Album Notes

The premiere recording of Terry Schlenker’s Mass for Four Voices is an important musical event in the choral arts community. Schlenker’s choral works have been performed and recorded both locally (Denver, CO) and nationally, and they are regularly featured on the Classical Public Radio Network. The American Record Guide calls Schlenker’s music “radiant and ethereal,” and Denver Post fine arts critic Kyle MacMillan recently described Schlenker’s De Profundis as having “a timeless sensibility, with penetrating harmonies and melodic purity that sound both new and centuries old” (Denver Post, 9/12/2011).

Firesign Vocal Quartet is a unique new ensemble based in Denver. All four musicians are current or former members of St. Martin’s Chamber Choir, where they met and began forming a professional and artistic bond. Although each are consummate vocalists, the members of Firesign primarily identify themselves in other musical areas: soprano JoAnn Gudvangen-Brown is a pianist at University of Denver’s Lamont School of Music and choir director at University Park UMC; alto Donna Wickham is the director of the Vocal Jazz program at University of Denver’s Lamont School of Music; tenor Ben Riggs is the artistic director and conductor of the Denver Gay Men’s Chorus and the Boulder Chorale; and bass Terry Schlenker is a composer who makes his living as a human embryologist.