consort notes - Virginia Consort

The Virginia Consort
The Virginia Consort Festival Chorus
The Virginia Consort Youth Chorale
September 8-25 • Call 434-244-8444
for information
The Prelude Choir (Grades 4-7)
The First Step Choir (Grades 2-3)
Call 434-978-4338
for information
20th Anniversary Season
Events at a Glance
Excellence in Choral Music
AUDITIONS
(openings in all choirs)
The Virginia Consort Newsletter
The Virginia Consort: 20 Years LIVE!
CD Release Party
Sunday, October 18th, 2009 – 5:00 pm
Siips Wine Bar – East 2nd Street
on the Downtown Mall, Charlottesville, VA
RSVP strongly suggested:
consortcarolers@gmail.com
Newsletter Volume VI
The
Virginia
Consort
Barnes & Noble Bookfair
Friday & Saturday, November 20th & 21st, 2009
Barracks Road Shopping Center
1117 Emmet Street
Charlottesville, VA
1658 Brandywine Drive, Charlottesville, VA 22901
THE VIRGINIA CONSORT
By the end of September (and maybe
sooner), The Virginia Consort will have its
newly designed website up and running.
Featuring a stunning new design, the site
will enable us to quickly update events
and activities, provide detailed information
for audiences as well as potential chorus
members, and create an online method for
buying CDs and tickets and for sending us
your much-appreciated donations.
We hope you will bookmark our website as a
“favorite” and visit us regularly to hear about
special events and performances. Go to:
www.virginiaconsort.org.
Carl Orff: Carmina Burana
Sunday, March 7th, 2010 – 3:30 pm
Cabell Hall Auditorium, UVA Grounds
Charlottesville, VA
Whole Foods Market - 5@5
Four Fridays in April, 2010 – 5:00 pm
300 Shoppers World Court
29 N, Charlottesville, VA
A Little May Music
Schubert: Mass in G
with Chamber Orchestra
Saturday, May 8th, 2010 – 7:00 pm
University Baptist Church
1223 W. Main Street, Charlottesville, VA
Judith Gary Reminisces…
As Our 20th Season Begins
Concert Schedule
Christmas With The Consort
Saturday, December 5, 2009
4:00 and 7:00 pm
First Presbyterian Church
Mid-Season Masterworks
Carl Orff: Carmina Burana
Sunday, March 7, 2010
3:30 pm
Cabell Hall at UVA
A Blue Ridge Christmas
Mid-Season Masterworks
September 2009
20th Anniversary
Saturday, December 5th, 2009 – 4:00 pm & 7:00 pm
First Presbyterian Church
500 Park Street, Charlottesville, VA
Presented by Wintergreen Performing Arts
Sunday, December 13th, 2009 – 4:00 pm
Rockfish Presbyterian Church
5016 Rockfish Valley Highway, Nellysford, VA
Ticket info: wintergreenperformingarts.org
Excellence in Choral Music
2009-10 Season
Christmas With The Consort
VISIT OUR NEW WEBSITE!
CONSORT NOTES
A Little May Music
Schubert: Mass in G
with Chamber Orchestra
Saturday, May 8, 2010
7:00 pm
University Baptist Church
An open invitation to
The Virginia Consort: 20 Years Live!
CD Release Party
Sunday, October 18th, 2009 at 5:00 PM
Siips Wine Bar - East 2nd Street
on the Downtown Mall, Charlottesville, VA
No cover charge
THE
VIRGINIA
CONSORT
RSVP strongly suggested: consortcarolers@gmail.com
Come hear our brand new CD,
Vote for your favorite pieces to be
performed during May’s concert
Excellence in Choral Music
Celebrate with us as we drink a toast
to 20 years of
The Virginia Consort is funded
in part by grants from
Virginia Commission for the Arts
The Virginia Consort!
Light hors d’oeuvres. Cash bar.
Prix fixe dinner available, details to follow soon!
The Joy of Singing!
The Virginia Consort is a 501 (c)(3)
not-for-profit organization.
All donations are tax deductible.
virginiaconsort.org
(434) 244-8444
Nineteen seasons of music making,
hundreds of singers spanning age groups
from 10 years old through 70, thousands
of audience members, millions of notes,
and so, so very much caring and, yes, love
invested in each and every facet of our
musical history. When I look back at the
years, I surprise myself to realize that what
I really treasure is the human sharing of it
all­— the singing, yes, but the sharing of it
too. For me, if we cannot share our music
with all our listeners, then it never really
finds its way to fruition — it is never fully
born.
This will be a special season in many
ways! As well as holding parties and special
events, we hope to engage and enthrall with
our selections of works (please see sidebar
on this page for complete dates and times).
Christmas With The Consort will be
our first concert of the season and will be
filled with the candlelight, brass choir, and
glorious singing that makes this concert
a much-loved start to the season for our
Charlottesville/Albemarle community.
In March, our Festival Chorus will
help banish winter weariness with a
spirited performance of Carl Orff ’s
Carmina Burana, with full orchestra,
over 100 singers, and professional soloists.
In that same concert, The Virginia
Consort Chamber Ensemble will sing
the Charlottesville debut of Five Hebrew
Love Songs by American composer Eric
Whitacre, the rockstar-famous composer
of 21st-century music for choirs.
Our annual springtime concert, A Little
May Music, will feature Schubert’s lovely
Mass in G, as lyrical a setting of this timehonored text as has been written. The
Virginia Consort Chamber Ensemble will
return for this performance, accompanied
by chamber orchestra. The second half of
the concert will be filled with variety and
even some humor, with some musical
surprises as well.
Please come and join us this season as we
celebrate these wonderful years. My heart
is filled with gratitude for all that we have
enjoyed and all that is to come. We would
love to have each of you with us!
New Choir For Grades 2-3
Catherine Allen, President
Judith Gary, Director
In November…Books, Beverages, and Beautiful Music
Donna Rehorn, Youth Director
10 Ways to Celebrate 20 Years With Us!
The operative word here is “Celebrate!” It’s our 20th
Anniversary and we plan to whoop it up! Watch for festive
touches to our December, March, and May concerts, as
well as a host of special appearances and events throughout
the season.
Come celebrate with us at our CD Release Party on
Sunday, October 18 at 5:00 P.M. at Siips Wine Bar on the
downtown mall. Hear selections from our brand new CD,
The Virginia Consort: 20 Years Live! and toast twenty years
of excellent music-making. You’ll also have the chance to
vote for your favorite selections to be performed in the May
concert. This is a party for pure pleasure, and we’d love to
have our supporters join us for the fun!
This season, you’ll see more of us around town. The
weekend before Thanksgiving — Friday and Saturday,
November 20th & 21st — we’ll appear in brief performances
all day at our Barnes & Noble Bookfair. Come hear
ensembles from our youth and adult groups, enjoy
discussion on literature and music, and support The
Consort while you start your holiday shopping. In April,
catch us at Whole Foods on four Fridays for 5@5. A fivedollar donation to The Consort on these evenings allows
you a terrific sampling of wines and foods while you shop
and mingle with Consort folk.
Our 20th year is a time not only to celebrate the past, but
to begin something new. Our littlest singers, The Prelude
Choir, will be joined by The First Step Choir in September
as we welcome 2nd and 3rd graders to our training ensembles.
Look for them this holiday season at the Lights of Love tree
lighting ceremony at UVA Medical Center. Be sure to
arrive at least 30 minutes early to our Christmas & May
concerts to hear The Prelude Choir perform a delightful
‘prelude’ to the program!
A shiny, new website will launch in the fall (www.
virginiaconsort.org), and old traditions will warm us once
again this winter. What a privilege it has been to share our
love of good music and live performance with you all these
years. Thanks for being there with us through it all.
— Jessica Wiseman
Laura Layman Conducting
New CD Release in October
The Virginia Consort: 20 Years LIVE!
The Impossible Dream: selecting the best of what already
is dear to your heart! We want to share some of our
fondest musical memories with our friends, but where to
begin…? We have put together a representative sampling of
some of our finest work on The Virginia Consort: 20 Years
Live!, whose release we are happy to announce for Sunday,
October 18th at 5:00 P.M. These live recordings capture the
breadth and depth of our joyful work over the years, with
tracks ranging from a 1998 performance of a Spanish folk
song through Bernstein and Mozart and Orff to this spring’s
“Greensleeves.” We feature all our concert choruses: Treble,
High School, Festival, and of course The Virginia Consort.
Some sample tracks:
• Selections from Brahms’ Liebeslieder Waltzes
The Virginia Consort
• Rising of the Moon
The Youth Chorale Treble Chorus
• Rachmaninov’s Bogoroditse Devo
The Virginia Consort Festival Chorus
• Fa Una Canzona
The Youth Chorale High School Chorus
• Duruflé’s Tota Pulchra es
Women of The Virginia Consort
The selections are international, interfaith, and “interstylistic,” but the unifying theme is a love of music and a
passion for quality performance. The program notes share
how much this music-making has meant to us. Come to
the party and pick up a copy!
— Rob Morris
I can always count on The Virginia Consort
to surprise and charm me with their amazing
singing and Judy Gary’s fresh and original
programming. — Janis Chevalier
The Youth Chorale program grows this year with an addition
of a new beginning-level choir. The First Step Choir is for
young vocalists in grades 2 and 3. This choir will focus
on vocal development for the younger child. Rehearsals
will include vocal exercises, beginning note reading,
ensemble singing, rhythmic development, and a variety of
beginning-level vocal skills. There will also be performance
opportunities throughout the season.
Auditions for this group will be held during September,
with the first rehearsal in October. For more information,
please contact the director, Donna Rehorn, at 434-978-4338,
drehorn@k12albemarle.org, or drehorn@embarqmail.com.
Evan Thompson Applauds His
Youth Chorale Experience
I started singing with The
Youth Chorale three years ago
when I was a high school freshman, because my violin teacher,
Susan Black, suggested it might
help improve my playing.
It didn’t take long for me to
realize that I wanted to keep
singing whether or not it had
any effect on my efforts with
the violin. I love the variety of
music we get to sing – everything from What Shall We Do
with a Drunken Sailor to Handel’s Messiah – and I invariably
leave the Wednesday evening rehearsals in a great mood.
These years with The Consort have certainly improved my
ear and my singing (and no doubt even my violin playing!),
introduced me to new friends, and afforded me the distinct
privilege of working with such an inspiring director as Mrs.
Gary. I have enjoyed every rehearsal and every concert, and
I’m looking forward to what will sadly be my last year. I’m
sure I’ll be attending the 2010 Virginia Consort Christmas
concert, when I’ll be home on vacation from my first year in
college. If you happen to hear especially enthusiastic applause
coming from one particular audience member, it’s a safe bet
that it will be me!
— Evan Thompson
Laura Reflects on Her Youth Chorale Years
The Youth Chorale was very important to me during the
seven years I was a member. During that time, I formed
friendships with other youth in the community and was
presented with unique musical opportunities. Because my
school did not have a very strong music program, it was in
The Youth Chorale that I learned skills and repertoire that
would benefit me for the rest of my life. I looked forward
to each weekly rehearsal that Judy Gary led so dynamically.
Since I have graduated from high school, I have enjoyed
returning to Charlottesville to hear The Consort concerts as
an audience member. I am about to start my first year as a
high school music teacher in Northern Virginia and hope
to offer my students the musical opportunities that I was
fortunate to have because of my experience with The Youth
Chorale.
— Laura Layman
The Virginia Consort will be hosting a Barnes & Noble
Bookfair on November 20 and 21, 2009. This exciting
two-day event will take place at the Barnes & Noble in the
Barracks Road Shopping Center in Charlottesville. We are
certainly asking for your support during this weekend (a
perfect time for some holiday shopping!), but your friends
and family who live anywhere in the United States can
purchase their Barnes & Noble items on November 20 and
21 and help us out as well! The voucher included in this
newsletter can be copied and freely distributed to friends
and family.
How does The Virginia Consort raise money with a
Barnes & Noble Bookfair? The Virginia Consort will receive
a contribution from Barnes & Noble based on the total U.S.
purchases that Barnes & Noble’s customers make using our
vouchers on those two days.
All you have to do is go to a Barnes & Noble store and give
them our number. That number is 556720. This is a great
time to buy books for yourself or to purchase Christmas
gifts. This plan works for all books — including children’s
books and magazines — and goodies from the cafe. They
sell a delicious pumpkin cheesecake for $30 which would
be wonderful for Thanksgiving. At any rate, save the dates.
The Consort is in the process of organizing a delightful
two days at the Barracks Road store, with performances by
Consort ensembles, music and story time for children, and
free samples from the Cheesecake Factory. Please check
our website, www.virginiaconsort.org, for updates on the
Bookfair and make plans to join us for this exciting event!
The Virginia Consort
The Virginia Consort
EAT AND DRINK WITH US
FRIDAYS IN APRIL!
During the month of April 2010, The Virginia Consort
will be the recipient of a portion of the proceeds gained
during Whole Foods’ 5@5 Events, occurring on four Friday
evenings beginning at 5:00 p.m. This program has store
patrons donate $5 to the named non-profit recipient (that’s
us!), in return for which they receive wine samples and
other goodies in the store. Please visit our website, www.
virginiaconsort.org, for updates on this event – and make
plans to visit Whole Foods at 5:00 on a Friday in April,
donate $5 to The Virginia Consort, and enjoy some wine
while you shop!
Friday & Saturday, November 20-21, 2009
Barnes & Noble • Barracks Road Shopping Center
Fri. & Sat., Nov. 20-21
Barnes & Noble
Barracks Rd. Shopping Ctr.
The Virginia Consort
Listen to holiday music sung by The Virginia Consort
Bring the children to music & story time
Grab a coffee and sample some delicious cheesecake in the cafe
Visit www.virginiaconsort.org for more information
556720