Chorus to present music by French composers

 

 

 

 

 

Music by French composers will be celebrated in the spring concert by the Skidmore College Community Chorus and Vocal Chamber Ensemble, to be presented at 3 p.m. Sunday, May 1, in the Arthur Zankel Music Center. 

General admission for the concert is $7, $5 for students and free with a Skidmore student ID. Tickets are available at Showclix.com. Tickets for the event also will be available at the Zankel box office from noon to 2 p.m. Thursday, April 28, and from noon to 3 p.m. Friday, April 29.

Directed by Janet McGhee, the 170-voice chorus will fill the stage of the Helen Filene Ladd Concert Hall to sing one of the best-loved of major choral works: the Faur Requiem. Soloists for the Requiem will be soprano Nicole Newell, and baritone Bryce Klatsky.

"I chose the Faur for the spring concert to a large extent because I knew we had strong student singers who could truly do justice to the demanding solos," McGhee said.

Klatsky, a senior from Westbury, N.Y., is a student of Anne Turner who has won several vocal awards this year. Sophomore Nicole Newell, of Warrensburg, N.Y., is a student of Gene Marie Callahan who was accepted into the Bel Canto Institute in Florence for four weeks of intensive study this summer.

The singes will be accompanied by a professional orchestra including 16 players. Among them are Skidmore Music Department faculty members Michael Emery playing solo violin; Patrice Malatestinic, French horn; and Elizabeth Huntley, harp. Playing timpani in the orchestra is Adam Epstein, a recent Skidmore graduate.

Faur 's original orchestration omits violins entirely except for one movement with a solo violin part. "The resulting string sound is much deeper and richer because of the exclusive use of only violas, cellos and double bass," McGhee notes.

Also on the program will be Renaissance madrigals, including Jannequin's "Chant des Oiseaux" ("Song of the Birds"), in which choristers imitate birdcalls, and Maurice Ravel's Trois Chansons (Three Songs).

Soloists in the Ravel work are Mary Horn, soprano; Lauren Gradowski, alto; Adam M. Steinberger, tenor; and Maxwell Stevens, baritone.

McGhee said the Skidmore College Community Chorus is at an all-time peak enrollment with 170 singers. A decade ago, when she assumed the role of chorus director, the ensemble had dwindled to about 45 singers.

"We're very fortunate to have a good balance among the four sections," she said.

The chorus rehearses each Wednesday evening, and is open to community singers as well as to Skidmore faculty, staff, and students. No audition is necessary.