Dear Choir,
My summers are usually a time of rest, relaxation and study and this one has not been much different than the others. With responsibilities to multiple organizations, my living room becomes a tangled mess of music and CD’s as I look for music that is well crafted and inspiring. It does seem that time marches on ever so quickly though and the CSC summer letter always provides the opportunity for reflection. Is it really possible that this idea that a hand full of people had in 1990 is now about to enter a seventeenth year of concerts?
The past season was a fine artistic and organizational success. The Chamber Choir opened the year with a stellar performance at UNC-G at the American Choral Directors State Convention. This was followed up by a great performance in November of Psalm settings from around the world and a fine Holiday Pops performance. We had a wonderful spring season, celebrating great Baroque works by Bach, Handel and Purcell and finished the season with an outstanding evening of American music that celebrated our history and culture.
As is customary in this letter, I’d like to share with you our plans for the 2007-2008 season, one which includes some of our most innovative and exciting programming to date. The structure of the season is similar to our pattern of past years, with the exception that our typical November concert will instead be done in January.
First Semester - Fall/Winter Season
Holiday program
Saturday, December 8th
2007 - 7:30 p.m.
St. Paul’s Episcopal
Church, Cary
Special Musical Guest
– Tracy Thornton, Steel Drums
Symphonic and Chamber
Choirs
We welcome back Tracy Thornton, the steel drum player who was so well received two years ago at our multicultural concert. We will repeat the Kyrie setting that we did then as well as several other settings of Caribbean style music and combine that with many seasonal favorites.
Voices of Light: The
Passion of Joan of Arc
Saturday, January 12th
2008 - 7:30 p.m.
Unitarian
Universalist Church of Raleigh
Guests – The Raleigh
Symphony
Symphonic and Chamber
Choirs
150 live performers from the Concert Singers of Cary and the Raleigh Symphony accompany the 1928 silent film masterpiece The Passion of Joan of Arc directed by Carl Dreyer using Richard Einhorn’s 1994 score for chorus and orchestra. This will be the North Carolina premiere of this work and it is possible that Mr. Einhorn will come here from NY for the performance and a pre concert lecture.
Second Semester - Spring Season
Prokofiev - Alexander
Nevsky – Larry Speakman – conductor
Orchestral Work TBA –
Allen Neilson - conductor
Saturday, April 26th,
2008 – 7:30 p.m.
Koka Booth
Amphitheater at Regency Park
Raleigh Symphony
Orchestra (performed on their series)
Symphonic Choir
This Russian work was originally written for a Stalinist era propaganda film campaign. Though the film faded quickly, the score was rewritten by Prokofiev for use as a concert Suite and has become part of the standard choral orchestral repertoire from the 19th century Russian golden era. It is sung in both Russian and Latin and is scored for full symphonic orchestra with expanded percussion. This is an exciting work that is really fun to sing.
Memorial Weekend
Concert
Saturday, May 24th,
2008 – 7:30 p.m.
Koka Booth
Ampitheater at Regency Park
Triangle Wind
Ensemble
Symphonic Choir
This concert has been a huge success for CSC and TWE over the last two years. We will build on that success, continuing our theme of using American music. Works include selections from Old American Songs (At the River, Ching-A-Ring Chaw, Simple Gifts, Long Time Ago) by Aaron Copland and a short work by Charles Ives called Circus Band. We will repeat the very successful Testament of Freedom by Randall Thompson. I am excited to say that we will also perform Randall Thompson’s Frostiana ( The Road Not Taken, The Pasture, Come In, The Telephone, A Girl’s Garden, Stopping By the Woods On a Snowy Evening, Choose Something Like a Star), which is a cycle based on poem’s by Robert Frost. Charter members will recall that this work was performed at our inaugural concert. We will round out the program with our standard arrangements of God Bless America and America the Beautiful.
A copy of the rehearsal and concert schedule is enclosed with this letter. There are two things that you should note. Firstly, the Holiday concert and Voices of Light project are considered one season with both works being rehearsed simultaneously. You are allowed a TOTAL of 3 absences for the fall/winter season. Please also not that we will break after the Holiday concert, resume on Monday, January 7th and have extra rehearsals on January 8th, 10th and 11th. These extra rehearsals are mandatory attendance as we’ll need to accomplish a great deal in a short amount of time. Let your section leader know if you have a conflict and we’ll see if we can work with that, but I’m asking you this many months in advance to clear your calendars.
Some areas where we are looking for help or need special attention…
Do you play an instrument? We are performing music at the Holiday concert that would be a good opportunity for someone within the choir to play their instrument. Flute and percussion immediately come to mind, but others are possible as well. Let me know if you are interested. A family member or someone close to you who would like to volunteer for this is a possibility as well.
Ad sales – we gain some significant financial support through ad sales in our program. Over the last few years, we have not done as well with this as we would have liked, primarily because the printing deadline comes soon after we begin rehearsals. There is little time to promote this and enlist your help. If you know of someone who wants to promote their business in this way, please let us know. It is a good value, and if you have a relationship with someone that will help us close that deal, so much the better. Most of us get hit up to support of other organizations and we can get a quid pro quo if we ask.
Matching gifts – we have historically received matching gifts from the employers of our singers when the employee takes the time to research these types of programs. Many of you are already making contributions to the group that in some cases can be matched. This past year, one of our members (Amy Wang) met a community service hours requirement from her employer that resulted in a $500 contribution! Please look into these programs. If you have questions about how we are funded and how we use those funds, that information is readily available to anyone who wishes it.
Frequent flier miles – as I said earlier, we are hoping to have Richard Einhorn here for the performance of Voices of Light and are attempting to find ways to cover the expenses of bringing him here. If you have some available frequent flier miles that you would be willing to donate, please let us know. He will be coming from New York. Any arrangements for a hotel room would be great as well, although we are looking into the possibility of a home stay if he is willing.
Musicales support – The Musicales is our annual spring fund raiser that is dedicated to building our endowment fund. Karen Davis, who is serving as our board president has agreed to be the point person on planning our Musicales events IF she is able to get some committee support. More information will be forthcoming. Please consider helping in this important venture.
Male membership – you may recall that last year I made increasing the size of our men’s sections our highest priority. As a result, we had a sharp increase in those numbers and the quality of the artistic product benefited greatly. I want to continue this emphasis for this year and again ask for your support in identifying quality male singers and encouraging them to audition. Women…this is not to say that we don’t value each and every one of you. We do. The emphasis on men is to insure that we never have to cap our women’s sections due to a lack of men.
Music Fees – our music fee for the Fall/Winter season will be $$$ for new singers and $$$ for returning members. The spring fee will be $$$ for new members and $$$ for returning members. The fall fee is a bit different than in previous years in that it includes a charge of $25 to cover the rental of vocal scores for Voices of Light. Rental fees are common for orchestra parts and vocal books in Broadway productions, but not as common in the choral world. Mr. Einhorn is a living composer who is self published, which makes this particular project a bit unusual in that while we need to compensate for using the score, there is no purchase option. I recommended and the board adopted this fee as a way of making the project viable. The overall fees are consistent with last year, but in the case of Voices of Light, the score will need to be returned. We mention this to be open and transparent about how we are operating.
In closing, I want to share with you some news about my own life that is newsworthy (to me at least, anyway). Most of you were aware that I was an adjunct faculty member last year at East Carolina University where I recently completed Masters Degrees in Choral and Orchestral Conducting. This fall, I will leave ECU and begin a part time position at Louisburg College as Director of Choral Activities. I am also entering the Doctoral program this fall at The University of North Carolina at Greensboro to complete a Doctoral of Musical Arts (DMA) in Conducting. I will continue as Director of Music at Watts Street Baptist Church in Durham as well as keeping a small studio of voice students. It will be a very busy time but also one of challenge and reward.
I hope that you have all had some down time this summer and some great activity and fun. I had a week at the beach in June with my family and will be in Brazil as part of a choral exchange by the time that you receive this letter. We are visiting Salvador and Rio de Janeiro where we will make connections with the local choral music communities. We will also take in some great scenery, food and local culture.
I can’t convey enough my excitement about what is ahead of us this season. We need each and every one of you to return to be at our best. Enjoy the rest of the summer and come back to us on September 10th refreshed and eager to go.
I can’t wait to get started!
Larry