About the Repertory Singers

Commissioned Works

Repertory Singers' continued strong commitment to commissioning new choral music has been supported with fund raising efforts by its Board of Directors and by the gracious support of our donors. In a move unprecedented for an organization of its size, the Repertory Singers contracted with Craig Kingsbury in 2000 to compose up to four new choral pieces a year for five years. The group commissioned new works by Todd Barton and by Bryan Johanson, who wrote a new piece premiered at our Songs of Shakespeare concert in July, 2006.

All three composers are among the best in today's world of contemporary music.

View our Repertoire page, which includes commissioned works by these composers.

Craig Kingsbury

The Southern Oregon Repertory Singers are proud to be counted among the few thriving choral organizations who DO have a Composer-In-Residence. Craig Kingsbury is composing beautiful choral music. 

Craig Kingsbury earned his degree in music composition at the University of Southern California. He worked for a number of years in Los Angeles as a singer, choral conductor, and arranger, and spent two years in Europe singing oratorio and opera. He now resides in Portland, Oregon, where he arranges music and produces recordings for a publisher of liturgical music.

  • A Mind of Winter
  • A Song for Midsummer's Eve
  • Ave Maria
  • Come to Me in the Silence
  • Hey, Ho, the Wind and the Rain
  • It Was a Lover and His Lass
  • O Mistress Mine
  • There is no Rose
  • Tous Mes Pensees
  • The "L" Word
  • The O Antiphons
  • Three Hebridean Folk Songs
    • The Bens of Jura
    • Lochbroom Love Song
    • Land of Heart’s Desire
  • Three Songs from Conciones de Luna
    • Murio al Amanecer
    • La Tarde Canta
    • La Luna Asoma

Todd Barton

Todd Barton is the Resident Composer and Music Director for the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. He is also the Director of Composition Studies for the Music Department at Southern Oregon University. Todd is also a member of the multimedia performance art ensemble, sonoluminescence.

His compositions have been performed by the KRONOS Quartet, Oregon Symphony Orchestra, San Jose Chamber Orchestra, Southern Oregon Repertory Singers, the Shasta Taiko, and the Rogue Valley Symphony to name a few.

Barton has received numerous awards for his theater music including the ASCAP Award for Popular Music, Dramalogue Critics Award, and the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle Award. He recently received a Jeff Award Nomination in Chicago for his original score to The Oedipus Complex.

His music has been heard on NPR’s Morning Edition, Westcoast Live, and the Curve of Wonder. Todd is well known for his "Theatre Music" and has lectured for the Smithsonian Institute with regard to his recent composition

We have been fortunate to be able to request from Todd, commissioned works based on the text of Shakespeare for our Songs of Shakespeare concert.

  • What Should We Speak?
  • Moonlight Becomes

Todd's website: www.toddbarton.com

Bryan Johanson

Johanson has performed, recorded and published works internationally. Johanson's works have won major awards from the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Aspen Music Festival and School, The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, UCLA and The Esztergom International Guitar Festival. Johanson studied composition with Charles Jones and Pulitzer Prize-winning composer William Bolcom.

Johanson is a prominent guitarist and recording artist who has studied with the likes of Christopher Parkening, Alirio Diaz, and Michael Lorimer. He has performed with orchestras, chamber music groups, choirs, and in solo recitals throughout the United States and Canada.

Johanson is a Professor of Music at Portland State University, where he founded PSU's successful guitar studies program and the Guitar Recital Series in 1978. In 1991 he established the popular Portland Guitar Festival, which he organizes annually.

  • The Mistress and the Bee