Volume 13, Issue 1
Cantabile Choral Guild, 953 Industrial Ave. Ste 118, Palo Alto CA 94303, 650.424.1410
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As this beautiful summer comes to an end and the first week of rehearsals is fast approaching, I look forward to my first concert season with Cantabile Youth Singers with a great deal of excitement and with great expectations. After hearing all the Cantabile ensembles in concert and at rehearsals, I am very impressed with the singers’ enthusiasm, musicality, and vocal skills. I can hardly wait to begin working with such fine musicians!
It is also very exciting, after eight years of teaching in academia, to return to working with children. The more I teach college students, the more I deplore how many of them were denied musical experiences as children and how much this void has affected their personal growth. It would take too long to list all the values and benefits of performing arts for our children and for our communities as a whole. Yet with each year, despite numerous articles, books, news programs, and speeches on this subject, the commitment to the arts continues to wane.
It is my strong belief that we bear an important responsibility as musicians, teachers, and parents to help young people understand how music works and what it means. We must give each child an opportunity to experience the extraordinary power of the human spirit through the performance of fine music from all periods and genres.
Music is an important language, and by teaching this language to children we pass on an essential part of the human tradition to future generations. Music that we sing and hear is much more than repertoire; it is the voices and thoughts of hundreds of musicians writing over hundreds of years communicating to us what life really meant to them and what lessons they had learned. We who perform this music can experience a stronger connection with the history of civilization and its diverse cultures; we can have a deeper sense of life itself and gain compassion and understanding for others.
It is remarkable what Cantabile Choral Guild and the Cantabile Youth Singers have been doing in Bay Area communities to promote excellent music and educational opportunities. This work is a result of the consistent effort and generous spirit of creative, hard-working individuals: the artistic and administrative staff, the parent volunteers, and the Guild board. I am thrilled to join this remarkable team committed to giving our children the lasting values of quality music education.
During the summer months, I have immersed myself in the inner artistic and administrative operations of Cantabile and have had an opportunity to work, plan, and dream together with executive director Sonja Wohlgemuth, administrator JoAnn di Lorenzo, and Barbara Weinstein, the board representative for Cantabile’s youth program. Their enthusiasm for the youth program and for its future growth resonates with my own aspirations to lead Cantabile Youth Singers toward becoming an internationally renowned ensemble that performs, records, and tours.
I look forward to working with our skilled and talented artistic staff: Shane Troll, Mary Hamilton, and Judy Hay. In joining our team as the youth program coordinator, Keri Elser brings a wealth of experience from her years as a conductor with the Chicago Children’s Chorus. My future plans include collaborations and joint programs with the Cantabile Chorale and its fabulous director, my wonderful colleague Sanford Dole.
Recently I had a chance to present my artistic vision for the youth program to the Guild board and was thrilled to see how excited the board members are about helping my aspirations and dreams become reality. It is absolutely essential that we work together and share the same goals. It is wonderful to know that the support is there!
My sincere thanks go to Cantabile Founding Director Signe Boyer, whose insights and gentle and caring advice have been immensely valuable in my preparation for the upcoming year. Signe’s musical legacy and her remarkable talent for nurturing young people will be a lasting inspiration.
The 2004–2005 season is shaping up to be very exciting. It is always an adventurous quest to assemble the most beautiful, exciting, challenging, and artistically fulfilling compositions so that singers can grow and evolve as artists and performers.
Cantabile’s Concert Choir and Chamber Ensemble will make two guest appearances with the San Jose State University (SJSU) choirs: first at the Annual Scholarship Concerts in the beautiful Mission Santa Clara on November 5 and 7, then on May 6 and 7 in Orff’s Carmina Burana at the SJSU Spring Choral Concerts. The experience of performing with SJSU music students who are preparing for careers in vocal and instrumental performance or in choral conducting and music education will be marvelous for Cantabile’s young singers. And next June I hope to bring members of Cantabile Youth Singers to a youth choir festival in New York City for their Carnegie Hall debut.
For our Winter and Spring Concerts, I am planning a very diverse and eclectic repertoire that spans over 400 years of choral music from Renaissance madrigals to Broadway musical selections and new-age compositions with computer accompaniment. For the past few years, I have been fascinated with the idea of multimedia productions that intertwine singing, dancing, lighting, and acting and have been experimenting with such pieces with my college choirs.
I am excited about our upcoming season. It will be busy, intense, challenging, and interesting in every way, and I am looking forward to getting to know the singers—those returning and those newly joining—and to meeting their devoted parents.
Happy singing, everyone!
Cantabile Choral Guild, 953 Industrial Ave. Ste 118, Palo Alto CA 94303, 650.424.1410
| Home | About | Youth Singer Resources | Chorale Resources | Concerts | | Directions | FAQ | Contact |