In this issue
-
VISIONS, Sunday, April 11, 4:00 p.m.
Emmanuel Lutheran Church, 150 North Hanover Street, Pottstown, PA
An afternoon of music to entice your senses and captivate your imagination
- Toni Marie, soprano
- Monica Vanderveen, pianist
Free will offering, light refreshments provided
Toni Marie Palmertree, a Fleetwood native, is a graduate of Berks Classical Children’s Chorus and a graduate of The Peabody Conservatory of Music in Baltimore. She appeared with Berks Opera Workshop (BOW) as Myrtale and Albine in Thaïs in August 2009 and will appear in the title role of Carmen with BOW in August 2010.
She has sung Alice in Falstaff, Pamina in The Magic Flute, Noemi in Cendrillon, Lauretta and Zita in Gianni Schicchi, Mimi in La Bohème, Ellen in Lakmé and Suor Genevieve in Suor Angelica. She is an apprentice artist with Center City Opera of Philadelphia and the soprano section leader and a vocal coach with Reading Choral Society. She was recipient of the Reading Music Foundation’s Isabel W. Sondheim Memorial Scholarship.
Monica Frey Vanderveen, a Berks County native, began her piano studies in Boyertown with Mary Soper. After winning the Reading Symphony Youth Auditions, she pursued piano studies at Oberlin Conservatory (with a minor in vocal studies) and the Peabody Conservatory of Music, and won a coveted Liberace Foundation Scholarship. She has recently joined the faculty of the Reading Community School of Music and Arts, and works frequently with Berks Opera Workshop artists and other singers in the area.
She has worked extensively as accompanist and vocal coach in the Young Artist programs of the Juilliard School of Music and the San Francisco Opera. She has accompanied world-famous artists such as Susan Graham, Frederika von Stade, James Morris, Patricia Racette, Anthony Dean Griffey, Rodney Gilfrey, and Rolando Villazon. She coached and accompanied singers for the world première of Jake Heggie’s opera, Dead Man Walking.
-
AN AFTERNOON WITH J. S. BACH, Sunday, April 25, 4:00 p.m.
Sacred Heart Church, located behind M&T Bank on Penn Avenue, West Reading, PA
All Bach Program-Reading Choral Society, orchestra, and soloists
- Julianne Baird, soprano
- Bryan DeSilva, alto
- Aaron Spencer, tenor
- Colin Dill, bass
|
- Motet: Ich lasse dich nicht (BWV 159)
- Cantata: Wachet Auf (BWV 140)
- Mass in G Major (BWV 236)
|
The concert will feature world renowned Julianne Baird and the three winners of the Choral Society’s 2009-2010 Young Artist’s Competition: Bryan DeSilva, Aaron Spencer, and Colin Dill.
The three works to be performed represent early, middle, and late works of Bach. The motet “Ich lasse dich nicht” was for years misattributed to one of Bach’s ancestors. It is now recognized as one of Bach’s early works, perhaps his first motet, written not later than 1712.
Cantata Wachet Auf, also known as Sleepers, Awake, is one of Bach’s most famous and best-loved works. The cantata comes from Bach’s famous cycle of cantatas for the entire church year based on Lutheran chorales. The cantata performance will be preceded by a lecture-demonstration, in which conductor Peter Hopkins will explain what to listen for in the music as the musicians play and sing examples.
The Mass in G Major, also known as Lutheran Mass in G, is a setting of the Kyrie and Gloria. The mass was arranged late in Bach’s life from movements that he had earlier written for cantatas. Through this piece, we see Bach’s favorite compositions, which he “recycled” from German language cantatas into a Latin Mass for a special holiday performance.
Julianne Baird, soprano, has been hailed as “one of the most extraordinary voices in the service of early music that this generation has produced.” She maintains a busy concert schedule of solo recitals and performances of baroque opera and oratorio, and has appeared as soloist with many major symphony orchestras around the world. With over 100 recordings to her credit, she is considered one of America’s most recorded women.
Call 610-898-1939 to purchase tickets. Purchase early. Adult ticket prices are higher at the door.
- $18 Adult Ticket: Advance sale
- $20 Adult Ticket: At the door
- $1 Student
Click here to visit the Reading Choral Society’s website.
The Berks Classical Children’s Chorus and Reading Choral Society CAN IT trash cans, decorated by Shappy Irwin and Josh Przybyszewski, will soon be on display on Penn Street in downtown Reading. The Reading Choral Society Music Director Peter Hopkins, right, “models” the Choral Society’s CAN IT trash can.
If you have not yet seen lively, decorated trash cans on Reading sidewalks, you will soon! In a project called CAN IT (Clean A Neighborhood In Town), Berks Classical Children’s Chorus (BCCC) and Reading Choral Society (RCS) join local students, artists, and other non-profit organizations by “adopting” a trash can and adding their own festive touches to crayon-colored cans provided by Wood-To-Wonderful.
CAN IT is Wood-to-Wonderful’s litter abatement project, which places recycled 55-gallon barrels at schools and other places in the community. Receptacles are maintained by children, school staff, and property owners.
As of February 1, 2010, 125 CAN IT receptacles have been placed in Reading. The best aspect of CAN IT is that litter has been decidedly reduced wherever receptacles are located! Wood-to-Wonderful plans to have 125 additional receptacles placed by the end of the school year, with fifty-four (54) receptacles planned for Penn Street.
The BCCC and RCS cans were painted by RCS member, Shappy Irwin, and her son, Josh Przybyszewski, an illustration major at Kutztown University. These and other cans will be placed on Penn Street, after being on display at GoggleWorks on Community Day, April 24.
Wood-To-Wonderful is a grass roots, non-profit organization founded in 1987 by Doug and Louise Brown in the Washington, DC suburbs and relocated to inner-city Reading, PA in 1997. Wood-To-Wonderful’s original grass roots mission was to make wooden toys for children in need. Over the years, Wood-to-Wonderful’s mission has evolved into helping to improve the quality of life for children in need, and, in addition to making wooden toys, now includes varied community outreach activities.
Executive Director and Interim Artistic Director Dail Richie welcomes Severin Fayerman.
Severin Fayerman, a native of Poland and Holocaust survivor, shared his story of survival, perseverance, and success with several dozen members of the chorus, family members and friends, on Sunday, February 11, 2010, at GoggleWorks. Speaking to two different age groups of singers, he urged the singers to study, work hard, and learn a skill.
Mr. Fayerman and his family were sent to Auschwitz in January 1944. Separated from his family, he was later transported to both Buchenwald and Sachsenhausen concentration camps as World War II neared its end. In September 1945, he was reunited with his family, with whom he immigrated to the United States.
In January 1946, Mr. Fayerman and his father co-founded what was to become Baldwin Hardware, which has set new standards of excellence in its solid forged brass products for the home and workplace.
Click here to view photos taken during Mr. Fayerman’s presentations by BCCC photographer, William Coughlin.
|
