Sigma Alpha Iota

16 Winter 2024 • sai-national.org By Barbara Marble Tagg, Ed.D. In July1984, I received a phone call from the manager of the Gregg Smith Singers, a professional choral ensemble that had just started their three-week residency as a part of Adirondack Festival of American Music in Saranac Lake in the Adirondack Mountains of Upstate New York. e manager said that the conductor at the time was having emergency surgery and asked if I would be able to conduct two weeks of rehearsals and concerts for the Adirondack Children's Choir with whom one of my choristers from the Syracuse Children's Chorus had sung the previous summer. My first question was the starting date, and the second question was about repertoire. I would need to be there in four days and the repertoire was five Charles Ives art songs. Armed with Frank R. Rossiter's 450-page biography of Ives, i and SAI Honorary Member Helen Boatwright ii and collaborative pianist John Kirkpatrick's historic recording of Ives songs, iii I was willing to do my best to meet the formidable challenge of teaching this uncommon repertoire to eight through fieen-year-olds. at summer, I learned that a non-auditioned group of children in rural Upstate New York could sing Ives' songs with great artistry, passion, energy, and beauty– and love it! is was my introduction to Gregg Smith and his extraordinary way of challenging and mentoring others. ough I didn't realize it at the time, it was also the beginning of a thirty- nine- year (and counting) life-changing journey. My professional association with Smith stretched me musically and artistically and exposed me to the distinguished composers who worked with the Gregg Smith Singers each summer in Saranac Lake. Over the years, it influenced my decision to commission over ninety composers to write new music for my choirs that was part of the flourishing children's choir movement in the United States and guest edit an issue of e Choral Journal devoted entirely to American music. iv SAI's support for the development of music in America and beyond, and Smith's influence on American music were a natural fit. In recognition of his distinguished contributions, Smith was initiated as an SAI National Arts Associate by the Sigma Iota Chapter at Syracuse University in 1987. Smith (1936-2016) was one of the most prolific American choral composers of the twentieth century. His creative output included over 400 choral, chamber, and solo compositions that were at the forefront of the development of the American choral tradition. roughout his life, Smith was also a champion of American music of all eras. In 1955, he founded the Gregg Smith Singers (GSS), one of the longest running professional vocal ensembles in America, having performed for 58 consecutive years until 2013. e GSS toured nationally and internationally for forty years and was one of the most recorded classical choirs with over 130 albums. GSS collaborations included works by Aaron Copland, Ned Rorem, William Schuman, Lucas Foss, Libby Larsen, Louise Talma, and Dave Brubeck. ey premiered Arnold Schoenberg's Opus 27 in 1958. In 1959, a series of collaborations with Igor Stravinsky began with performances and recordings of his works for Columbia Records that continued until Stravinsky's death in 1972. e GSS earned three Grammy Awards, two Montreux Awards, and the Stereo Review 1966 Record of the Year award for their Columbia recording of the music of the Revolutionary American composer, William Billings. In a 2016 New York Times article, William Grimes praised GSS under Smith's leadership, stating that they "maintained their reputation as one of the finest and most adventurous professional choruses in the United States and the inspiration for a host of successors." v Smith devoted his life to the choral art, championed American music, and forever changed choral music performance. With the GSS, he was committed to performing music from Billings to Ives and composers of his time including William Schuman, Elliot Carter, and William Duckworth. He pioneered the practice Cposers Composer & Conductor Gregg Smith Champion of American Music Gregg Smith and Igor Stravinsky discussing a score. Gregg Smith and Igor Stravinsky discussing a score.

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