KSC Spring Concert Hosts Nashua Symphony Chorus
KEENE, N.H., 4/15/08 - The KSC Chamber Singers and the KSC Concert Choir will perform their spring concert on Friday, April 25, at 7:30 p.m. in the Alumni Recital Hall of the Redfern Arts Center on Brickyard Pond. Admission is $10 for the general public and $5 for KSC students, senior citizens, and youth ages 17 and younger. For tickets, call the box office at 603-358-2168.
The Chamber Singers welcome spring with an English Renaissance madrigal, “As Vesta Was Descending,” by Thomas Weelkes. “A Tent of Peace,” by Chamber Singer conductor and KSC faculty member Elaine Ginsberg, and a very playful rendition of the children’s song, “Row Your Boat,” by Eric Troyer will also be performed. Keene State College artist-in-residence George Loring will accompany them.
The Concert Choir, conducted by Diane Cushing, will sing songs with peace as a common theme. They will perform Randall Thompson’s “Peaceable Kingdom” as well as “Make Our Garden Grow,” by Leonard Bernstein. They will be joined by the Nashua Symphony Chorus for several pieces bringing the number of singers on stage to nearly one hundred. “The Rose, the Briar, and the Bicycle,” by Gwyneth Walker, and “The Sirens,” by KSC music faculty member Tim Rogers, will also be performed. Rogers will accompany the chorus during his piece.
Cushing has been heard as soloist with the Master Works Chorale of Boston, Boston Baroque, the Hamilton Baroque Ensemble, the Cape Cod Chorale, the Bach Society, the Neponsett Choral Society, the Thayer Symphony Orchestra, the Assabet Valley Mastersingers, and the Monadnock Chorus and Orchestra. Cushing has also been heard in Boston’s premiere of Villa-Lobos’ “Bachianas Brazileiras no. 5” with bassoons, and in Worcester’s critically acclaimed performance of setting of the poetry of Stanley Kunitz by composer David McKay. She is the founder and director of The Greater Gardner Youth Choir and the Mount Wachusett Community Choir and was recently appointed director of the Nashua Choral Society. Cushing currently teaches voice at Keene State and Assumption College and conducts the Keene State Concert Choir.
Ginsberg is a lecturer in the Music Department at Keene State, teaching courses in music theory and skills and the course History of Jewish Music. She conducts the Hampshire College Chorus in Massachusetts and was previously the Jewish community music director in the Springfield, Mass., area. Her compositions have been performed at the St. Moritz International Choral Festival in Switzerland, at Merkin Hall and the 92nd Street Y in New York City, at the American Conference of Cantors Convention, and at the International Trombonists’ Workshop. She has received the Guild of Temple Musicians Young Composers Award and the Mu Phi Epsilon Composition Competition Award.
Henkel has been a member of the KSC faculty for more than 16 years and performs regularly with the Keene Chamber Orchestra, Raylynmor Opera Company, and other New England musical groups.
Rogers received his B.A. and his M.M. in piano performance from Bob Jones University in South Carolina and has performed at the Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall and in numerous concert venues throughout New England. He has accompanied the Monadnock Chorus, the Keene State Chamber Singers, and the Greenfield High School Choir in Massachusetts. He teaches privately and is a music instructor at Keene State College.
