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FEATURES
Melodia returns to the stage -- with a bluegrass band
Posted 5/16/2022
What do Dolly Parton, Carly Simon and Carole King all have in common? In
addition to being great American singer-songwriters, these legendary women will
be featured in “Light of a Brand New Day,” the spring concert on May 22 that
marks the return of Melodia Women’s Choir to singing before a live audience. The
25-singer ensemble takes the stage to bring listeners a deep and spirited dive
into American roots music—the celebrated genre at the crossroads of gospel and
blues and country and folk. It’s a sound that is at once both familiar and
revolutionary thanks to its rich history as a “voice” for change throughout U.S.
History. Melodia promises to put the choir’s unique spin on favorites, old and
new, reimagined this season as choral works for women’s voices.
“With all of the uncertainty and unrest in our world, we wanted to share
music that offers some comfort and respite from life’s tumult and provides a
glimpse of some iconic American musical moments,” said Melodia Artistic Director
Cynthia Powell.
More...
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- The St. Louis Post-Dispatch has an article about the retirement of Amy Kaiser as director of the St. Louis Symphony Chorus after 27 seasons. Prior to her St. Louis appointment, Amy was an active part of choral life in New York, where she was music director of the Dessoff Choirs and the Mannes Chamber Singers, a teacher at the Manhattan School of Music, guest conductor for the Metropolitan Opera and principal conductor of the 92nd Street Y’s school concert series. She also prepared choruses for the New York Philharmonic and the Mostly Mozart Festival. (2022-5-11)
- Encore Creativity for Older Adults, the nation’s largest choral organization for adults over 55, will celebrate its 15th anniversary with a special concert honoring founder Jeanne Kelly at the renowned Music Center at Strathmore in North Bethesda, MD, on Saturday, May 14 at 3 PM. Ten singers from the New York City Encore Chorale will be participating. For more information, visit www.strathmore.org/what-s-on/in-the-music-center/encore-creativity-15th-anniversary-celebration/. (2022-4-30)
- The Greenwich Village Chamber Singers have appointed Michael Sheetz as music director, beginning July 2022. (2022-4-28)
- Trinity Church has fired its music director, Julian Wachner, after accusations of misconduct. Read the Times story for more details. (2022-3-17)
- Babylon: Ghetto, Renaissance and Modern Oblivion, an early-music film written and directed by Salon/Sanctuary Concerts founder and artistic director Jessica Gould, took home the prize for best picture at the Asti International Film Festival. For more about the movie, visit www.babylonfilm.net/. (2021-12-31)
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NEW ON VAN
The latest additions to the site's
content and features.
- May 19, 2022: New Choir Directory listing for The Brasiles Ensemble, an a cappella quintet based in Garrison, NY.
- May 4, 2022: New Choir Directory listing for the St. Peter's Evangelical Lutheran Church Choir in Baldwin, NY.
- January 26, 2022: New link for Singing and You, Gretchen Greenfield's site devoted to learning how to sing better.
- January 13, 2022: New Choir Directory listing and Choir Auditions ad for the Catskill Choral Society, based in Oneonta, NY.
- November 18, 2021: Ensembles come, ensembles, go. And when they go, they usually don't let us at Vocal Area Network know of their demise. If you come across listings for groups that seem no longer to be extant, please drop me a note at steve.friedman@van.org and let me know. Thanks to Merve Ciplak for identifying five or six groups in the no-longer-active category.
- September 13, 2021: We've made another tweak to how we differentiate between current and past Sustaining Members. Current Sustaining Members will be those who have contributed within the past twelve months. Past Sustaining Members will be those whose most recent contribution occurrred more than a year ago. Hope that makes things clearer.
- August 26, 2021: The BVS Women's Choir is now the Brooklyn Treble Choir.
- August 5, 2021: New link for NYC Choral Freelancers, a Facebook group dedicated to all those who toil in the fine professional choral ensembles of NYC.
- July 12, 2021: We've done our periodic (but perhaps not frequent enough) cleanup of links and sites in our Links Collection. Please let us know if you find links that are dead or in need of updating.
- July 8, 2021: New link under "Tools" in the Links Collection for ScanScore, a utility to scan, play and edit sheet music.
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- Need some exquisite beaded jewelry to complement your concert
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- Liz Fleischer's Sight-Singing Program is offered each season
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West 67th Street). Classes include ear-training, rhythm and pitch
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or adultdivision@kaufman-center.org
or call (212) 501-3362. The sight-singing program is just one of the
classes offered by the Kaufman Center's Lucy
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