In July 2010, fifteen members of Berks Classical Children’s Chorus participated in the Crossroad Children’s Chorus Festival, which Mr. Hatfield directed, in Nashville, Tennessee. Conversations between Mr. Hatfield and BCCC Executive Director Dail Richie about writing a piece for BCCC’s Twentieth Anniversary Celebration began at that time. Part of the text was inspired by comments written by one of the members of the chorus, Marco Romero, about his experience in BCCC: “It’s been a challenge for me to learn to stay still and share my talent.” Hatfield writes:

“ ‘Lights On’ was inspired in part by the advice given to an aspiring artist by J.D. Salinger’s character Seymour Glass: ‘Keep me up till five only because all your stars are out.’ The piece was also inspired by the writings of the choristers for whom the piece was composed, and some of their comments have been incorporated into my text. The 20th Anniversary of a choir is an event worth honoring, and at first you might feel that a choral piece written for that anniversary would best reflect the accomplishment with music that is bright and sunny, and that wears its triumph with a flourish. But such an event can also make one thoughtful and reflective about all that is involved in twenty years of an artistic quest, and I’ve chosen the moody and mystical over the bright and bouncy, for starlight over the light of the sun. Stars fascinate me as an image of radiance and transcendence. Cultures throughout history and across the planet have linked starlight and song, as does modern science in its own way, taking the radio waves from deep space as the ‘I am’ of the universe. ‘Lights On’ treats music as a kind of Polaris, the trusted star that made navigation possible—even when we don’t know what our final destination could be.”

David Himes is a Composer-in-Residence at Trinity Lutheran Church, a Reading School District music teacher, and Music Director of Berkshire Chorale. In December 2010, BCCC premiered an arrangement of Christmas carols set by Mr. Himes for the BCCC holiday program. BCCC’s first commission with Mr. Himes was in 2000, when he wrote “These Children Singing in Stone,” in honor of BCCC’s first Board President, Stephen G. Welz. Mr. Himes writes:

“When I chose a text for this piece, I was looking for a poem that dealt with children, was celebratory or looked to the future and one that had hope. I think Gary Snyder’s poem, ‘For the Children’ has those elements, but also more.”

“When I am writing a piece, I break the text down into little sections to see how each part can be enhanced with music. So, after a piece is finished, it is interesting to go back to the piece and the poem, and discover new things that didn’t come across the first time. Instead of necessarily being celebratory and hopeful, I would say this poem now strikes me as being hopeful, but with some suggestions for finding that hope.”

Joel Gori, Stage Director of Brundibár, works with members of the BCCC Chorale during a Monday night chorus rehearsal.

The Berks County community is invited to a FREE musical event, Brundibár, on Sunday, May 6, 2012 beginning at 3:00 at the Sovereign Performing Arts Center in downtown Reading, Pennsylvania. The performance will feature members of Reading Symphony Orchestra, Berks Classical Children’s Chorus & Berks Opera Workshop. There is one performance of this free public offering. Sovereign Performing Arts Center is located at 136 N. 6th Street, Reading, Pennsylvania 19601. Parking is available throughout the city or at the Poplar & Walnut Street Garage.

The opera (approx. 50 minutes) is appropriate for families with school age children; the printed program and introduction position the work in its historical context. Immediately following the performance, the audience is invited to stay for the Berks Classical Children’s Chorus 20th Anniversary Concert beginning at 4:30 p.m. There is no admission charge for either performance.

Brundibár is a children’s opera written by Czech composer Hans Krása. During the Nazi Holocaust, the opera was performed 55 times in the Theresienstadt (Terezin) Ghetto, a ghetto/camp located north of Prague in Czechoslovakia. The Nazis used the camp to imprison Jews from November 24, 1941 until it was liberated by Soviet troops on May 9, 1945. Of the approximately 140,000 Jews who were interned in Terezin, less than 20,000 survived. 90,000 of the prisoners were sent on to Auschwitz-Birkenau where the vast majority perished upon arrival. An additional 33,000 people were known to have died in Terezin during their internment from disease, malnutrition, abuse by their captors or were murdered. Of the 15,000 children who passed through Terezin, only approximately 300 survived.

The performance is part of The Theresienstadt Project and is made possible in part by a grant from the Oritsky/Skaist Family Fund and Reading Musical Foundation. The Theresienstadt Project is an unprecedented collaboration between the Jewish Federation of Reading, Reading Public Museum and the Reading Symphony Orchestra along with Fleetwood Area High School and Holocaust Library and Resource Center at Albright College.

Brundibár and The Theresienstadt Project

The Theresienstadt Project is an unprecedented collaboration between the Jewish Federation of Reading, Reading Public Museum and the Reading Symphony Orchestra along with Fleetwood Area High School, Holocaust Library and Resource Center at Albright College, Berks Classical Children’s Chorus and Berks Opera Workshop. The events spanned three months and included a major exhibition of children’s art, several documentary films, lectures and readings, a Yom Hashoah memorial concert and the children’s opera, Brundibár.

The Story of Brundibár

Brundibár is the story of two children who are trying to secure money to buy milk for their sick mother. They encounter an evil organ grinder named Brundibár who throws them out of the town square. The children overcome the bully with the help of a bird, a cat and a dog and return home, triumphant.

About the Opera

Brundibár was written in 1938-39 by Czech composer Hans Krása with lyrics by Adolf Hoffmeister as an entry for a children’s opera competition. The opera was scripted for an all children’s cast and tells the classic story of good overcoming evil. Brundibár was first performed in 1942 at a Jewish orphanage in Prague before the mass transports of Bohemian and Moravian Jews began. By 1943, Krása and most of the musicians and cast of children were transported from the orphanage to Theresienstadt, a ghetto/concentration camp and stopping point for thousands who were later sent on to the death camps. At Theresienstadt, Krása decided to revive Brundibár as a way to distract himself and the children from the fear and depravity they faced every day. The Germans allowed music and the arts in the camp as it helped them to further the public deception that this was a “spa town” and that its residents enjoyed life in the model ghetto. The children in the cast were especially fond of wearing the costumes; the only time they were not forced to wear a yellow Jewish star. In 1941, the Nazis decreed that all Jews, 6 years and older, be required to wear a yellow Jewish star with the word “Jew” written on it. The tactic was used to humiliate the Jews and target them for ongoing persecution. One survivor described those moments in costume as, “a couple of minutes of freedom.” Brundibár was performed 55 times in Theresienstadt between 1943 and May 8, 1945 when the camp was liberated by Soviet troops. Of the 141,000 Jews sent to Theresienstadt, only 16,832 human beings remained at the time of the liberation. Of the 15,000 children under the age of fifteen who passed through Theresienstadt concentration camp, from 1942-1944, only approximately 300 children survived.

The Red Cross Visit

Pressured by the international community following the deportation of Danish Jews to Theresienstadt, the Germans agreed to allow representatives from the Red Cross to visit the “model village” on June 23, 1944. In advance of the visit, the Germans stepped up deportations from the ghetto to alleviate crowding and furthered the hoax by painting the houses and barracks, planting flowers and renovating the buildings. Music and cultural events were planned for the visitors in an attempt to further disguise the true conditions in the ghetto. Perhaps the most well-known and documented performance of Brundibár was during the Red Cross visit. Film footage from the performance later became part of a Nazi propaganda film that the German authorities created but never distributed. Most of the cast of the film were shipped to Auschwitz-Birkenau at the conclusion of the filming where they were murdered.

Hans Krása

Hans Krása headed the accomplished musicians section of the “Freizeitgestaltung” (Division of Recreation) in Theresienstadt. While imprisoned at the ghetto, he wrote six compositions and revised the score of his children’s opera, Brundibár. Krása studied at the German Music Academy in Prague under Alexander Zemlinsky and later traveled to Paris where he transitioned into jazz and French modernism. His compositions are appreciated for their blend of traditional and modern elements. Hans Krása was born in Prague, November 30, 1899. He was killed in Auschwitz-Birkenau at age 44, October 19, 1944.

History of Terezin

Terezin, also known by its German name Theresienstadt, was a ghetto/ camp located north of Prague in Czechoslovakia. The ghetto was housed in a former garrison town created by Austrian Emperor Josef II who named it after his mother, Maria Theresa. It was founded on November 24, 1941 and remained in operation until it was liberated by Soviet troops on May 9, 1945. During its operation, it housed approximately 140,000 Jews; nearly 15,000 of whom were children. The situation at Terezin was unique in comparison to other ghettos and camps which existed under the Third Reich. Of the 450 ghettos founded by the Nazis, Terezin was the only one simultaneously labeled as a camp. Dubbed a “settlement” by RSHA chief, Reinhard Heydrich, Terezin had two purposes. The first was to house prominent Jews whose disappearance into death camps would have been widely noticed. It was also to be home to elderly Jews from Germany and Austria, as well as those of wealth and social status from surrounding areas. The second purpose of Terezin was its larger purpose&8212;to act as a transit camp for nearly 90,000 Jews who passed through en route to the death camps of Eastern Europe.

Due to the unique nature of Terezin, religious and cultural life occurred much more openly in this ghetto than it did in other ghettos where it had to be kept hidden under penalty of death. Art and music flourished in Terezin and more than 2300 lectures were given during the ghetto’s existence. Thousands of pieces of art were created and hundreds survived the Holocaust, many of which were created by children. One of the most notable cultural events was the staging of the Hans Krása children’s opera, Brundibár, which was performed 55 times during the ghetto’s existence.

In June 1944, the International Red Cross paid a visit to Terezin. The Nazis used this opportunity to stage an elaborate hoax, convincing nearly all involved in the visit that the treatment of Jews in this “settlement” was fair and just. A special performance of Brundibár was staged and the Nazis followed up by creating a propaganda film which also fostered these false assumptions. Following the filming, nearly all of the Jewish prisoners who were involved were deported to their deaths at Auschwitz-Birkenau. Of the approximately 140,000 Jews who were interned in Terezin, less than 20,000 survived. 90,000 of the prisoners were sent on to Auschwitz-Birkenau where the vast majority perished upon arrival. An additional 33,000 people were known to have died in Terezin during their internment. Of the 15,000 children who passed through Terezin, only approximately 300 survived.

The Performance

Conductor

Daniel Chetel began his appointment as Music Director and Conductor of the Central Kentucky Youth Orchestra with the 2011-2012 Season. He previously served as the Assistant Conductor for the University of Kentucky Symphony Orchestra, UK Opera Theatre, and the Central Kentucky Youth Orchestra. Mr. Chetel has conducted the UK Symphony Orchestra at subscription concerts and special educational outreach events. Mr. Chetel has served as Cover Conductor for summer concerts of the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra, Assistant Conductor for the 2010 All-Tech FEI World Equestrian Games in Lexington, KY and worked for the Boston Youth Symphony Orchestra as Program Coordinator for the BYSO’s Intensive Community Program. In 2008, Chetel traveled to Venezuela to work with the nationwide Venezuelan Youth Orchestra System, El Sistema. As an operatic conductor, Mr. Chetel has worked for DiCapo Opera, (NY), University of Kentucky Opera Theatre, University of Maryland Opera Studio, Newton Symphony (MA) and Dunster House Opera Society (MA) where he has worked on productions of Leonard Bernstein’s Candide, George and Ira Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess, Mozart’s Cosi fan tutte and Die Zauberflöte, Puccini’s La Bohème and Hans Krása’s children’s opera, Brundibár, among others. Originally from Massachusetts, Mr. Chetel holds a B.A. from Harvard University and an M.M. degree from the University of Maryland School of Music. He is currently a D.M.A. candidate at the University of Kentucky School of Music where he teaches undergraduate conducting.

Performers

Lauren Curnow (Pepicek) holds Masters Degrees in Music and Opera Performance from The Juilliard School and The Curtis Institute of Music, respectively, and a BA from Muhlenberg College in Theater Arts and English, where she is currently on the faculty. She is a graduate of The Ryan Center apprentice program for young singers at The Lyric Opera of Chicago. She sang Marcellina in Lyric Opera’s 2010 production of Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro. In 2009, she performed the Folksongs of Luciano Berio in the Teatro Malibran in Venice as part of La Fenice’s spring season, conducted by Sir Andrew Davis. She has sung the role of the Fox in The Cunning Little Vixen by Janacek at the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, directed by Laurent Pelly, under Maestro Seiji Ozawa, at the Saito-Kinen Festival in Masumoto, Japan (also under Maestro Ozawa) and with The Lyric Opera of Chicago. Other engagements have included Elle in La Voix Humaine with Ireland’s Wexford Festival Opera, Hansel in Hansel and Gretel with The Opera Company of Philadelphia, Berta in The Barber of Seville with The Lyric Opera of Chicago and Donna Elvira in Austin’s Lyric Opera’s Don Giovanni. Upcoming engagements for the current season include a return to Japan where she will participate in a production of Madame Butterfly under Maestro Ozawa. Ms. Curnow is the winner of the Edith Newfield Scholarship from the Musicians Club of Women in Chicago, the Rose M. Grundman First Place Award of the Union League Civic Arts Foundation, the Anna Sosenko Trust Fund, the Rader-Shieber Foundation, and a Special Judge’s Award, District Level, from the Metropolitan Opera National Council.

Additional Info

The event begins at 3 p.m., with the BCCC Chorale collaborating with the Reading Symphony Orchestra and the Berks Opera Workshop in a production of the one act opera for children, Brundibar.

The 40-minute opera was originally performed by the children of the Theresienstadt concentration camp in occupied Czechoslovakia during World War II. The opera was used for propaganda purposes by the Nazis to hide the atrocities of the holocaust. The upcoming performance of the opera is part of “The Theresienstadt Project” which is sponsored by the Oritsky/Skiast Family Fund of the Jewish Federation of Reading.

Following Brundibar will be the BCCC Twentieth Anniversary Celebration Concert from 4:30 to 5:30 p.m. The concert will include performances by the Training Chorus, third- and fourth-grade singers, the Choristers, fourth through sixth-grade singers, the Chorale, middle school singers, and the MasterSingers, high school singers. The ensembles will premiere commissioned works by world-renowned Stephen Hatfield and Berks County’s own David Himes. Alumni are invited back to sing BCCC’s signature song, “Blessing” under the director of BCCC Founder, Donald Hinkle.

Formed in 1992, Berks Classical Children’s Chorus is a professionally trained and rigorously educated music ensemble consisting of young people ages 8-18. The group enriches the community by fostering and promoting choral excellence in young people through music education and quality performances.

The concert season is supported by Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, a state agency, and Reading Musical Foundation.

If you are to attend one workshop this year, this is the one to attend!! I heard Margy Waller speak in June, and was inspired by her report. Karen Haver, of Berks Arts Council, and I are working together to bring this to our community. The lunch is underwritten by Berks Classical Children’s Chorus and Reading Musical Foundation. The Pennsylvania Council on the Arts is providing funding to bring Ms. Waller to Reading.

Y’all come!!!!

Dail Richie

Communicating About the Arts to Build Broad Support

Friday, November 18, 2011 from 10:00 a.m.-2:30 p.m.

The Berks Arts Council invites you to attend a full-day training with Margy Waller, Vice President of Strategic Communication and Research at ArtsWave, a Cincinnati-based arts advocacy organization. This event is free for non-profit organizations, only $25.00 for for for-profit organizations. Lunch will be included.

Leaders of ArtsWave designed and commissioned a research initiative to develop an inclusive community dialogue leading to broadly shared public responsibility for arts and culture in the region. They concluded that their work with the community through arts and culture must be based on a foundation that incorporates a deeper understanding of the best way to communicate with the public in order to achieve that shared sense of responsibility.

Throughout the training Ms. Waller will review their research findings, offer examples of how the community is successfully using the research to develop a dialogue, and discuss applying the findings to specific community goals.

For more information and to RSVP for the training, please visit http://bacartswave.eventbrite.com.

The qualified candidate for this part-time, salaried position will hold a Masters Degree in choral conducting, voice, or appropriate related field, or be currently enrolled in a graduate program in the field.

Highly desirable skills include a solid understanding of the young voice, good conducting skills, good interpersonal skills, and a broad knowledge of the choral repertoire. The Director of Chorale will interface with the directors of the organization’s three other ensembles and the Executive Director. This position involves weekly rehearsals, various concerts, and staff meetings, approximately ten months a year.

Job will begin May 2012.

Founded in 1992, BCCC is recognized as an outstanding choral education organization working annually with 100 singers, grades 3-12, in 4 choir levels.

Resumes and cover letters may be sent to SEARCH COMMITTEE, Berks Classical Children’s Chorus, 201 Washington Street, Suite 529, Reading, PA 19601. Please do NOT SEND CDs with initial inquiries. Deadline for receipt of applications is October 31, 2011.

Brunner will coach the singers on “Spiritual Musick,” a piece that he wrote for them and for 11 other children’s choruses all across the country. The rehearsal with Brunner is scheduled for April 11, 2011.

Brunner was commissioned to write a piece through a nationwide consortium sponsored by Chorus America, the national support organizations for volunteer, professional, symphonic, and children’s choruses.

Brunner selected a text by Christopher Smart and set it to music that, in his words, “is angular and jaunty.” He adds that “the little ‘band’ that accompanies it [is] equally peculiar.” It all adds up to a piece that the singers all love!

Brunner volunteered to come to Reading to work with the singers and, in fact, volunteered to visit each of the twelve choirs that participated in the consortium. He finds that a visit to a commissioning choir is usually “the most rewarding and engaging time for the singers and for me.”

BCCC will present the local premiere of “Spiritual Musick” at its spring concert, Something Old-Something New, at 4 pm, Sunday, May 1, at Atonement Lutheran Church, Wyomissing.

The commission for the Brunner piece was made possible, in part, through gifts to Chorus America by BCCC Executive Director Dail Richie and her husband David Richie, and BCCC Business Manager Susan Coughlin and her husband Bill Coughlin.

Brunner is Director of Choral Activities at the University of Central Florida in Orlando, where he conducts three choirs and teaches conducting and music education courses, and is also a prominent clinician and pianist.

Formed in 1992, Berks Classical Children’s Chorus is a professionally trained and rigorously educated music ensemble consisting of young people ages 8-18. The group enriches the community by fostering and promoting choral excellence in young people through music education and quality performances.

The concert season is supported by Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, a state agency, and Reading Musical Foundation.