Composer Profile: Sarah Quartel Friday, May 24, 2019
Sarah Quartel is a Canadian composer and educator known for her fresh and exciting approach to choral music. She celebrates the musical potential of all learners by providing singers access to high quality repertoire and engaging music education. Sarah’s choral works are performed by children, youth, and adults throughout the world and her work as an educator connects exciting musical experiences with meaningful classroom learning. Sarah is an educator in Ontario, Canada and continues to work as a guest clinician at various music education and choral events internationally. She currently lives and writes in both Ontario and Hawaii.
The music of Sarah Quartel is available through Stanton’s from Oxford University Press. For more information about Sarah and her music, please visit her website.
Stanton’s Recommends:
Wide Open Spaces by Sarah Quartel, SATB with piano
Commissioned for the 2015 National Conference of the American Choral Directors Association, “Wide Open Spaces” reflects on the journeys and adventures to be found in the wide open spaces within ourselves and in the world around us. The uplifting melody is passed from the upper voices to the lower voices before the piece opens out into an expansive texture with rich harmonies. Quartel introduces a playful episode of scat singing before a resolute final chorus brings this evocative piece to a peaceful and serene close.
The Birds’ Lullaby by Sarah Quartel, SSAA a cappella
This a cappella setting of evocative words by E. Pauline Johnson is immediately appealing, with its playful, swinging syncopations and dancing scat accompaniment.
How Can I Keep from Singing? arr. Sarah Quartel, SATB a cappella
This lively reimagining of the traditional hymn is a thrilling a cappella arrangement which pairs the soaring legato melody with a rhythmic vocal accompaniment. Together, these elements capture both the gentle hope and the profound joy contained in the text. Also including moments of tenderness and reflection, the piece comes to a rousing close with an energy that engages singers and audience alike. Also available in a version for SSA unaccompanied.