Volume 1, Number 1 December 3,
2003
Volume 1, Number 1 December 3,
2003
VOICES Chorale Opens Its 16th Season
Dear Friends,
Happy Holidays and welcome to this first issue of our
VOICES e-newsletter. You have received this newsletter by email because you are
(or once were) a member of VOICES or have provided us your email address at a
concert or in other communication. We plan to issue these newsletters from time
to time to keep you up to date and informed about events and people in VOICES
16th Season. Please forward this newsletter to share our news with
your friends! See below for subscription information
to add or remove your name from our mailing list.
FOUR Lessons and Carols Concerts in
December!
Our December concerts feature Christmas and Hanukah
music, readings and audience carol sings. This year we feature works of two
local composers. Psalm 108, Ashira af k'vodi was written by Joel
Phillips, Associate Professor of Music Composition and Theory and Co-director
of the Music Computing Center at Westminster Choir College. The chorus had a
visit from the composer himself, who told how he conceived and structured the
music on the theme "arise." Hacia Belen Va Un Borrico was
composed by Michael Mendoza, Director of Choral Activities at the College of
New Jersey.
Sotto Voce, our chamber chorus, will
perform on Saturday, December 6 at 8:00 p.m. at the Yardley
Community Center, 64 South Main Street in Yardley, PA. We will be under the
direction of guest conducter Devin Mariman, Music Director of the Westminster
Conservatory Chorus.
The VOICES Chorale and Sotto Voce will be joined by
soprano Rochelle Ellis and the Burlington Brass under the direction of VOICES
Music Director Dr. Lynne Ransom for our three gala Festival of Lessons and
Carols concerts:
Tickets are $18 general admission, $15 for seniors and
students and $8 for children 12 and under. Family passes are available for $42.
Tickets can be ordered at 609-637-9383. NJ Arts Pass holders receive a
discount. (Admission to the St. Andrew concert is by suggested donation;
tickets are not required.) For driving directions and further information visit
our web site at www.voiceschorale.org. From there you
may also view and print our season postcard and Lessons & Carols
poster!
Building on a successful 15th
season...
Last season VOICES celebrated its 15th Anniversary, with special concerts and a garden gala. Our June "From the Delaware to the Danube" concert tour in Germany and Austria included works by Brahms, Haßler, Rheinberger, and Schütz performed with Chorkreis St. Sebald from Erlangen, Bavaria.
In August, VOICES performed with Marvin Hamlisch and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra helping to inaugurate the new Mountain Laurel Center for the Performing Arts in the Poconos, the summer home for the Pittsburgh Symphony. The music included Lerner and Loewe favorites from Brigadoon, My Fair Lady, and Gigi.
...with an exciting 2003-2004
program!
As the new season opens, VOICES Chorale members have
returned to new musical challenges as well as to the time-tested favorites of
past concerts. VOICES will be joined by a chamber orchestra in March 2004 to
perform Handel's oratorio of the Exodus, Israel in Egypt. In June, VOICES'
"Music of the Americas "program will feature new and traditional Latin,
Canadian and American songs. In addition, our schedule includes a performance
at the Glencairn Museum in Bryn Athyn, PA, outreach concerts at retirement
villages and our annual Children's Composition Contest. This year, our March
and June concerts will also be featured in the prestigious music series at the
First Presbyterian Church of Morrisville, PA.
About VOICES
Dr. Lynne Ransom, D.M.A. is the founder, music
director, and conductor of VOICES, which was begun in 1987 as a non-profit,
professional music organization. VOICES performs the choral masterworks of the
past along with the music of our time, even the premieres of modern composers,
and ranges from renaissance to contemporary -- from spirituals and show music
to the sacred and classic.
The singers in VOICES are dedicated and skilled, having
performed choral music throughout their lives. Many study privately and many
hold music degrees. "I'm very happy with the talent in VOICES this season,"
said Lynne Ransom, Music Director. "This year we have a particularly good mix
of beautiful voices and experience with languages and with a variety of styles
of music. Sotto Voce, the chamber group, has surpassed my musical expectations.
I am truly looking forward to the holiday concerts this year, to join voices
from the audience with voices in VOICES. The carol singing by the audience at
VOICES concerts is fabulous! And, we're recording a live CD -- audience members
can be part of our recorded history! Singing together with family and friends
is important. I hope many people will join voices with us this holiday
season."
Join us! Auditions are currently being scheduled for our spring concerts. See www.voiceschorale.org/auditioning.html for information.
VOICES announces three new positions this season:
In our next newsletters...
Look for stories about these individuals and their positions in subsequent newsletters.
Tell your friends about us, bring them to our
concerts. If you own a business or you provide a service, let our audiences
know about you with a well-placed advertisement in our concert programs. Let us
hear from you, by
e-mail
or through our Web site www.voiceschorale.org.
Chorale members Elizabeth Forbes, Laurie Tema-Lyn,
Helen Kull and Bob Kull and Music Director Lynne Ransom contributed to this
edition.
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VOICES Chorale
P.O. Box
404
Pennington, New Jersey 08534
609-637-9383
www.voiceschorale.org