KSC Hosts 6th Annual Cantate! High School Choral Festival

from Sandra Howard, Associate Professor of Music

Keene State College held the 6th annual Cantate! High School Choral Festival on Friday, October 23, 2015 in the Redfern Arts Center Main Theatre. Over 225 high school students from New Hampshire joined in song during the opening vocal warm up led by Assistant Professor Daniel Carberg. Six choirs were invited for this year’s festival: Nashua High School South, Campbell High School, Manchester High School West, Stevens High School, Salem High School, and Winnisquam Regional High School. Each choir performed two selections followed by a feedback clinic with KSC’s choral and voice faculty clinicians: Dr. Carberg, Diane Cushing, Dr. Sandra Howard, and Dr. Matthew Leese. Three of KSC’s choirs performed—the Concert Choir, the Chamber Singers, and the Keene Vocal Consort. The festival culminated with Dr. Leese leading an all-sing of an arrangement of New Zealand’s indigenous anthem Ka Waiata.

The KSC Department of Music and student chapter of the American Choral Directors Association (ACDA) co-sponsored this outreach and collaborative event to provide performance and clinic experiences to high school singers in New England. For more information about this event, email Dr. Howard or phone 603-358-2344.