Keene State College Hosts Presto! Middle School Choral Festival

On March 11, Keene State College hosted more than 150 middle school students from New Hampshire and Vermont for the Presto! Middle School Choral Festival, held in the Redfern Arts Center Main Theatre. Five choirs and their directors were invited for this year’s festival including:

Keene Middle School – Kate Butterfield, director
Chesterfield School – Alison Schoales, director
Kurn Hattin Homes for Children – Lisa Bianconi, director
St. Joseph’s School – Vicki Moore, director
South Meadow School – Elizabeth Ring-Fortin, director

Each choir performed two selections followed by a feedback clinic with KSC’s choral and voice faculty clinicians: Assistant Professor Daniel Carberg, Lecturer Diane Cushing, and Associate Professor Sandra Howard. Three of KSC’s choirs performed: the Concert Choir, the Chamber Singers, and the Keene Vocal Consort. The festival culminated in an all-sing of an arrangement of “Closer to the Flame” by David Lantz III.

The KSC Department of Music and student chapter of the American Choral Directors Assn. (ACDA) co-sponsored this outreach and collaborative event in an effort to provide performance and clinic experiences to middle school singers in New England. For more information about the choral division or choral festivals at Keene State College, email Dr. Sandra Howard (or phone: 603-358-2344).