Santa Fe Women's Ensemble

39th Season Commissioned Composer

Composer Linda Rice Beck is a native of Las Vegas, NM, and graduated from the University of Akron, OH. Her music is published by Fred Bock Music (Hal Leonard) and National Music Publishers, and she is a member of the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP). Besides composing, Linda also sings soprano with the Santa Fe Women’s Ensemble and First Presbyterian Chancel Choir, and she plays handbells in the Chancel Bell Choir. 

Linda has done graduate study in composition with Dr. Samuel Gordon at the University of Akron, from which she received two Outstanding Artistic Achievement Awards for her compositions.

Linda's music has been commissioned by community, university and church choirs, and performed throughout the U.S. and in Europe, including Rome at the Vatican church, Santa Maria Maggiore (Pie Jesu from the Requiem). Her O Sacrum Convivium was sung at the Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi in Santa Fe for both the 400th anniversary celebrations and the 50th anniversary celebration for Archbishop Sheehan in July 2014. Her Requiem has been performed numerous times, most recently in Nashville, TN, in November 2018.

Linda was the 2008–09 commissioned composer for the Santa Fe Women’s Ensemble and was commissioned by Ensemble singers Sue Katz and Mickey Bond in 2014 to write Words of Peace. She is extremely honored to have been chosen for this third commission, and she is deeply grateful for the opportunity to set to music the beautiful poetry of Raymond Raney.

Other commissions include those for New Mexico Highlands University; the Sangre de Cristo Chorale, Santa Fe; First Christian Church, Cuyahoga Falls, OH; the Durango Women’s Choir, Durango, CO; Northwoods Presbyterian Church, Houston, TX; St. Bede's Episcopal Church, Santa Fe; and most recently the Durango Choral Society, Durango, CO, in honor of their 50th season this year (premieres December 8, 2019). 

Linda is very active in the musical life of Santa Fe as a singer, composer and patron. She and her husband, Jim, have two sons and two grandchildren.

Raymond Raney - Poet

Raymond Raney describes his lifelong love affair with poetry this way: “I write. I have been writing since the fifth grade. But I’ve always thought of myself as a poet. Not that I’m published, but that has been my choice. I write for myself and for those for whom I write my poetry. I decided to share a small selection of poems with Linda Rice Beck as possible texts for her compositions for the Santa Fe Women’s Ensemble. I was humbled when she thought they were worth her attention. 

“My formal higher education began with a major in English literature with an emphasis on creative writing, but journalism became my second major, and soon I was writing for a living. However, poetry was the constant, a way of apprehending feelings and focusing myself. 

“I worked as a journalist for 15 years and came to Santa Fe as news editor at the Santa Fe New Mexican. When that career path ended, I moved my focus to the visual arts and received degrees in art history and photography, and taught media studies at the University of New Mexico and Santa Fe Community College. After 12 years, I answered the call to ministry and was ordained as an Episcopal priest in 2006. 

“As I contemplate retirement this year, I find my heart returning to poetry, and this collaboration with Linda Beck has opened a new possibility for my own expression.”

38th Season Commissioned Composer

A native New Mexican, David Beatty was born and raised in Albuquerque, where he attended Sandia High School. He did undergraduate work in music theory and composition at Eastern New Mexico University and Indiana University, and graduate work in vocal pedagogy at Oklahoma City University.

David taught voice at OCU and voice and music theory at Midwest Christian College, Oklahoma City, and was organist at Western Oaks Christian Church (DOC). He was a vocal coach with Opera in the Ozarks, Eureka Springs, AR.

David has been heard in many opera and musical roles. He toured with Dave Brubeck and the New Mexico Symphony Orchestra & Chorus in performances of Brubeck's La Fiesta de la Posada and was an understudy for both the bass and baritone kings.

Since moving back to New Mexico, David has served as director of music at Christ Lutheran Church, Santa Fe, and now serves as associate musician at First Presbyterian Church. He is a contract singer with the Santa Fe Symphony Chorus and a member of the Opera Southwest chorus. He is an occasional organ recitalist on the TGIF Concert Series, First Presbyterian Church, and around Northern New Mexico.

David's compositions and arrangements range from sacred choral, organ and solo vocal works to bell choir and Celtic harp. More than a few works have been premiered at First Presbyterian Church, Santa Fe, as service music or on the TGIF Concert Series. He recently created editions of Henry Purcell's I Was Glad and Claudio Monteverdi's Messa a 4 da Cappella especially for the Santa Fe Symphony Chorus. Among his works are commissions, dedicatory and occasional pieces, including for Concord Choir (OR), Christ Memorial Episcopal Church (OK), Cimarron United Methodist Church (NM), the Oklahoma Music Educators Association, St. Paul's Episcopal Cathedral (OK), the Episcopal Church of the Resurrection (OK) and Western Oaks Christian Church (OK). For more information, please visit dwbeatty.com.
 

Miriam Sagan - Poet

Miriam Sagan is the author of 30 published books, including Geographic: A Memoir of Time and Space (Casa de Snapdragon), which won the 2016 Arizona/New Mexico Book Award in Poetry. She founded and headed the creative writing program at Santa Fe Community College until her retirement in 2016. Miriam has been a writer-in-residence in four national parks, at Yaddo, MacDowell, Colorado Art Ranch, Andrew’s Experimental Forest, Center for Land Use Interpretation, Iceland’s Gullkistan Residency for creative people, Kura Studio in Japan and another dozen or so remote and unique places. Her awards include the Santa Fe Mayor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts and the Poetry Gratitude Award from New Mexico Literary Arts.