July 19, 2002
Dear Choir,
I’m writing to share plans for the 12th season for The Concert Singers of Cary, a season that I believe will be our finest and most exciting to date. We have three major projects for the Symphonic Choir and two small group concerts that will show our commitment to a broad selection of choral repertoire. We are reinventing ourselves, both on- and offstage as we continue to fulfill the needs and interests of the community and singing membership. We have adopted a new marketing plan that will help audiences identify in advance, the style content of a particular program. All that we need to complete the process is to make sure that you will be participating as an active member of the choir.
Throughout our history, we have planned our programs based on the opportunities and financial resources that were available. We are a model organization for collaboration and have had some wonderful performances with other choral and orchestral organizations. The down side to this is that our program style content and performance dates would vary in no predictable way from season to season, and our ability to develop our own audience was significantly compromised. In order to address that issue, we are moving towards creating a framework for a typical season that will create a more consistent and recognizable mission and program content. The framework will be phased in this season and be complete by the beginning of next season. It is as follows;
- One large group Pops style concert with a symphony Orchestra per year
- One large group Classical style concert with a symphony Orchestra per year
- Large Group Annual Holiday Concert (we are doing two performances this year)
- One small group Pops style concert per year
- One small group Classical style concert per year
As a choral organization committed to a wider than usual span of repertoire, it has always been a challenge for us to build a consistent identity for our audience. Building that audience requires name recognition, much as the Boston Symphony performs as the Boston Pops. The personnel of the orchestra are essentially the same, but the different names create different expectations from the audience. While the large group will continue to be marketed as The Concert Singers of Cary Symphonic Choir, our new marketing plan will put different names on the small groups to indicate the type of program content that the audience can expect. Small group classical concerts will be billed as Cary Choral Artists and small group Pops will be Cary Voices Unlimited. Singers for these concerts will be chosen on a concert-to-concert basis and will not have a set membership. I expect that there will be some singers who end up singing under both names. Individuals are selected from the chamber ensemble roster that requires a more thorough audition process. If you wish to be considered for a small group concert and have not participated in a chamber ensemble roster audition I recommend that you do so to show what you can do. See the enclosed information for audition times and locations.
The 2002-03 Season will be as follows. Please note that for the first time in three years, we will not be participating in a Thanksgiving weekend Holiday Pops project.
From Darkness to Light
Cary Choral Artists – Larry Speakman, conductor
Sunday, September 29th 4:00 p.m. Carswell Hall at Meredith College
As we mark the first anniversary of September 11, a 34 voice choir will join instrumentalists from the Raleigh Symphony Chamber Ensemble to perform a program featuring a cappella music of remembrance and redemption. The program will include Miserere by Gregorio Allegri, Call to Remembrance by Richard Farrant, Close Now Thine Eyes by Daniel Gawthrop, Justorum Anime by William Byrd, O salutaris hostia by Auber, Song of the Earth Spirits by Raleigh composer Lannette Lind and Agnus Dei by Samuel Barber, which is the vocal version of his famous Adagio for Strings.
Feliz Navidad: Holiday Music of the Hispanic Americas
The Concert Singers of Cary Symphonic Choir – Larry Speakman, conductor
Saturday, December 7th 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, December 8th 3:00 p.m.
Local Cary church locations not yet confirmed
We will present two performances of Holiday music in the Hispanic and Latino tradition, including two extended works that will be sung in Spanish. We will do the complete Carols and Lullaby’s by Conrad Susa, scored for Harp, Guitar and Marimba. You may recall that Steve Mulder directed a small group that sang selections from this work three years ago and it was very popular among the singers who performed it. Composed in 1992, the complete work is about 22 minutes in length. We will also perform a work called Navidad Nuestra by Ariel Ramirez, described by the composer as “A Folk Drama of the Nativity Based on the Rhythms and Traditions of Hispanic America” Also sung in Spanish, it is scored for Piano, guitar and percussion and runs about 15 minutes in length. The remainder of the program will be rounded out with carols and a sing along.
Beethoven – Symphony #9
The CSC Symphonic Choir and Raleigh Symphony – Alan Neilson, conductor
Sunday, March 2nd , 2003 (evening—8 PM?) Jones Auditorium at Meredith College
Sung in German and based on text by the German poet Schiller, Beethoven’s Symphony #9 is one of the world’s most often performed and beloved classical works and is second only to Handel’s Messiah in popularity. We are please to join the Raleigh Symphony led by Music Director Alan Neilson in a performance of this masterpiece dedicated to the brotherhood of all humankind.
Brahms – A German Requiem
The CSC Symphonic Choir and Raleigh Symphony – Larry Speakman, conductor
Sunday, April 13th 2003 (Palm Sunday evening) 7:30 p.m.
Local Cary location not yet confirmed
Singers have experienced the wonderful Brahms anthem How Lovely Is Thy Dwelling Place can now experience the entire work that many consider the greatest work by the giant of Romantic composition. Using the German Bible, Brahms chose texts that offered comfort to the bereaved and offered a blessing of eternal peace for the departed souls, “that they rest from all their labor; for their works do follow after them”. Brahms indicated that the work was not intended to be a liturgical presentation or a theological argument, but a human, non-dogmatic, personal document. In a letter written to a friend who was to conduct the first full performance in 1869, Brahms clearly revealed that his intent was to write for all humankind “für alle Menschen”
Broadway Pops Concert
Cary Voices Unlimited – conductor TBA
Cinema Choral Classics
The CSC Symphonic Choir with full orchestra – Larry Speakman, conductor
October 2003 Regency Park Amphitheater
Jointly sponsored by The Town of Cary and SMG Management Company, this concert will become an annual Symphonic Choir Pops performance. It will be a family event, featuring a laser light show and film clips from movies that we will be performing musical selections from. The format of movie music, film clips and laser lights will be an annual feature, but the theme and content will vary from year to year. The 2003 performance will have a science fiction theme. The scope of this project requires that we must work more than a year in advance to pull it off, but its completion will provide the annual Pops event for the Symphonic Choir in the seasonal framework that is described at the beginning of this letter.
This is an exciting season and we have much as an organization to be excited about. Our financial situation was difficult this past year as it was for all non-profits and we did not meet out initial fund raising expectations. The good news, though, is that diligent financial management by Executive Director David Lindquist enabled us to finish in the black and make a small contribution to our reserve fund. Many thanks to David for his outstanding work! I would also like to thank Joy Cox, our President last season who covered additional work created by vacancies on the board along with her own duties. Joy has also been and will continue to be our board liaison to Cary Children’s Concert Choir (C4) now entering their third season. Many thanks as well to out outgoing board, many of who have served multiple years and terms. Despite the large turnover on the board from last year we currently have an outstanding and experienced group of people led by Debra Morris us this year. They are energetic and enthusiastic, but they’re going to need your help. Enclosed in this letter is information about our press for volunteerism and how you can help us. Please read it and respond.
We’ll be back at the Herb Young Community Center from 7:30 – 9:30 each Monday night. It is our understanding that the town will be building a parking garage at some point soon on the parking lot next to the center. This will force us to have to park up the hill and walk. We’ll try to keep you informed about when this will begin so that you can allow a few extra minutes to park.
I hope you are having a great summer and are surviving the heat. Our first rehearsal this fall will be on September 9th so I hope to see you there. I can’t wait to get started!
Sincerely,
Larry
Updated 15 July 2003 |