Snow Angel: Music by Sarah Quartel & Narration by Lisa Helps - Choral Arts Ensemble of Portland

Snow Angel (2002) by Canadian Sarah Quartel (b. 1982) envisions angels in a more intimate way. Quartel’s interest in composing grew from her own experiences as a chorister, starting at age ten. Following musical studies at Western University in her hometown of London, Ontario, she became an elementary music educator, which included conducting and composing for children’s choirs. She describes her five years of teaching as the happiest time of her life and still continues working with children’s choirs, even though she now makes her living as a composer. She composed Snow Angel while a student at Western and sang in the world premiere there.
She has written, “Though the work has grown since its first performance…, [it still] asks the listener to see the tremendous potential present in our children. It celebrates love, beauty, and the strength that a child’s voice can bring to our troubled world.” One way the work has changed is that it now includes narration inserted between movements, written by Canadian poet and politician Lisa Helps (b. 1976). Although Quartel wrote most of the lyrics herself, Helps may have drawn inspiration from the second movement, which instead uses words from “The Loves of the Angels,” a long Orientalist poem by Irish poet Thomas Moore (1779-1852). Like Snow Angel, the poem features three angels who recount their experiences with people here on earth.
Performed December 14, 2024
With Cellist Anne Sato & Pianist Jennifer Creek Hughes
Agnes Flanagan Chapel, Lewis & Clark College