later, in a private performance for Bryan. Later this month, it will conclude a program that explores the interplay of light and music.
“I was more than pleased,” Bingham says, “especially when she chose Psalm 121, a favorite of mine as well as one of hers.” The text, based on the English translation by Myles Coverdale, suits Bryan, a committed Episcopalian and lover of The Book of Common Prayer (which includes Coverdale’s Psalms). This new version is deftly conceived and can be enlarged or condensed in several ways without compromising the composer’s vision. Those already familiar with Bingham’s work will find it among her most tonal pieces, but nowhere is there any sense that she is simplifying or reducing her musical language. The composer blesses and bids adieu to Bryan with the words “The Lord shall preserve thy going out, and thy coming in, from this time forth for evermore.”
“Judith’s music is consistently complex, challenging, and rewarding in every way, so this commission is one of the greatest honors I’ve ever had in my life,” Bryan says. “Choral music of this caliber is a gift to the soul.”
Learn more about the performance,“Einstein Considered Light as Waves,” and purchase tickets here.
