In the event of inclement weather on concert dates, please call 609-637-9383 or check our web site for announcements.

December 2007

VOICES Chorale
Sotto Voce Ensemble

Lyn Ransom,
Music Director and Conductor

Tim Brown,
Principal Accompanist

VOICES Chorale
Sotto Voce Ensemble

Lyn Ransom,
Music Director and Conductor

Steven Snow, Tenor

Tim Brown,
Principal Accompanist

March 2008

VOICES members in rehearsal, Basilica San Giovanni e Paolo, Venice, June 2007
(Photo: Jeff Price)

Glories of Venice

VOICES Chorale
Sotto Voce

With Soloists and Orchestra

Featuring:

Click here to download our concert poster!

Rochelle Ellis,
Soprano

Dana Wilson,
Tenor

For VOICES members and kin that joined with Chorkreis Sankt Sebald last spring in touring Bavaria and northern Italy, our memories still echo strongly in our lives just as the last chord reverberates through the spaces and vaults of the great cathedrals in which we sang. (Visit our tour page.)

Join VOICES in celebrating the Glories of Venice featuring music from its greatest composers and music of other composers inspired by Venice. The concert will be preceded by a slide show of Venice and a discussion of its culture and history led by Venetian native Dr. Simona Wright, Professor of Italian at The College of New Jersey. Masks typical of the carnival period in Venice will add their aura to the evening.

Featured:

Jubilate Deo (Gabrieli)

Magnificat (Monteverdi)

La Passagiata (Rossini)

Serenade to Music (Vaughn Williams)

Madrigals, motets and other music by Donato, Da Nola, Finetti, Schutz, Monteverdi, Offenbach, and Cole Porter

Lyn Ransom,
Music Director and Conductor

Tim Brown,
Principal Accompanist

Ticket Ordering Information
Tickets are available at the door,
or in advance by calling (609) 637-9383
25% discount with NJ Arts Pass!

May 2008

VOICES Chorale
Sotto Voce

With Soloists and Orchestra

Lyn Ransom,
Music Director and Conductor

Andrew W. Monath,
Assistant Conductor

Our May program includes music which singers and audiences have most appreciated and enjoyed during the twenty years VOICES has been offering concerts in New Jersey and eastern Pennsylvania.

Featuring pieces and excerpts:

Hail Mary (Rachmaninoff, All-Night Vigil)
Svete Tihiy (Gretchaninoff)
Abendlied (Rheinberger)
Requiem (Durufle)
Grand Mass in C Minor (Mozart)
St. John Passion (Bach)
Light Footfall (Lewin)

Also featuring "Shelter this Candle," a commissioned work for our 20th Anniversary by Elizabeth Alexander

Martha Elliott,
Soprano

Ryan Brechmacher,
Piano

Ruotao Mao,
Violin

Ticket Ordering Information
Call (609) 637-9383
25% discount with NJ Arts Pass!

June 2008

Heart & Music:
From Broadway to Brahms
(just joking, no Brahms)
-A Cabaret

VOICES Cabaret Singers

J. A. Kawarsky, Director

The VOICES Cabaret will take place at the Stockton Inn in the beautiful Glass Room. The Inn (circa 1710) is a well-known historic landmark located in Stockton, New Jersey just outside Lambertville. The inn was the inspiration for the Rodgers & Hart song, "There's a Small Hotel."

The cabaret is being co-produced by Bob Egan Entertainment and Laurie Tema-Lyn for VOICES. It will feature eight members of VOICES under the musical direction of J.A. Kawarsky, Professor of Music at Westminster Choir College and no stranger to the local cabaret scene. Program highlights include Jennifer Brader's moving rendition of "Someone Else's Story;" the groups' politically relevant, "The Country's in the Very Best of Hands;" "For Now," and many other favorites from Broadway and beyond.

The VOICES cabaret is a special fundraising event to support of VOICES' 20th Anniversary and our community outreach programs for seniors and children. The entertainment charge is $25 per person, plus $10 minimum for food/beverages during the show.

Photo: VOICES' cabaret singers, from left to right, front row: Tim Henry, Andy Monath, Laurie Tema-Lyn, Jennifer Brader; from left to right, back row: Alan Naidoff, Wayne Irons, Jay Kawarsky, Ron O'Reilly, Helen Kull

Print and display our poster!

Seating is limited! We encourage early reservations by calling the Stockton Inn at (609) 397-1250.

VOICES Young Composers Concert

Winners of 2007 Children's Music Composition Contest

VOICES Chorale
Sotto Voce

Winners of our 20th annual Children's Composition Contest!

Lyn Ransom, Andrew Monath,
Conductors

Ryan Brechmacher, Jay Kawarsky,
Piano

Families, friends, and the general public are invited to join the winners of the 20th Children’s Music Composition Contest and the VOICES Chorale in our VOICES Young Composers concert.

For VOICES’ annual Music Composition Contest, children ages 5-12 were invited to compose a piece of music with a vocal element. Each submission was then reviewed by Rebecca Oswald, an established composer living and working in Eugene, Oregon. Eleven children entered the contest this year, and many of them will perform their pieces at the concert.

Program:

2008 Summer Sings and Ice Cream Social

If you or someone you know is a singer with some music reading skills, please join us this summer for informal read-throughs of choral masterworks. This summer we will offer singing nights in Hopewell, New Jersey, and in Wrightstown, Pennsylvania. Soloists, pianists, conductors and printed music are provided. There is a suggested donation at the door.

Thursday, July 17, 7:30 p.m., Handel, The Messiah, Anchor Presbyterian Church, 980 Durham Road (Route 413), Wrightstown, PA 18940 (Click here for more...)

Thursday, August 7, 7:30 p.m., Haydn's St. Theresa Mass, Music Together, 225 Pennington-Hopewell Road, Hopewell, New Jersey 08525 (Details TBA)

Auditions for new singers can be scheduled before and after the sings—call Sandy Duffy, membership chair, at 609-799-2211 for an appointment.

In keeping with our Young Composers Concert's music making and ice cream theme, each sing will be followed by an ice cream social. We hope you’ll join us for a taste of choral singing with VOICES.

VOICES SUMMER SINGS BEGIN TONIGHT WITH "MESSIAH"

Soloists include Alison Davy of New York, soprano; Lisa Reifschneider of Hopewell Township, NJ, alto; Ron Baltimore of North Plainfield, NJ, tenor; and John Sergey of New Hope, bass. Area singers will remember Alison Davy from her outstanding solo work in Haydn's Lord Nelson Mass last summer. Conductors for July 17 in Wrightstown, PA, include Jim Moyer, Director of Choral Activities and Coordinator of Vocal Music, Pennsbury School District and Artistic Director of The Pennsbury Community Chorus. Also featured will be Peter de Mets, adjunct faculty member at Mercer County Community College, as well as VOICES Music Director Lyn Ransom, Assistant Conductor Andrew Monath, and Guest Conductor for fall 2008 J.A. Kawarsky.

Alison Davy, Soprano

JIM MOYER, GUEST CONDUCTOR

James D. Moyer, born in 1964 in Easton, Pennsylvania, completed his Bachelor of Music degree in voice and organ at Westminster Choir College in Princeton, New Jersey in 1986. While there he studied under Frauke Haasemann, Allen Crowell, Robert Carwithen and Marvin Keenze. He also sang in the Westminster Symphonic Choir under the direction of Joseph Flummerfelt. Currently, Mr. Moyer is the director of choral music for the Pennsbury Schools in Fallsington, PA, and Director of Music at the First Presbyterian Church of Morrisville, PA. He is a former President of the Virginia American Choral Directors Association (VACDA), and has served on four convention committees for ACDA. He often contributes reviews to The Choral Journal, and is sought after for clinics, workshops, adjudications and guest conducting.

PETER DE METS, GUEST CONDUCTOR

Peter de Mets is a composer, conductor, and tenor soloist. He served as the Director of Music and Organist for Forest Grove Presbyterian Church for 13 years and as the Artistic Director and Conductor of the Chamber Arts Guild and the Centennial Singers for 7 and 8 seasons, respectively. As a composer, Peter's works have been performed at the National Cathedral, The White House and throughout the United States. His choral fanfare, "One World One Dream," was performed in Beijing, Shanghai and The Forbidden City in China as part of the 2008 Olympic Celebrations. Peter is the Repertoire and Standards Chair of the American Choral Director's Association's Pennsylvania Chapter. Recently, Peter sang the tenor solos from the CPE Bach Magnificat at Morrisville Presbyterian Church conducted by Jim Moyer, and has performed in productions of Amahl and the Night Visitors (Kaspar), The Merry Widow (Camille), Godspell (Jesus), and Little Shop of Horrors (Audrey II). Peter has music directed and conducted over a dozen musical productions. This fall, Peter was honored to receive the "Young Alumni Award for Achievement" from his alma mater, Susquehanna University.

CRISTOPHER FRISCO, PIANIST

Cristopher Frisco has worked on three recent Broadway productions and in many of the East Coast's finest regional theaters. He was selected to conducted the Philadelphia Premiere of Bat Boy for 1812 Productions, which was awarded a Barrymore Award for Outstanding Ensemble in a musical. He has also acted as musical director and accompanied productions for Westminster Choir College of Rider University, The Walnut Street Theater, Downtown Players, The Theatre Outlet, Lehigh Univeristy, Muhlenberg College, Muhlenberg Summer Music Theater, and the Bucks County and Pocono Playhouses. Cris is on the accompanying staff of the Opera Theatre and Music Festival of Lucca, Italy. As a frequent concert partner for singers and instrumentalists, recent seasons have brought Cris to New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco, San Diego, Tai-Pei, Hong Kong, Helsinki, St. Petersburg, and Bangkok. He is currently on the faculty of the Doylestown School of Music and the Arts and is a community outreach instructor in Opera and Classical music for Bucks County Community College. Cris is also the founder and artistic director of The New Voice Project, a fledgling non-profit arts organization that commissions and produces new music.

VOICES

Now in its 21st year, the VOICES Chorale performs three concert programs in the Princeton area and in Bucks County, PA, each year. VOICES also performs small group, solo and ensemble music at retirement centers in Pennsylvania. The chorale has completed three concert tours of Germany, produced several CDs, and performed with outstanding orchestras including the Pittsburgh Symphony, the Greater Trenton Symphony Orchestra, and the Riverside Symphonia.

If you are interested in singing with VOICES in the 2008-2009 concert season, please contact Sandy Duffy. More information, including a DVD clip of an outreach concert and directions to our summer sings is available at www.VoicesChorale.org.

Don't miss great singing, great musicians, and great ice cream this Thursday! Hope to see you at 7:30, July 17, for the Messiah, Part I, at Anchor Presbyterian Church.

Sincerely,
Lyn Ransom
Music Director, VOICES
www.voiceschorale.org

JOIN the VOICES Chorale for
Theresa Mass
Franz Joseph Haydn
Thursday, AUGUST 7, 7:30 pm
Music Together Building
225 Hopewell-Pennington Road
Hopewell, NJ

If you have a score for Haydn’s Theresa Mass, please bring it with you. Otherwise, VOICES provides scores for you to borrow. Warm-ups begin at 7:30, followed by rehearsing a little of each movement. The read-through takes place from 8:15 or so to around 9:00.

In addition to this classic music opportunity, you can enjoy the fantastic fresh fruit and ice cream social time afterwards.   Auditions can also be arranged for the VOICES season 2008-2009.

VOICES Chorale at Music Together, Hopewell

Grant Mech, Bass

The VOICES sopranos, altos, tenors, basses, and conductors, as well as the guest conductors, and guest singers look forward to having you join us for this Summer Sing.