Skidmore Chorus, Vocal Chamber Ensemble to perform

The Skidmore College Community Chorus and Vocal Chamber Ensemble will present a program of American music in December, with works chosen for having non-traditional roots.

Under the direction of Janet McGhee, the 140-member chorus and its smaller, select ensemble will perform at 3 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 9, in Filene Recital Hall at the College. The event is open to the public, and general admission is $5, or $2 for seniors and students.

?This will not be your typical holiday concert,? McGhee said, explaining that the program is tied to the ?Crossing Boundaries? theme of Professor Charles Joseph?s senior seminar, in which students have recently studied music by Leonard Bernstein and Aaron Copland, among others.

Composers represented in the upcoming choral program include Bernstein and Copland, as well as Charles Ives and lesser-known female writers.

?We?ll do a ?tap-dancey? piece by Gwyneth Walker, and another with text wanting a war to be over. The songs from Bernstein?s Candide are great fun, and there?s even a salute to Louis Armstrong by Larsen,? noted McGhee. ?This is definitely not your usual holiday fare, but it will be a refreshing change.?

On the more solemn side, the program includes Daniel Pinkham?s Nativity Madrigals (text by Norma Farber), as a memorial tribute to the composer on the one-year anniversary of his death. Pinkham was a resident artist at Skidmore in 2003.

Singing brief solos in the concert are sopranos Emily Lacroix and Sulin Ngo; alto Jamie Falzone; tenors David Baker, Nick Misani and Vincent Newell; and bass Joel Amidon.
Patricia Hadfield will be piano accompanist for the event.

Members of the larger community chorus include a 14-year-old high school student, faculty and staff, community members, and Skidmore students.

Maestra McGhee, lecturer in music and director of Skidmore's choral program, came to this area from Boston, where she held leadership positions in choral music at the New England Conservatory of Music, Clark University, Simmons College, and the Berklee College of Music. She also directed a Boston-based community chorus that made four concert tours to the former Soviet Union.

She also directs the acclaimed Battenkill Chorale, which performs in Greenwich.