KSC Chamber Singers and Concert Choir Sing Culturally Diverse Music
KEENE, N.H., 3/22/07 - Keene State College’s Chamber Singers and Concert Choir will perform a culturally and linguistically diverse concert on Sunday, April 15, at 3 p.m. in the Alumni Recital Hall of the Redfern Arts Center on Brickyard Pond. Tickets are $7 for the general public and $5 for KSC students, senior citizens, and youth ages 17 or younger. Call the box office at 603-358-2168.
Elaine Broad Ginsberg will conduct the KSC Chamber Singers in a performance of diverse music. The singers will perform two pieces composed by Ginsberg: “Hariu l’Adonai Kol ha-Aretz,” from Psalm 98 will be sung in Hebrew and received the 1991 Guild of Temple Musicians Young Composers Award; and “Blessed Art Thou,” from Psalm 119, which received the 1987 Young Composers Award from the Zamir Chorale of Boston. They will be accompanied by a string ensemble on “Gloria” from Dixit Dominus by Handel, which Ginsberg calls, “A really fun piece and a real vocal showcase!” Other pieces will be “Selig sind die Toten,” by the early Baroque composer Heinrich Schütz, and a jazzy, a cappella version of the B-52s’ hit “Love Shack,” arranged by Ginsberg.
Diane Cushing will conduct the KSC Concert Choir, a group of both male and female singers, in a premier of four songs written for the choir by New Hampshire composer Malcolm Hawkins. The piece is called Sea Song and includes the songs “Nightwatch,” “Weird Specter,” “Western Wind,” and “Boom.” They will also sing John Rutter’s “Sing a Song of Sixpence” and “O Filii et Filiae” with the SATB (Soprano, Alto, Tenor, and Bass) Chorus and Women’s Chorus, both of which are small ensembles from within the Choir. Assistant Conductor Chelsea Stewart, a music student, will conduct the women singers in “Come to My Garden” from The Secret Garden, while the men singers will be featured in “Bring Him Home” from Les Miserables.
Elaine Broad Ginsberg teaches music theory and composition at Keene State and currently conducts the Hampshire College Chorus. She was previously the Jewish Community music director in the Springfield, Massachusetts, area. Prior to that she taught composition and music theory and history, and conducted the Chamber Singers at Interlochen Arts Academy in Michigan.
Diane Cushing, who teaches voice at Keene State, is the founder and director of the Greater Gardner Youth Choir and the Mount Wachusett Community Choir, which toured Italy in 2005. Cushing, a soprano, has also been a featured soloist with the Monadnock Chorus, the Master Works Chorale of Boston, Boston Baroque, and many other groups. She was also the music director of the recent Keene State production of Urinetown.
