News from Cantabile Youth Singers

Cantabile Youth Singers is now in its eleventh season, and the spirit of joy, excitement, and excellence is in the air. Our performance season began in November with the San José State University Choral Scholarship Concerts at Mission Santa Clara. Artistic Director Elena Sharkova led Cantabile Youth Singers and the SJSU choirs in a moving memorial to the children who died in the terrorist attack in Beslan, Russia.

The Preparatory Singers, under the leadership of instructor Keri Elser, gave a recital for families in January. The audience overflowed the usual rehearsal hall so that the whole recital had to be moved into the church sanctuary next door.

In our January concert Saving the World One Note at a Time, the other three choirs of Cantabile Youth Singers performed challenging, adventurous repertoire for a large, enthusiastic crowd. Instructor Shane Troll conducted the dedicated and spirited singers of the Intermediate Choir. He and Elena shared the podium to showcase the talents of the Concert Choir. And with guest instrumentalists from San Jose State University, San Francisco Conservatory and San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra to accompany them, Elena led the Chamber Choir in Randall Thompson’s cantata The Place of the Blest as well as unusual Norwegian Sami songs for voices and improvised instruments.

As part of our ongoing enrollment campaign, prospective singers were encouraged to attend the January concert. The result was a record 40 new singers auditioning to join Cantabile during the week following the concert.

And there’s much more. Thanks to a new partnership with Opera San José, Cantabile Youth Singers is now the opera company’s official children’s chorus. Selected singers appeared in the fall production of Tosca, and several will appear soon in the production of Carmen, February 5 to 20. Later this season, Concert and Chamber Choir singers will join again with the San José State choirs in May to perform Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana, and all the choirs of Cantabile Youth Singers will sing in concerts on June 10 and 12 at Le Petit Trianon in San Jose.

Then it’s off to New York! The Concert Choir and Chamber Choir are going there to participate in a children’s choir festival for which Elena is the guest conductor. The festival performance is June 26, and we hope that many Cantabile friends will be able to attend the Youth Singers’ debut in Carnegie Hall.

Volume 13, Issue 3



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