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Missed Soren's Recital?
Program
Program
3:30p May 9th, 2026
California Lutheran University
Samuelson Chapel
3:30p May 9th, 2026
California Lutheran University
Samuelson Chapel
I.
Prelude in F Major (BWV 556)
Eight Little Preludes and Fugues - Johann Ludwig Krebs (1713–1780),
Formerly attributed to Johann Sebastian Bach, Organ
Prelude to Rejoice, My Heart, Be Glad and Sing
Sigvart A Hofland (1889-1956) , Organ
Toccata Per L'Elevatione
Fiori Musicali - Girolamo Frescobaldi (1583-1643), Organ
II.
O Dios, Vuelto Tú
Soren Ficklin, 2026, Treble Choir + Organ
Te Alabaré
Soren Ficklin, 2023, Treble Choir + Piano
III.
Earth Poems
Soren Ficklin, 2026, Soprano, Oboe, Vibraphone, Violin, Cello, Bass
i. Soil
featuring a poem by Irène Mathieu
ii. Becoming Moss
featuring a poem by Ella Frears
IV.
Christmas Prelude
on Various Tunes, Soren Ficklin, 2026, Piano
Saddle, My Heart, and Ride!
Soren Ficklin, 2025, text by Madison Julius Cawein, Piano + Soprano
Christmas Postlude
on Ding Dong Merrily & Wassailing, Soren Ficklin, 2026, Piano
V.
What Wondrous Love is This?
Soren Ficklin, 2026, Mixed Choir + Piano
VI.
Carillon de Westminster
Pièces de Fantaisie, Louis Vierne (1870-1937), Organ
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Program Notes
Program Notes
I.
This first organ set provides a musical apéritif, featuring Germanic, Lutheran and Italian organ music, starting with a Bach-esque prelude (formerly attributed to Bach, but now believed to have been composed by his pupil Krebs) and a brief prelude and development on a hymn tune, "Rejoice my Heart" by Sigvart A. Hofland, a composer and professor at Luther College in the 20th century. Following these joyful melodies, the Italian late Renaissance and early Baroque composer Girolamo Frescobaldi will take us in a more pensive direction, with "Toccata Per L'Elevatione", or Toccata for the Elevation, which is the raising of the consecrated Body and Blood of Christ in the Eucharist.
II.
Each year, the Magnificat Choir at the University of Notre Dame runs a composition competition, challenging composers to create original settings of Spanish liturgical texts. "Te Alabaré" and "Oh Dios, Vuelto Tú" were composed for this competition in 2022 and 2025 respectively. "Te Alabaré" went on to be performed by the CLU Choir in their 2023 and 2024 concert seasons, and were performed on the Choir's 2024 International Tour to Salzburg, Vienna, and Prague. Please see below for texts and translations.
III.
Challenged to create a work for chamber ensemble, but still wanting to incorporate a vocal and textual element, I connected with two living poets, Irène Mathieu and Ella Frears, to bring their poems "Soil" and "Becoming Moss" to life with a unique chamber ensemble. In composing Earth Poems I drew from my own experiences in nature, writing some of the music outdoors in my backyard, and the two pieces center around the turning outward that can be accomplished when we get outdoors and away from the screens and stressors of modern life. You'll hear a 'soil motif' in the first piece, followed by an aleatory introuction for the second that seeks to musically interpret the living soundscape one hears when spending time outdoors. Please see below for additional information, including bios for the poets and the texts.
IV.
Christmas is one of my favorite times of year, especially as a church musician: it is one of the most celebratory and anticipatory seasons, and the music of the season ranges from meditative and somber to bombastic and celebratory. The Prelude in this set was originally composed as underscoring for a narration at the 2025 CLU Choir Christmas Conert, and incorporates various themes. "Saddle, My Heart, and Ride!" was composed last Spring, and incorporates a text from Madison Julius Cawein, an obscure early American poet, to create a new, jaunty Christmas tune. Originally composed for mixed choir, this version is for solo soprano and piano. Please see below for the text and poet bio.
V.
I am excited to present my 2026 arrangement of "What Wondrous Love is This?" for Mixed choir, premiered by the California Lutheran University Choir this year for their Spring Concert. One of my favorite hymns, I went back to original sources in creating this arrangement, pulling from Southern Harmony (1835) and The Cluster of Spiritual Songs (1823) to find original verses and lyrics not commonly found in hymnals today. Each verse is set in a different way, drawing on the specific themes of the text, while the piece is tied together by an awed refrain of "Oh, my soul."
VI.
To conclude the recital, I will perform Louis Vierne's "Carillon de Westminster," a bombastic organ fantasy based around a familiar clock chime. I chose this piece because the chime is the very same that rang out every hour from a clock mounted on my grandparent's wall. This piece starts by introducing the melodic chime theme, before twisting and chromaticizing the melody to almost unrecognizable levels before resolving to a triumphant restatement of the theme at the very end. Just before the final few bars are played, you'll notice the Zimblestern (Cymbal Star in German, a wooden star above the organ console) begin to spin, accompanied by the tinkling sound of acoustic bells hidden within the organ.
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Collaborative Musicians
Soon Kim, Collaborative Pianist
Earth Poems
Vivian Meyer, Oboe
Harriet Chilton, Soprano
Soon Kim, Vibraphone (Synth)
Ava Watanabe, Violin
Lola Bobrow, Cello
Julian Perez, Bass
Guest Conductor
Noah Christensen
Vocalists
Featured Soprano
Harriet Chilton
Treble Recital Choir
Soprano 1: Harriet Chilton • Carys Garvey
Soprano 2: Chaela Speck • Hadley Julca • Nairi Semerdjian
Alto: Sofia Stahoski • Elena Ficklin
Mixed Recital Choir
Soprano: Harriet Chilton • Chaela Speck • Carys Garvey
Alto: Hadley Julca • Lola Bobrow • Elena Ficklin • Sofia Stahoski
Tenor: Cody Weber • Dr. Franco Basili
Bass: Logan Covarrubias • Brendan Hillig • Noah Christensen
© Soren Ficklin 2026
S.D.G.
Soren Ficklin
Soren Ficklin
Soren hails from Bellingham, WA, and is completing his Bachelor's of Arts in Music at Cal Lutheran. With a musically interdisciplinary background ranging from theatrical accompaniment to organ performance, Soren's concert works blend traditional genres with contemporary styles to create accessible, innovative, and memorable music.
Poets
Poets
Irène Mathieu
Irène Mathieu
Irène P. Mathieu, MD, MPH, FAAP (she/her/hers) is a healer and artist – a pediatrician, writer, educator, and public health researcher. She is the award-winning author of four poetry collections – milk tongue (Deep Vellum Press, 2023), Grand Marronage (Switchback Books, 2019), orogeny (Trembling Pillow Press, 2017), and the galaxy of origins (dancing girl press, 2014). A health humanities scholar and teacher, her writing and advocacy work have been featured in the Washington Post, LA Times, Richmond Magazine, NPR, and more. She lives with her family in Toronto.
Learn more at https://www.irenemathieu.com
Ella Frears
Ella Frears
Ella Frears is a UK poet and artist originally from Cornwall, now based in London. She’s the author of Shine, Darling, shortlisted for the Forward Prize and the T. S. Eliot Prize, and Goodlord, also shortlisted for the Forward Prize. She was a Royal Literary Fund Fellow at The Courtauld, and a Poetry Fellow at the University of East Anglia. Frears’ poems have been translated into Italian, Portuguese, Russian, Greek, Turkish, Slovak, and Cornish.
Learn more at https://www.ellafrears.com
Madison Julius Cawein
Madison Julius Cawein
Madison Julius Cawein was born in Louisville, Kentucky on March 23, 1865. His father made patent medicines from herbs. Thus as a child, Cawein became acquainted with and developed a love for local nature. Cawein wrote thirty-six books and 1,500 poems, presenting Kentucky scenes in a language echoing Percy Bysshe Shelley and John Keats.
Learn more at https://poets.org/poet/madison-julius-cawein
Texts and Translations
Texts and Translations
O Dios, Vuelto Tú
O Dios, Vuelto Tú
Text: Oh Dios, vuelto Tú, nos darás vida, y tu pueblo se regocijará en Ti. Haznos ver, Señor, tus piedades y danos tu ayuda salvadora.
Translation: You will turn toward us, O God, and restore our life again, and your people will rejoice in you. Show us, Lord, your mercy and grant us your saving help.
from Misal Diario San Jose, p. 24
Te Alabaré
Te Alabaré
Text: Te alabaré, Señor, con todo mi corazón; concede a tu siervo vivir y que guarde tus preceptos. ¡Oh Señor, vivifícanos según tu palabra!
Translation: I will praise you, O Lord, With my whole heart. Deal bountifully with your servant, that I may live and observe your word. Revive me according to your word, O Lord.
From Psalm 118: 7, 10, 17, 25
Earth Poems
Earth Poems
I. Soil - Irène Mathieu
the way you say soil sounds like soul, as in after we walked through the woods my feet were covered in soul
when it rains the soul turns to mud
the soul is made of decomposed plant and animal matter; edaphology is the study of the soul’s influence on living things
while pedology is the study of how soul is formed, its particular granularity.
you are rooted in a certain red patch of soul that bled you and your
hundred cousins to life, a slow warm river you call home.
maybe there is soul under everything, even when we strike rock first.
the way you say soil you make a poem out of every speck of dirt.
II. Becoming Moss - Ella Frears
I lie on the ground.
I open my mouth.
I suck on a spoon.
I embrace a stone.
A beetle crawls by.
I empty my mind
I stuff it with grass
I’m green, I repeat.
The sun is a drink.
The yellowest squash
I can’t get enough
I can’t get enough
I can’t get enough
I can’t get enough
I can’t get enough
I can’t get enough
Saddle, My Heart, and Ride!
Saddle, My Heart, and Ride!
A Catch by Madison Julius Cawein
When roads are mired with ice and snow,
And the air of morn is crisp with rime;
When the holly hangs by the mistletoe,
And bells ring in the CHRISTMAS time:--
It's--Saddle, my Heart, and ride away,
To the sweet-faced girl with the eyes of gray!
Who waits with a smile for the gifts you bring--
A man's strong love and a wedding-ring--
It's--Saddle, my Heart, and ride!
When vanes veer North and storm-winds blow,
And the sun of noon is a blur o'erhead;
When the holly hangs by the mistletoe,
And the CHRISTMAS service is sung and said:--
It's--Come, O my Heart, and wait awhile,
Where the organ peals, in the altar aisle,
For the gifts that the church now gives to you--
A woman's hand and a heart that's true.
It's--Come, O my Heart, and wait!
When rooms gleam warm with the fire's glow,
And the sleet raps sharp on the window-pane;
When the holly hangs by the mistletoe,
And CHRISTMAS revels begin again:--
It's--Home, O my Heart, and love, at last!
And her happy breast to your own held fast;
A song to sing and a tale to tell,
A good-night kiss, and all is well.
It's--Home, O my Heart, and love!
What Wondrous Love is This?
What Wondrous Love is This?
From the Cluster of Spiritual Songs
1 What wondrous love is this, O my soul, O my soul,
What wondrous love is this, O my soul:
What wondrous love is this, That caus'd the Lord of bliss,
To bear the dreadful curse, For my soul, for my soul,
To bear the dreadful curse, For my soul.
2 When I was sinking down, Sinking down, sinking down;
When I was sinking down, Sinking down;
When I was sinking down, Beneath God's righteous frown,
Christ laid aside his crown, For my soul, for my soul;
Christ laid aside his crown, For my soul.
3 Ye winged seraphs fly, Bear the news, bear the news,
Ye winged seraphs fly, Bear the news,
Ye winged seraphs fly, Like comets thro' the sky,
Fill fast the eventide, With the news, with the news,
Fill fast the eventide, With the news.
4 To God, and to the Lamb, I will sing, I will sing,
To God, and to the Lamb, I will sing,
To God, and to the Lamb, And the great I AM,
While millions join the theme, I will sing, I will sing,
While millions join the theme, I will sing.
5 And when to that bright world, We arise, we arise,
And when to that bright world, We arise;
When to that world we go, Free from all pain, and woe,
We'll join the happy throng, And sing on, and sing on,
Thus while from death we're free, We'll sing and joyful be,
And thro' eternity, We'll sing on, we'll sing on;
And thro' eternity, We'll sing on.
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