The Ithaca Community Chorus

and Chamber Singers

Ithaca, New York

Gerald Wolfe, Director

VOICES Multicultural Chorus

For Members

Join Us

Links

NEWS FROM THE ITHACA COMMUNITY CHORUS
Week of April 7, 2008
Read the ICC website ( http://ithacacommunitychorus.clarityconnect.com)
Send mail to the ICC Board ( IthacaCommunityChorus@clarityconnect.com)

MESSAGE FROM GERALD WOLFE

HOMEWORK FOR 4/16: All of Part 2. Great job this week!

MORE ON MENDELSSOHN

On Wednesday, April 23, 6:30 PM, chorus member Marty Ginsburg will give a talk on the composer of Elijah before our regular rehearsal. This promises to be entertaining as well as educational, and we hope many of you can come early that night. His talk will be repeated for our audience at 7:30 PM the night of our concert.

FINAL PERFORMANCE IN MUSIC AT GRACE CONCERT SERIES

Organist Erica Johnson will give a recital at Grace Episcopal Church, 375 West Church, Elmira, this Sunday, April 13, at 4 PM. The program will include music by Bach, Sowerby, Widor, and Guilmant. Admission is free. Detailed directions may be obtained from the parish website: www.grace-elmira.org or by calling the parish office at 607-732-0545.

Erica Johnson is a native of Winston-Salem, NC. With the assistance of a generous grant from the Frank Huntington Beebe Fund for Musicians in 2001, Erica investigated historical keyboard technique and instruments in Bremen, Germany for two years, spending most of her weekends exploring historical instruments in Ostfriesland and Niedersachsen, particularly those of Arp Schnitger. In August of 2002 she was awarded second prize in the Norddeutsche Rundfunk International Organ Competition, and in November of 2004 she received the International Arp Schnitger Preis in Hamburg, Germany. Since the fall of 2003 Erica has been working towards a Doctor of Musical Arts degree at the Eastman School of Music and is currently instructor of organ literature at the Oberlin Conservatory and the Eastman School. She is also organist of the Church of the Blessed Sacrament in Rochester, NY.

MESSAGE FROM THE VICE PRESIDENT

Hello Chorus!
My, my, the concert is approaching quickly! I trust that you are all selling tickets to all of your friends, co-workers, families, neighbors, clients, neighbors, mail people, strangers on the street, etc. This concert should truly be one of our best yet. I'm personally looking forward to concert week just to hear our boy soprano and the huge orchestra. So, as concert week is approaching, I have a few reminders:

Concert week information & dress code: It might be a good idea to review the Spring '08 Fact Sheet and Detailed Information for Chorus Members sheet, to familiarize or re-acquaint yourselves with end of the semester procedures. If you haven't printed them, they are available at the website, http://ithacacommunitychorus.clarityconnect.com/. Click on the Chorus link on the opening page, and then click on the "Spring 2008 Information" link.

Chamber Singers Concerts: Finally! An opportunity has arisen in which you can actually enjoy the Chamber Singers from a seat in the audience! Remember that you can buy tickets from a Chamber Singer or at the door for $5 (what a bargain!). Next week, we will have tickets for sale at a table at rehearsal as well.

Chorus Tickets: Again, I assume that you are selling them to everyone that you see! Remember that Sunny does have more tickets available, if you can sell more than your four. Also, I counted 20 envelopes that have yet to be picked up from Sunny--so please, please , pick up your ticket envelopes if you have not already.

Gibbons Scholarship: The Gibbons Scholarship basket will continue to be place out at rehearsal. This is a great opportunity to support local young musical talent.

Board Elections will take place next week at announcement time. If you have any interest whatsoever in joining the board, now is the time to make yourself known. Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions at all about being on the board. My phone number is 607-342-579, and you may email me at bellamayophoto@hotmail.com

Post Concert Party: If you are interested in hosting the post-concert party, let us know! Members are encouraged to bring food and drink, so space is what is most needed.

Thank you, and stay well,
Stephanie Meyer,
ICC VP, Chorus

RUSSIAN UPDATES -- CHORUS MEMBERS TO TRAVEL TO ST PETERSBURG, RUSSIA

Way back in 1994, Gerald Wolfe and members of the Community Chorus took Rachmaninov to Russia! We had prepared The Vespers for performance in Ithaca in December 1993, but with some prompting, much planning and fund-raising, took 90 singers and friends to Moscow and St Petersburg for 8 days in January 1994. How crazy does that sound? Well, way back then, perestroika was just happening.

Through a Russian contact in Ithaca we hooked up with a St Petersburg children's choir ("Uventa") and their vivacious director, Aza Alexeeva, and other music school staff. Those kids won our hearts, and upon our return, a small planning committee (RC4) determined to bring the choir to Ithaca, raising funds to host them in 1995 and again in 1998. Numerous Ithaca families hosted pairs of Russian children, and Ithacans enjoyed meeting them and hearing the children sing. Friendships have developed, and some of the original RC4 group have made visits to the Uventa personnel and St Petersburg in the ensuing years.

Next week Betsy Nicholson and Diana Nathanielsz again travel to St Petersburg, will hear Uventa sing, be with Aza and other choir staff, and former and present members of Uventa. We will carry messages and gifts of joy and friendship.

Through the international language of music, and in the spirit of harmony and friendship, the trips back and forth have made a lasting impression on many, but especially on the members of the children's choir, "Uventa."

OTHER COMMUNITY EVENTS

Jon Riss To Present Benefit Recital on April 18

Jonathan Riss, Organist and Children's Choir Director of First Unitarian Society in Ithaca, will present a benefit recital on Friday, April 18, at 8:30 PM in the First Unitarian Church Sanctuary. There will also be a pre-concert demonstration of the church's 1975 Hellmuth Wolff pipe organ at 7:30 PM. The recital program will be the Dritter Teil (Third Part) of Johann Sebastian Bach's Clavierübung (Keyboard Practice), one the great monuments of organ literature. Clavierübung III consists of a cycle of 21 Chorale Preludes and four Duetti with a massive Prelude and Fugue opening and closing the work respectively.

Free Concert Sponsored by Cornell Department of Music

Free concert on Friday April 18, at 8 pm in Barnes Hall, sponsored by the Cornell University Department of Music:
Joseph Lin, violin; Orion Weiss, piano; John Haines-Eitzen, cello.

Ravel: Sonata for Violin and Piano
Bach: Sonata in G Minor for Violin solo
Smetana: Trio for Piano, Violin and Cello

ICC Chamber Singers Concerts on April 26 and April 27

Saturday, April 26 at 7:30 PM at Grace Episcopal Church in Cortland
and
Sunday, April 27th, at 8:00 PM at the Unitarian Church in Ithaca

The Chamber Singers will sing four Mendelssohn motets and be joined by the talented Gerald Wolfe with a few organ pieces. The concert will be one hour in duration and admission is $5. Please invite your friends to join you in supporting our Chamber Singers and in enjoying great music!

DATES TO REMEMBER

Wednesday, April 23 at 6:30 PM - Marty Ginsburg's talk on Mendelssohn before our regular rehearsal
Saturday, April 26 at 7:30 PM - ICC Chamber Singers concert at Grace Episcopal Church, Cortland
Sunday, April 27 8:00 PM - ICC Chamber Singers concert at Unitarian Church, Ithaca
Saturday, May 3 8:00 PM - ICC concert

NEWSLETTER ITEMS?

If you would like to include a brief item in the ICC e-newsletter, send text ready to copy and paste by Friday 11:00 am to Mary Royer (mroyer@twcny.rr.com). Notices should be related to the chorus or the local music community.

Mary Royer
ICC Newsletter Editor
mroyer@twcny.rr.com