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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONCORA Media Contact: Sarah Hager Johnston
EMAIL: media@concora.org
PHONE: 860-676-2228
WEB: www.concora.org
TWITTER: https://twitter.com/concorasings
FACEBOOK: www.facebook.com/ConnecticutChoralArtists/
ADDRESS: CONCORA, 233 Pearl Street, Hartford, CT 06103
Choral Singers Invited to Apply by May 20 to sing in CONCORA’s 2018 Summer Festival
Up to 150 singers will be accepted for the 2018 Festival Choir. The 2018 Summer Festival will celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Festival and the 100th anniversary of the birth of composer Leonard Bernstein.
HARTFORD AND NEW BRITAIN, CONN. (April 17, 2018) — Experienced choral singers are invited to apply by May 20, 2018 to participate in CONCORA’s Summer Festival, “Wonderful Town! A Bernstein Centenary.” The Festival runs from July 29 through August 4, 2018; all events take place at Bethany Covenant Church in Berlin, CT.
Now in its 20th season, CONCORA’s Summer Festival offers amateur singers an opportunity to rehearse, learn, and perform with CONCORA (Connecticut Choral Artists), the region’s oldest and best-known professional choir, and Artistic Director Chris Shepard.
The Festival offers a week of exceptional music-making, uplifting repertoire, and high artistic standards in a relaxed atmosphere with plenty of opportunities for socializing, renewing friendships, and making new friends. In evening and weekend sessions, participants rehearse with Artistic Director Chris Shepard and an ensemble of CONCORA’s professional singers, enjoying informal social events along the way. The Festival culminates in a public concert on Saturday, August 4, at 4:00PM.
CONCORA’s Artistic Director Chris Shepard will direct the CONCORA Summer Festival Choir, which typically numbers 120 singers from across Connecticut, with some coming from nearby states and as far away as Pennsylvania, Florida, and Texas.
As 2018 marks the 20th edition of the Summer Festival and the 100th anniversary of the birth of Leonard Bernstein, Shepard has chosen a celebratory all-Bernstein program.
“Choral organizations all over the world are marking the Bernstein centenary with performances of the composer’s popular Chichester Psalms,” said Shepard. “Because the Summer Festival Choir performed that music fairly recently, we are taking advantage of the centenary to explore and perform some of Bernstein’s other wonderful choral music, with choral selections from West Side Story, Mass, Peter Pan, Candide, and Wonderful Town. It’s going to be great fun for the singers and a treat for our audience.”
Qualified high school and college-age students may apply to attend the Festival on full scholarship as choral scholars. The Summer Festival choir typically includes up to a dozen choral scholars, talented singers selected for their musical abilities and recommended by their music teachers and choir directors.
"These terrific young singers are an essential part of the Festival Choir," said Chris. "Their dedication and musicianship inspire us all, and they bring a special kind of energy and freshness to the adult ensemble that the audience enjoys as much as we do."
Information about the Festival, including details on schedule, registration, application and scholarship forms, and more, may be found at the “Summer Festival” page at CONCORA’s website: http://www.concora.org/summer-festival.html.
The application deadline is Tuesday, May 20, 2018.
Tickets for the August 4 Summer Festival concert will go on sale in June at www.concora.org.
Bethany Covenant Church, at 785 Mill Street in Berlin, CT, is fully accessible and air-conditioned, with ample free, off-street parking.
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Interviews: For more information, or to schedule an interview with CONCORA Artistic Director Chris Shepard, please contact Sarah Hager Johnston, CONCORA VP for Marketing and Communications, at media@concora.org or 860-676-2228.
Images: Included below are scenes from the 2017 CONCORA Summer Festival and CONCORA's Artistic Director Chris Shepard.
About the CONCORA Summer Choral Festival — Since 1999, the Summer Choral Festival has been the cornerstone of CONCORA’s commitment to educational outreach. The Festival provides a unique opportunity for singers from around Connecticut and neighboring states to prepare and perform great choral works under the skilled baton of CONCORA’s Artistic Director. Festival participants are able to sing alongside members of CONCORA, all experienced professional singers who lend their support as fellow choristers and section leaders. Festival singers receive and prepare their music in advance, then come together to rehearse in five three-hour rehearsals over the week before the concert, an intense musical experience interspersed with social events.
More information about the Summer Festival, including registration, scholarship, and application materials, may be found at http://www.concora.org/summer-festival.html
About CONCORA’s Artistic Director Chris Shepard — Chris Shepard has served as CONCORA’s Artistic Director since 2015, succeeding founder Richard Coffey in that role. He also serves as Music Director of the Worcester Chorus and the Masterwork Chorus of Morristown, New Jersey. With these choirs, Chris has performed a wide range of repertoire, collaborating with a number of major orchestras in venues that include Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, and Radio City Music Hall in New York, as well as the Royal Festival Hall in London and the Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City.
A conductor with a particular affinity for the choral music of J.S. Bach, Chris founded the Sydneian Bach Choir in Sydney, Australia, an ensemble that has performed all of Bach’s choral cantatas as well as all of his major choral works. He has taught at the Taft School, Sydney Grammar School and Holy Cross College. A pianist and keyboard continuist, Chris holds degrees from the Hartt School and the Yale School of Music, and the University of Sydney. His PhD dissertation won the American Choral Directors Association’s 2012 Julius Herford Prize for outstanding doctoral thesis in choral music.
A fuller bio of Chris Shepard is available at http://www.concora.org/artistic-leadership.html
About CONCORA (Connecticut Choral Artists) — Acclaimed as Connecticut’s oldest and best-known professional choir, CONCORA (Connecticut Choral Artists) presents masterful performances of the world’s finest choral music. Since its founding in 1974, CONCORA has held a unique place in the arts community as Connecticut’s premier professional choir, and has built an extraordinary reputation for artistic excellence throughout New England. Under the direction of Artistic Director Chris Shepard, the ensemble’s versatility is displayed in its wide range of repertoire and in the selection of the choir’s singers to produce an extraordinary range of choral color and dynamic range for each program and performance space.
CONCORA’s educational outreach program includes several highly successful projects. CONCORA extends special invitations to other choruses, especially children’s, high school and college ensembles, as a regular part of its concert programming, particularly the “Extraordinary Concerts,” where the ensemble collaborates with select high school choirs. CONCORA’s Summer Festival offers adult singers from the community and select high school and college singers an opportunity to join with CONCORA in rehearsing and performing great choral works. For children, the CONCORA-to-Go quartet presents an interactive, multicultural program, “Around the World in Music,” performed in area elementary schools and public libraries.
More information about CONCORA is available at http://concora.org/about/
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CONCORA MEDIA CONTACTS
CONCORA Media Contact: Sarah Hager Johnston
EMAIL: media@concora.org
PHONE: 860-676-2228
WEB: www.concora.org
TWITTER: https://twitter.com/concorasings
FACEBOOK: www.facebook.com/ConnecticutChoralArtists/
ADDRESS: CONCORA, 233 Pearl Street, Hartford, CT 06103
CONCORA’s 2017-2018 season is made possible through the generous gifts of many individual donors and with the generous support of the following foundations and institutions: the American Savings Foundation, the Greater Hartford Arts Council, the Richard P. Garmany Fund at the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving, the J. Walton Bissell Foundation, the Andrew J. Sloper Music Fund, the Saunders Foundation, The Edward C. & Ann T. Roberts Foundation, the Ensworth Charitable Foundation, Connecticut DECD Office of the Arts, The William and Alice Mortensen Foundation, the City of New Britain Commission on the Arts, and the Robert C. Vance Foundation.
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