Marching Into March… What’s new at BCF this month? Scores, study CDs, invoices and information have been sent to the Vancouver choristers – watch your mail! We are still waiting on shipments of scores and study media for the Sheffield and Canterbury weeks, but expect to have those in the mail for you by the end of April, right on schedule. There are still openings in some weeks for some voice parts, so if you are interested in attending this summer, please visit our website, www.choralfest.org for information and the application.
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Spotlight On...Dvorak - Stabat Mater Sheffield Week 1, July 8 – 15, Conductor: Frank Nemhauser
I was perusing excerpts from The Robert Shaw Reader, a wonderful collection of thoughts and philosophies of The Giant of American Choral Music, edited by Robert Blocker and published in 2004 by the Yale University Press, and came upon this entry from October 1998:
Friends –
Those of us for whom singing the choral/orchestral repertoire is one of the principal joys of existence are accustomed to eating awfully high on the hog. We get the best dishes out of every chef’s kitchen……That these and a few other “master” –pieces became richer and richer through repetition through the years carries with its satisfactions also the danger of blinding us to other repertoire or under-valuing it. My guess is that Dvořák’s Stabat mater is going to become the more precious the better we know it. Here was one for whom music was the air he breathed, the water he drank, and food he ate. His musical roots were as deep in the people’s popular and folk music of his time as they were in the international languages of the classical masters. Over the period of a few years he had to bury three of his children in infancy or youth, the last two within weeks of one another. Who among us would care to look at the members of his own family and contemplate that agony? Under these conditions he undertook the setting of this litany of bloody grief….Like the Dies Irae, its near-contemporary and probable superior in literary stature, for nearly eight centuries the Stabat mater text has inspired composers…It was beautiful last night. – And there’s still more grieving to be done. Aren’t we lucky? - R
And November 1998:
Stabat pater fortunatus
Happy as a hippopatus
Up to here in muck and mire.
Hearing sounds beyond believing,
Angel voices Halloweaving,
Quel orchestrand WHAT A CHOIR! - R
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The 2007 Annual Fund as of March 2: Received - $90,712; To Go - $129,788; Goal = $220,500 Thank you to those of you who continually show your support of BCF through your generous donations.
Special thanks to the choristers who have stepped-up their giving or have taken advantage of our new and easy monthly debit program!
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Faculty News!
While Trudy and Frank are still working on some details, they can confirm that the following faculty will be at BCF this year:
Sheffield: sopranos Kathy FitzGibbon and Barbara Peters; altos Catherine McKeever, Karen Krueger (2 weeks) and Pam Dellal (3 weeks); tenors Carl Johengen, Krishan Oberoi (2 weeks, former apprentice) and Brandon Brack (3 weeks, former apprentice); and accompanist Elizabeth Rodgers.
Bass faculty is TBA.
Canterbury: soprano Judith Rees, alto Deborah Miles Johnson, tenor Gareth Roberts, bass Colin Baldy and accompanist Julia Richter.
Vancouver: soprano Kathy FitzGibbon, mezzo-soprano Mary Gerbi, tenor Brandon Brack, baritone Jason Michael (former apprentice) and
Canadian accompanist Stephen Smith.
♫♫♫ In the meantime, support your favorite BCF faculty members by attending the following performances. ♫♫♫
Katherine FitzGibbon March 3 - conducting the Cornell Glee Club at Smith College in a performance including the Durufle Requiem (this one conducted by Jonathan Hirsh).
8:00pm, John M. Green Hall, Smith College, Northampton MA.
March 16 through 24– taking the Cornell Chorus on tour to Canada with performances in Rochester (March 16), Oakville (March 17), Toronto (March 18), Ottawa (March 19), Drummondville (March 20), Quebec City (March 21), Montreal (March 23), and Syracuse (March 24).
March 29– conducting the Cornell University Chorus in their end-of-tour concert, 8:00pm, Sage Chapel, Cornell University.
Pam Dellal March 11– Schumann: Lieder of Mary Stuart, op. 135; Duets, op. 103, Emmanuel Music,
3:00pm, Emmanuel Church, 15 Newbury Street, Boston, MA.
March 25– Bach: Gott soll allein mein Herze haben – BWV 169, Emmanuel Music,
10:00am, Emmanuel Church, 15 Newbury Street, Boston, MA.
Timothy LeFebvre March 4– Mozart’s Coronation Mass, 8:30pm, Carnegie Hall, New York, NY.
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Long-time chorister Bunty Ketcham recently sent the following e-mail note, and wanted to share her sentiments with her fellow-BCFers…
Hi, all my friends at BCF!
Just a note to tell you that after much thought, I have decided not to enroll in 2007 but to retire now and start to celebrate my many years of singing with you all.
There are a number of reasons, including the fact that I know I don't have the range each work deserves... tho' I'm a fairly active octogenarian, that's not likely to get better. I knew I'd have to stop some time...was just waiting for a sign.
The sign is here...somewhat to my surprise (this had not been a part of my master plan for 2006) and greatly to my pleasure, I recently got married, making my life and priorities quite different now. Both time and money are precious commodities.
Singling this glorious music in BCF's beautiful surroundings has been such a happy inspiration to me...I've loved each and every program, tho' perhaps "Dream of Gerontious" stands way out in front. And your faculty have made the week instructive as well as enjoyable. I continue to tell members of my church choir to jump at this opportunity.
So thank you Trudy, Frank, Barbara and all my BCF friends, for building this wonderful institution. I wish you happy energetic singers who have learned all their music ahead of time and a July full of clear warm summer Saturday evenings. I may easily pop in to hear a concert on my way north with my dear new husband ... I need to learn to sing internally instead of outwardly, but I will always sing praises of BCF lustily out loud!
With all best wishes,
Bunty Ketcham, AII
I’m sure you’ll join us in sending good wishes back to Bunty!
The BCF Staff
