FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
GMChorale Media Contact: Sarah Hager Johnston
Media Inquiries: gmcmedia@gmchorale.org
Media Phone: 860-676-2228
Website: www.gmchorale.org
Twitter: https://twitter.com/gmchorale @gmchorale
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/gmchorale/
Mailing Address: GMChorale, P.O. Box 527, Middletown, CT 06457
The GMChorale opens the season with a new major work by an award-winning Connecticut composer
“New Every Morning” by award-winning composer Peter Niedmann of Newington is the featured work in a program of “fresh choral classics”
MIDDLETOWN, CONN. (October 14, 2019) — As part of its commitment to presenting new and lesser-known choral music of great quality, the 80-voice GMChorale will open its 44th season on Sunday, November 10, with the Middletown premiere of New Every Morning, a newly-commissioned multi-movement choral work by the highly-regarded, award-winning Connecticut composer Peter Niedmann.
“Peter Niedmann’s setting of joyful texts by two great English churchmen-poets and from two favorite Psalms is a rich musical tapestry that is by turns comforting, celebratory, and uplifting,” said the GMChorale’s Artistic Director Joseph D'Eugenio. “The music dances with pronounced rhythmic underpinnings and shifting meters, sublime harmonies and a cappella sections, and a virtuosic accompaniment that sparkles and enlivens the choral writing.” Soprano Melissa Clark is the featured vocal soloist.
The music of award-winning composer Peter Niedmann is widely performed throughout the United States and has garnered continued critical acclaim. His choral music has been sung at The White House and at a Papal Mass for Pope John Paul II. In the Ending of the Year, for chorus and orchestra, was singled out by American Record Guide magazine as the best new piece on Harvard University Choir's CD, Carols from the Yard. The American Organist magazine has praised his music as "thoughtful, well-wrought, and appealing." In 2019, Peter Niedmann won the Fyfe Prize—an international competition—for composition of a new anthem.
The November 10 program also includes evocative choral music written in past fifty years by John Rutter, David Conte, Dan Forrest, and James Mulholland, composers whose works are already admired as contemporary classics. Pianist Alan Conway and violinist Christa Berezowskyj will accompany the singers.
The concert takes place on Sunday, November 10, 2019 at 4:00pm at the Santo Fragilio Performing Arts Center, Middletown High School, 200 La Rosa Lane, in Middletown. The site is fully accessible.
A pre-concert talk will begin at 3:15 p.m.
Tickets are on sale now at www.gmchorale.org. Discounts are available for seniors, students, and groups of 8 or more adults. Season subscriptions are available until November 1.
EVENT DETAILS
What: “New Every Morning” – a concert of “fresh choral classics” featuring the local premiere of a newly-commissioned choral work by the award-winning Connecticut composer Peter Niedmann.
Who: The GMChorale, soprano Melissa Clark, violinist Christa Berezowskyj, and pianist Allan Conway, all conducted by the GMChorale’s Artistic Director Joseph D’Eugenio.
When: Sunday, November 10, 2019, 4:00pm. A pre-concert talk begins at 3:15pm.
Where: Santo Fragilio Performing Arts Center, Middletown High School, 200 La Rosa Lane, Middletown, CT. The site is fully accessible. There is ample free, off-street parking in the school lot.
Accessible: Yes
Admission: Tickets $9-$45, on sale at www.gmchorale.org. Discounts available for seniors, students, and groups of 8 or more adults. Early-bird prices are in effect now. Season subscriptions are available until November 1.
Family Friendly: Yes
More Info: http://gmchorale.org/new-every-morning/ or gmcmedia@gmchorale.org
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Photos: Below and/or attached.
Interviews: For more information, or to schedule an interview with Artistic Director Joseph D’Eugenio, please contact Sarah Hager Johnston, GMChorale’s Director of Marketing and Communications, at gmcmedia@gmchorale.org or 860-676-2228.
About the GMChorale – The GMChorale has become one of New England’s finest and most engaging choruses since its founding in 1977 as The Greater Middletown Chorale. Under the artistic leadership of Joseph D’Eugenio since 1998, the GMChorale is celebrated for its innovative symphonic choral presentations, and often performs with the New Haven Symphony Orchestra, the Hartford Symphony Orchestra, and other ensembles. The 80-voice Chorale performs a wide range of choral repertoire, from beloved masterworks to newly commissioned pieces. The GMChorale crowned its two European concert tours as the only choir providing music for the Sunday noon mass at Venice’s extraordinary Basilica San Marco. Under Maestro D’Eugenio’s leadership, the GMChorale has commissioned and premiered new choral works by leading composers including Gwyneth Walker, Eugenie Rocherolle, Peter Niedmann, Colin Britt, Ellen Gilson Voth, Lee McQuillan, and Henry Mollicone. In 2011, the GMChorale commissioned Connecticut Grammy-nominated composer Sarah Meneely-Kyder to create Letter from Italy, 1944 with the libretto by her sister, poet Nancy Meneely. In 2013, the GMChorale premiered the new oratorio to great acclaim in Middletown, Connecticut. The Chorale commissioned Karyl Evans to create a documentary of the oratorio’s historic background and creative process that was narrated by Meryl Streep. The stunning result, Letter from Italy, 1944: a New American Oratorio, earned an Emmy for its director in 2016. In May 2017, the GMChorale collaborated with The Hartford Chorale to perform Letter from Italy, 1944 with the Hartford Symphony Orchestra at the Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts in Hartford. Joseph D’Eugenio directed the semi-staged production, its professional soloists, the 200 singers of the combined Chorales, and the Hartford Symphony Orchestra in a memorable performance. As the GMChorale enters its fifth decade, the organization is broadening its mission and the scope of its offerings to bring the power and beauty of choral music to people and communities across Connecticut. Beginning this season and going forward, many of the GMChorale’s programs are focused around “Singing for a Lifetime,” an idea that embraces everyone already involved with the Chorale, as well as those who are yet to be. The singers of the Chorale and the professional musicians who form the Alchemy chamber ensemble serve as ambassadors for our organization as we expand the Chorale’s overall mission by engaging singers and listeners of all ages and abilities through community workshops, collaborations, and concerts throughout Connecticut and beyond.
About the GMChorale’s Artistic Director Joseph D’Eugenio – Recognized as one of Southern New England’s most engaging musicians, Joseph D’Eugenio has been bringing music to life across the region for more than twenty-five years. As a conductor, artistic director, music director, educator, pianist, vocal and conducting coach, and organist, D’Eugenio combines imaginative programming, skilled conducting, and deeply-informed musical versatility to bring freshly-conceived, captivating performances of choral, chamber, keyboard, and orchestral music to audiences across the region. Known for his passion and dedication in preparing and presenting the great choral masterworks, for the past twenty years D’Eugenio has led several performances each season of major choral-orchestral works, most often with the GMChorale, where he has served as Artistic Director since 1998. Under D’Eugenio’s leadership, the GMChorale, an auditioned symphonic choir of 80 voices that performs a wide range of choral music from several centuries, has become known as one of New England’s finest choruses, celebrated for its innovative choral presentations, appealing programming, and engaging performances. In addition to performing the more familiar masterworks (including the requiems of Mozart, Duruflé, Brahms, and Fauré, masses of Haydn and Mozart, and oratorios by Handel and Mendelssohn), under D’Eugenio’s leadership the GMChorale frequently presents lesser-known music of high artistic merit, and has a long history of commissioning and performing new choral works. D’Eugenio recently created a new initiative for the GMChorale—“Singing for a Lifetime”— through which the organization will sustain its long tradition of presenting concerts of choral masterworks while creating even more opportunities for life-long music-making in communities across the region, engaging more people from all backgrounds and of differing abilities, to share the joy of singing together. He is particularly committed to creating learning and performance opportunities for young musicians and emerging music professionals across the region. In 2016, D’Eugenio established Alchemy, the vocal chamber ensemble of the GMChorale, whose mission is to advance and support the GMChorale’s vision of “Singing for a Lifetime” through concert tours, collaborations, musical leadership, education, and community engagement. In establishing Alchemy, D’Eugenio looked beyond the traditional professional choir model, forming a company of musicians comprising music educators, professional soloists and performers, and skilled ensemble singers and instrumentalists. D’Eugenio directs Alchemy in an annual state-wide concert series, collaborating often with local ensembles and performers, especially youth choirs. The ensemble is often invited to perform across the region in collaborative projects and special concerts, including giving the President’s Concert Performance at the 2018 convention of the Connecticut Chapter of the American Choral Directors Association. In 2009, D’Eugenio was named Conductor of the Year by the Connecticut Chapter of the American Choral Directors Association. He earned the Bachelor of Music (cum laude) in piano performance from The Hartt School, University of Hartford, and the Master of Music in choral conducting from the University of Connecticut.
About composer Peter Niedmann — The music of award-winning composer Peter Niedmann is widely performed throughout the United States and has garnered critical acclaim. His choral music has been sung at The White House and a Papal Mass for Pope John Paul II. In the Ending of the Year, for chorus and orchestra, was singled out by American Record Guide magazine as the best new piece on Harvard University Choir’s CD, Carols from the Yard. The American Organist magazine has praised his music as “thoughtful, well-wrought, and appealing.” In 2019, Peter Niedmann won the Fyfe Prize—an international competition—for his anthem, Praise Ye the Lord. His hymns and service music are included in 2 hymnals—Wonder, Love, and Praise (Episcopal) and The New Century Hymnal (United Church of Christ). His music is published by Augsburg-Fortress, GIA, MorningStar, Thorpe-Theodore Presser, Concordia, Paraclete, Sacred Music Press, Lorenz, and Selah. Commissions include: Harvard University Choir; First Presbyterian, Tuscaloosa, AL; First Congregational, Columbus, OH; Archdiocese of Hartford, CT; AGO Regional Convention. Peter Niedmann was twice awarded conducting fellowships with Sir David Willcocks (King's College, Cambridge) by The Chorus of Westerly. A summa cum laude graduate of the University of Connecticut, where he studied organ with Bach specialist Christa Rakich; he also studied piano with Anne Koscielny at the Hartt School of Music. He also holds the AGO Associate and Choir Master certificates. Born on October 12th, 1960, in New London, Connecticut, Peter Niedmann received his early choral and organ training with George Kent in the choir of Christ Church and The Chorus of Westerly, Rhode Island. Mr. Niedmann was a prize winner at the 1992 AGO National Competition in Organ Improvisation in Atlanta. He was a member of the faculty of the Hartt School, University of Hartford. Mr. Niedmann has been Organist & Director of Music at Church of Christ, Congregational (UCC) in Newington, Connecticut for 26 years. There he leads a multi-generational choral program of children, adults, and handbells. He has also served as Dean of the American Guild of Organists, Hartford Chapter. More information is at peterniedmann.com.
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The GMChorale (photo by John Marchand)
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The GMChorale in concert, led by Artistic Director Joseph D'Eugenio (photo by John Marchand)
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The GMChorale's Artistic Director Joseph D'Eugenio (photo by John Marchand)
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The GMChorale is partially funded by generous grants from many individual donors and from the Community Foundation of Middlesex County; the Middletown Commission On The Arts; The Marjorie Jolidon Fund of the Greater Hartford Chapter, American Guild of Organists; and Connecticut’s Department of Economic and Community Development, Connecticut Office of the Arts which receives support from the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency.
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