News and Notices

Join us for candle-lit services of Advent Lessons & Carols with Gloriæ Dei Cantores at the Church of the Transfiguration. Enter the season of Advent with readings, prayers, and beloved carols—a tradition for over thirty years. Services will take place November 29 & 30, 4:30 p.m. at the Church of the Transfiguration, Rock Harbor, Orleans. Organ prelude November 30, 3:30 p.m. Doors will open one hour before the service; no tickets required.
Information: 508-240-2400 | communityofjesus.org

Planning dates for your Christmas festivities’ diary? Impromptu will be holding our Christmas concert on Sat Dec 7th at 7 30pm at Sutton Baptist Church, 21 Cheam Rd, Sutton SM1 1 SN. Come and hear our latest award winning rep and enjoy joining in with Christmas songs and carols. We were awarded Bournemouth Choir of the Year in June 2019.
Tickets are now on sale for our concert ‘Glad Tidings!’. Obtain yours in advance by phoning Amanda on 07763931514 0r by emailing
Light refreshments included.
We will be holding our usual Christmas Hamper Raffle and also collecting donations for SeeAbility and the Sutton Baptist Church’s 150th Anniversary Fund.
Book early to avoid disappointment.
www.impromptu.org.uk

Calling all choral singers!

Are you a local singer wanting to share your love of choral music with a group of like-minded vocalists? On December 8, the acclaimed Festival Chorus at First Congregational Church of Westfield will present John Rutter’s Magnificat. This joyous celebration of Jesus’ Mother Mary will be performed by the SATB chorus, featuring soprano soloist and instrumental ensemble.

Interested singers, age 16 and over, should have basic music reading ability as well as the desire to make blessed music while in a fun environment! Weekly rehearsals will begin on Thursday, November 7 at 7:30pm in Patton Auditorium at First Congregational Church, 125 Elmer Street, Westfield. There will also be optional Saturday sectional rehearsals where focus will be on the more challenging portions of the work. Resource material and rehearsal tools are available, and there is no charge to participate.

The Festival Chorus is directed by organist Dr. Barbara Thomson, who has concertized extensively in the United States and Europe, and has been critically acclaimed for her technique, musicianship, and ability to communicate. She has performed across the United States and in Austria, Germany, Holland, France, Italy, and Yugoslavia, including appearances at Lincoln Center and the Riverside Church in NYC, the Kennedy Center and the National Presbyterian Center in Washington, DC, and on the recital series at the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris. Dr. Thomson has been the Music Director at First Congregational Church since 1984.

If you are interested in joining the Festival Chorus for this musical presentation, or have any questions, please email Dr. Thomson at .

Yale Professor Marguerite Brooks, chair of the choral conducting program at the School of Music, director of choral music at the Institute of Sacred Music, and founding conductor of the Yale Camerata, will receive the 2019 Alfred Nash Patterson Lifetime Achievement Award at Choral Arts New England’s 35th annual awards ceremony, on Sunday, November 3, 2019, at Old South Church in Boston. The event will also celebrate the awarding of grants to 15 New England choruses for performances and other projects. All are welcome to attend.

The Lifetime Achievement Award has been awarded annually since 1994 to individuals who have made exceptional contributions to choral singing and its culture within New England. This year’s award recognizes Marguerite Brooks’s inspirational leadership, teaching, and artistry. On the Yale faculty since 1985, she has taught hundreds of choral directors and touched the lives of many thousands of choral singers and their audiences. As founder and conductor for over 30 years of the Yale Camerata and Chamber Choir, she has brought together students, faculty and staff as well as community members from throughout New England to perform choral music from virtually every age and genre.

Professor Brooks’s broad vision for music-making has been passed on to her students, who can be found in positions of musical leadership throughout New England and around the world. Among her students are the founding conductors of the vocal ensembles Conspirare, Roomful of Teeth, and Seraphic Fire, the Music Directors of major New England choruses such as Chorus pro Musica, CONCORA, and Seraphim Singers, and numerous leaders of church and religious music programs. In a recent survey, alumni often cited her as their primary reason for attending Yale and as the person who influenced them the most.

The Alfred Nash Patterson Grant award recipients for 2019 are the Burlington Choral Society (Burlington, Vt.), Richard Riley, Artistic Director; Cantilena (Arlington, Mass.), Jennifer Kane, Music Director; ChoralArt (Portland, Maine), Robert Russell, Music Director; Chorus Angelicus (Torrington, Conn.), Gabriel Löfvall, Artistic Director; Commonwealth Chorale (Newtonville, Mass.), David Carrier, Artistic Director; Coro Allegro (Boston, Mass.), David Hodgkins, Artistic Director; Fairfield County Children’s Choir (Trumbull, Conn.), Jon Noyes, Music Director; Greater Boston Choral Consortium (Boston, Mass.), Alison LaRosa, Chair; Lorelei Ensemble (Cambridge, Mass.), Beth Willer, Artistic Director; Montpelier Community Gospel Choir (Montpelier, Vt.), John Harrison, Director; New Hampshire Master Chorale (Plymouth, N.H.), Dan Perkins, Music Director; Outer Cape Chorale (So. Wellfleet, Mass.), Allison Beavan, Artistic Director; Somerville Community Chorus (Somerville, Mass.), David Giessow, Music Director; South Shore Children’s Chorus (Quincy, Mass.), Kirsten Oberoi, Artistic Director; and St Mary Schola (Falmouth, Maine), Bruce Fithian, Music Director.

More information about Choral Arts New England and the awards ceremony can be found at https://www.choralarts-newengland.org/

Harold Rosenbaum needs to borrow a vocal score of Bach Cantata BWV 215 for an upcoming performance with his New York Virtuoso Singers. If you can lend the vocal score, or know of how to secure one, please contact Harold directly at . Thank you!

Researching grants for choruses is no easy feat and it’s challenging to find grants that are the “right fit” for choral organizations. Stop googling and start downloading this list of 1,000+ grants perfectly suited for community choruses!