'A Simple Collaboration' between friends

A collaboration a decade in the making will come to fruition next weekend when the works of English professor Bill Reyer and music and composition professor Doug McConnell come together on stage.

A Simple Collaboration will take place at 7 p.m. Sunday, April 9, in Brenneman Music Hall.

Bill and Doug first worked together about 10 years ago when former Concert Choir director Grant Cook commissioned a piece the choir could perform during its European tour. Grant wanted the piece to exclusively represent Heidelberg, and what better way than to set Bill’s poetry to a musical composition by Doug.

Fast forward to last fall. Doug recalls coming across one of Bill’s poems on Facebook and thinking, “This text is quite delightful. It would work really well with music.” Unbeknownst to Bill, he began to do just that. He was amazed how well it came out in the first setting. Texts have to have certain characteristics (to fit well with music), and “this one just jumped off the page. I thought, ‘We’ve got a winner.’ I contacted Bill and told him I think we might have something here.”

The piece was based on A Black Lizard from Bill’s second book of poetry, Minotaur and Damsel Fly.

Featuring Bill's baritone vocals, the concert is arranged in four sets of three songs, each with a central theme: Three Lessons, based on a series of popular show tunes; Three Simple Songs, based on Bill’s poetry with Doug’s composition: Three Country Songs, based on popular Hank Williams Sr. favorites; and Three Benedictions, spirituals that provoke reflection and inspiration.

A Prayer for this Day, the second number in Three Simple Songs, is set to Bill’s protest poem about the shooting of an unarmed black may by a police office in Tulsa, Okla. It evokes the spirit of Nat Turner and ends with a prayer for peace, he explained. Your Lullaby: Words to a New-Born” completes the set, building on the previous two numbers with the ultimate theme that love conquers all.

Concert-goers will enjoy beloved numbers such as Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin’ from Oklahoma, I Got Plenty o Nuttin’ from Porgy and Bess and You’ve Got to Be Carefully Taught from South Pacific. Hank Williams fans will be pleased to hear the standards Hey, Good Lookin’, I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry and Your Cheatin' Heart. The traditional African American spiritual, There is a Balm in Gilead, followed by The Shaker Hymn and Swing Low, Sweet Chariot, round out the final set.

While Doug will be in his element, A Simple Collaboration will be Bill’s first foray into the world of concert soloist. He studied with former Concert Choir director Jay Mann and also with Grant Cook, and performed with the University-Community Chorus for years. “Between Grant and Jay, I learned a lot,” Bill said. “But the past six months, I’ve learned tremendously more. I honor Doug in his generosity in tutoring an amateur.”

There’s a strong camaraderie and a mutual admiration between artists of two different genres. Both agree that their rehearsals have been a huge highlight. “I’ve never experienced this kind of collaboration before,” Bill said. “It’s been great fun.”