NewsSubscribe

UMass Music & Dance to Host High School, College Choral Festival
Saturday, October 28, 2017
Saturday, October 28, 2017
CONTACT: Matt Longhi, Director of Marketing/Publicity mlonghi@umass.edu, 413-545-0018
UMass Music & Dance to Host High School, College Choral Festival
AMHERST (MA) – On Saturday, October 28 at 5:30 p.m., the University of Massachusetts Amherst Department of Music and Dance will host this year’s High School and Collegiate Choral Festival, a performance of honors choirs under the auspices of the Massachusetts chapter of the American Choral Directors Association. The concert will take place in the UMass Fine Arts Center Concert Hall, and is free and open to the public.
The concert will feature performances by top choristers from area high schools plus the UMass Chamber Choir, led by Director of Choral Studies Tony Thornton and the University Chorale led by Stephen Paparo.
The high school choristers will be divided into two choruses based on voice type. The “SSAA Festival Chorus” for sopranos and altos will be conducted by Susan Wharton Conkling, Professor of Music and Music Education at Boston University; the “TTBB Festival Chorus” (tenors and bass/baritones) will be conducted by Anthony Trecek-King, Artistic Director of the Boston Children’s Chorus. The participating high school students will spend the day rehearsing with the UMass ensembles prior to the 5:30 p.m. performance.
During the program, both UMass ensembles will join the two Festival choruses for performances of works by Andrea Ramsey, Gwyneth Walker, Randall Thompson, Jim Papoulis, and Craig Hella Johnson. The UMass Chamber Choir and Chorale will also present a performance of David Dickau’s “If Music Be The Food of Love,” and all of the ensembles will combine for a finale performance of “Amazing Grace.”
Participating ensembles and their directors for this year’s Festival are as follows:
Algonquin Regional High School - Kathrine Waters
Beaver Country Day School - Kirk Averitt
The Brimmer and May School - Frank Van Atta
Burr & Burton Academy - Julie Freebern
Cape Cod Academy - Sarah Fachada
Chicopee Comprehensive High School - Natalia Borowiec
Clinton High School - Kate Meifert
Gateway Regional High School - Jerilyn Beauregard
The Hartsbrook School - Kimaya Diggs
Hampshire Regional High School - Aidan Talbot
Hampshire Young People's Chorus - K.C. Conlan
Longmeadow High School - Kayla Werlin
The MacDuffie School - Asia Meirovich
Methuen High School - Ben Woodard
Sutton Memorial High School - Sandra Kerr
Westford Academy - Karen St. George