Saturday, June 4 – 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Hadley Town Common, Hadley, Massachusetts

Celebrating all things local and agricultural, this free festival offers asparagus-themed family entertainment, games and activities. At noon, it’s Mister G and the Global Citizen Ensemble performing with Marcos Carreras. Meet Curious George and Nature Cat. Stroll the Makers & Farmers Market. Visit the Beers and Spears tent for local food and craft beer. Enjoy live music on the Rooted in the Valley Stage from 3 –7 p.m.
 

The Five College Early Music Program will be holding its patented Painless Auditions the first week of classes. These are open to students, faculty and members of the community. The relevant information follows. We would be grateful for any publicity you can provide.

The Five College Early Music Program welcomes students, faculty, and community members interested in auditioning to SING or PLAY in one or more ensembles, including the COLLEGIUM choir, BAROQUE ORCHESTRA (modern string players and adventurous pianists are encouraged to try this!) and chamber music, MEDIEVAL and RENAISSANCE ensembles and VOCES FEMINAE. The auditions are "painless" experiences, held at all the campuses. Performances sponsored by the program feature baroque and Renaissance music played on modern and period instruments and sung in historically-informed style. Consider beginning RECORDER, VIOLA DA GAMBA, LUTE or RENAISSANCE TROMBONE! We also offer instruction on period instruments (recorders, sackbut, viol, lute, etc.) for modern players, in beginning ensembles and lessons. Credit is available for ensembles and lessons for MHC, UMass and HC.


Tuesday, September 4:
11:00 AM – 12:00 PM, 3:00 – 4:30 PM: Room 170 Fine Arts Center, UMass
5:00 – 6:30 PM: Room 7 Music Center, Amherst College
Wednesday, September 5:
1:00 – 4:00 PM: Room 210 Pratt Hall, Mount Holyoke College
Thursday, September 6:
4:00 PM – 5:00 PM, Music Lounge, Hampshire College
Friday, September 7:
11:00 AM – 12:30 PM: Room 170 Fine Arts Center, UMass
4:00 – 5:30 PM, Room 103, Sage Hall, Smith College


For Further Information, contact the Early Music Office at 538-2079
https://www.fivecolleges.edu/earlymusic/
or e-mail reisenst@mtholyoke.edu
 

On most days Roger Salloom has come to believe that “community” is a sacred word. That being said, this 28 year tradition has good wishes for a head start in that direction.

The longest running free concert in Northampton Massachusetts’ history happens again simply because Roger Salloom keeps doing it and the people keep coming. 28 years is longer than a number of the business in Northampton have been running and definitely longer lived than most of the live music venues.

On Aug. 27, 2011, Roger Salloom will bring his 8 piece band into the Academy of Music at 7:00pm. The horn section will have featured artist, and Grammy award winner, Charles Neville (The Neville Bros., BB King, James Brown, Big Joe Turner, Jimmy Reed et al).

Opening will be The Chandler Travis Philharmonic, then newcomer Jamie Kent who reappears after a striking set last year. Joining Roger’s band will be the young, gifted and beautiful Jessica Freeman who has just completed a set at New Orleans’ most prestigious jazz club, Snug Harbor. Also, folks will hear the tasty Barbara Ween on vocals. In the back doing all the heavy lifting with be JD (Jeff Dostal) on bass, Dave Lincoln on drums, Tom Filiault and Joe Boyle on lead guitars.

“..a superb storyteller…” Rolling Stone Magazine

FOR INTERVIEWS- PLEASE CALL DONALD TAYLOR AT 413 499 5934

Date is Aug. 27,2011 7 PM
Academy of Music, Northampton
274 Main Street
Northampton, MA 01060-3107
(413) 584-9032
 

BEV GRANT & The Dissident Daughters at the Echo Lake, Leverett
Saturday, June 12 - 7:30 pm

Bev Grant and the Dissident Daughters will present radical social commentary in 3-part soprano and alto harmony at the Echo Lake Concert Series in the Town Hall, 9 Montague Rd., Leverett, MA, on Saturday, June 12. The show starts at 7:30 pm. Admission: $10 - $12. For info: 413-548-9394 and www.bevgrant.com

Bios:
Bev Grant is a veteran social activist, feminist, labor singer/songwriter, "cultural worker" from Park Slope Brooklyn, where she has lived for over 30 years. She is the co-creator of a women's labor history multi-media presentation entitled "We Were There!" and has recorded five albums, including a companion cd and songbook for the show, called "We Were There!", a solo cd entitled "IN TUNE", a 7-song ep with her current group, Bev Grant & the Dissident Daughters, called “CHEEKY WOMAN”, and two albums with her former band, "Human Condition".

Bev is an award winning songwriter and has used her music as an organizing tool in both community and union organizing, often writing songs for specific issues or campaigns and facilitating the creation and use of music by others. Examples are “Take A Walk In My shoes” written for a domestic violence survivor’s advocacy group called Voices of Women Organizing Project (VOW) and "No Sweat!", performed by Bev and co-writer, Pat Humphries, at the University Students Against Sweatshops (USAS) conference in the summer of '99. Bev's work is described in Sing Out! Magazine as "unhesitatingly fervent, unflinchingly personal and reflecting the diversity of a real person's musings."

In 2006, Bev won the Honorary BAXten Arts and Artists in Progress Award. The BAXten award honors "individuals in the arts who have revealed and transformed our creative world by instigating enduring change deepening the definition of their field and paving the way for others.

Bev's Dissident Daughters offers 3-part soprano and alto harmonies bellowing out like the Andrew Sisters gone Red! This ensemble, swings, rocks, jumps, soothes and kicks ass. The Dissident Daughters are Angela Lockhart and Carolynn Murphy.

Angela Lockhart is a poet, singer, playwright and Artistic Founding Director of Living Lessons Inc, a not for profit educational theatre company that toured the metropolitan New York-New Jersey area during the 1990s. Angela recently became the Artistic Director of the Brooklyn Women's Chorus where she continues to use her talents to raise social and political consciousness through spoken word, song and theatre. Angela has self published her poetry in a chapbook entitled, "What Is It You think You See" and was recently published in a women's political poetry anthology entitled "From the Web." Currently, Angela sings and tours with the legendary Bev Grant and "The Dissident Daughters."

Carolynn Murphy is a singer, dancer, guitar player and percussionist. Born and raised in Queens, NY, Carolynn grew up watching her mother tap dance and sing popular American songs around the kitchen while getting dinner ready. Her father played jazz piano, and Carolynn was exposed early on to the wild syncopated sounds of Thelonious Monk. Carolynn studied music and dance at an early age and loved to perform for family, friends and at school productions.

While studying at Cornell University in Ithaca, NY, Carolynn was the guitar player and song collaborator for the Barefoot Blues Band, a women’s folk trio, a local favorite. With this group she combined her training in environmental education with cultural activism, performing at environmental centers, Earth Day rallies, and other local benefits.

After graduation from college, Carolynn moved back to NYC and began a passionate immersion in American vernacular dance. She studied rhythm tap dance and apprenticed and performed with Manhattan Tap. She was also a solo performer busking on the streets of New York City. She was schooled in the art of swing dance, spending Monday nights at Well’s in Harlem where she danced with the Savoy era greats– Buster Brown, Leroy Griffen, and Frankie Manning. She later took up percussion studies at Brooklyn Conservatory of Music and was the drummer for the jazz quartet The Leisure Kings.

Currently, Carolynn is one of the lead singers and percussionists in a cover dance band called The Maladjustments. She also sings and plays percussion with Bev Grant & the Dissident Daughters. Carolynn appreciates the sense of unity she shares with Angela and Bev. The individual strength she feels from contributing her creativity to the group and the opportunity to share ideas on all levels helps give voice to our own struggles and ideals.
__________________________________________________________________
This is the last concert of the Spring at the Echo Lake.
Upcoming Concerts at the Echo Lake - put these on your calendar

* Sept. 19 - Larry Kirwan, lead vocalist and stratocaster of black47. Larry has produced two solo recordings, Kilroy Was Here and Keltic Kids. He also has published two books, Liverpool Fantasy and Green Suede Shoes: An Irish American Odessey.

* Oct. 16 - Colleen Kattau and Some Guys - incredible vocalist of folk, jazz and Nueva Cancion, Colleen combines music that will bring the house down with a powerful sense of social justice.

* Nov. 18 - Dana & Susan Robinson - the heart and the soul of folk music,they integrate styles from the Appalachian, Celtic, and African traditions to create a fresh and contemporary sound
 

Music of Josquin des Prez (c.1450 to 1521)

Tuesday Dec. 1, Bezanson Recital Hall, UMass, 8:00 PM

Wednesday Dec. 2, St. Theresa's Catholic Church, South Hadley 8:00 PM


Sublime motets, chansons and instrumental works by the great master of the High Renaissance, performed by the voices, viols and winds of the Collegium, directed by Robert Eisenstein.Josquin was recognized as a towering genius in his own time, beloved by Martin Luther and recognized by another contemporary as the equal of Michelangelo. In his music we find a rare combination of sheer beauty, sophisticated compositional techniques and powerful expression.


Euridice Ensembles

Monday, December 7, 8:00 PM Sweeney Concert Hall, Sage Hall, Smith College


A concert by the students and faculty of the varied ensembles of the Five College Early Music Program, including medieval chamber music for fiddles, voices, organ, harps and citole, music for Renaissance viols, Baroque chamber music and the Baroque Orchestra performing a Handel concerto for flutes and strings and Corelli's famous Christmas Concerto.


Voces Feminae

Sweeney Concert Hall, Sage Hall, Smith College Saturday December 12, 4 PM


Voces Feminae, directed by Catherine Bell, presents a concert of French music, works to include those by Léonin, Pérotin, Jannequin and Clérambault. Saturday, December 12th at 4:00 p.m., Sweeney Concert Hall, Sage Hall, Smith College.


Admission is free and open to the public for all concerts.




For Further Information, contact the Early Music Office at 538-2079

http://www.fivecolleges.edu/sites/earlymusic/

or e-mail reisenst@mtholyoke.edu
 

For Immediate Release: October, 2009

What: Faculty Recital: Kivie Cahn-Lipman, Cello; Judith Gordon, Piano, and Ayano Kataoka, Percussion, at Smith College
When: Saturday, October 3, 8 p.m.;
Where: Sweeney Concert Hall, Sage Hall, Smith College, Northampton; Mass;
Tickets: Admission is free.
Ticket Information: 413.585.ARTS (413.585.2787), www.smith.edu/smitharts
Publicity Manager: Joan P. Maxson, 413.585.3222, jmaxson@smith.edu


Northampton: Smith College music faculty members Kivie Cahn-Lipman, cello and Judith Gordon, piano, and guest artist and UMass faculty member Ayano Kataoka, percussion, perform music by Cage, Saariaho, Schnittke, Golijov, and Harrison. The concert is free and open to the public.

Ayano Kataoka, a percussionist and marimbist, is a versatile performer who regularly presents music of diverse genres and mediums. Last season, together with cellist Yo-Yo Ma at the American Museum of Natural History, Ms. Kataoka gave a world premiere of Bruce Adolphe's Self Comes to Mind for cello and two percussionists, based on a text by neuroscientist Antonio Damasio, and featuring interactive video images of brain scans triggered by the live music performance. Recent highlights include a theatrical performance of Stravinsky's Soldier's Tale at the 92nd Street Y with violinist Jaime Laredo and actors Alan Alda and Noah Wyle, performances of Bartok's Sonata for Two Pianos and percussion at The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center with pianists Emanuel Ax and Yoko Nozaki, and a performance for the Sonidos Latinos concert series at the Caramoor Music Festival with Paquito D'Rivera. She received her Bachelor of Music degree from the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts Music, her Master of Music degree from the Peabody Conservatory, and her Artist Diploma degree from the Yale School of Music. She joined the faculty of the University of Massachusetts in 2008.

Pianist Judith Gordon joined the Smith College music faculty in 2006. She gave her New York recital debut at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s‘Introductions’ series, and was selected as Boston Globe 1997 ‘Musician of the Year.’ With the Boston Pops she has performed Mozart, Saint-Saens and Ravel concertos and with groups from Boston Modern Orchestra Project to Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra she’s explored repertory from Bach and Hindemith to Boulez and Rachmaninoff. In addition to her Smith colleagues Judith works with artists and groups including vocalists Lisa Saffer, Mary Nessinger, Krista River, William Hite and James Maddalena; cellists Andres Diaz and Rhonda Rider; violists Marcus Thompson and Roger Tapping; violinists Rose Mary Harbison; Imani Winds; Borromeo, Daedalus, Lydian and St. Lawrence string quartets; Lighthouse Chamber Players, Collage New Music, and Santa Fe New Music. The composers with whom she has often collaborated include Martin Brody, Peter Child, John Harbison, Lee Hyla and Peter Lieberson. In 2008 she premiered and recorded Donald Wheelock’s Piano Variations. Ms. Gordon performs and teaches at festivals including Charlottesville (VA), Rockport (MA), and Music from Salem (NY) where she is an artistic co-director. She is an Assistant Professor of Music at Smith College.

Kivie Cahn-Lipman who holds degrees from Oberlin and Juilliard, and is a Doctoral candidate at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, has performed to critical acclaim solo or chamber recitals in Weill, Alice Tully, and Merkin Halls, Symphony Space, the Miller Theater, and on 96.3 WQXR’s “Young Artist’s Showcase” in New York and 98.7 WFMT’s “Live from Studio One” in Chicago. He is the founding cellist of the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), described by the New York Times as “one of the most adventurous and accomplished groups in new music” and by the New Yorker as “brilliant” and “a powerhouse of new-music programming.” With them he has recorded for Naxos, Bridge, New Focus, and Canteloupe. He is a Lecturer in Music at Smith and Mount Holyoke Colleges.

Photo of Percussionist and Marimbist Ayano Kataoka

Joan P. Maxson
Publicity Manager/Performing Arts
Smith College
(413) 585-3222
jmaxson@email.smith.edu
 

Press Release: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Frances N. Nwajei
Phone: (617) 216-4494

Date of event: Saturday, October 3, 2009
Location: The Iron Horse Music Hall
20 Center Street, Northampton, MA 01060
Cost: $10/adv $13/door

NoCi, Forwarding Unity Through Music presents:
The gems of west africa AND AMERICA TOUR
Black Rebels and Mamadou

Iron Horse Music hall is pleased to announce the appearance of World Roots Conscious Reggae band, Black Rebels and world fusion artist and 2007 Humanitarian of the year award winner, Mamadou on Saturday October 3rd at 10pm. This promises to be a night to remember with original African Roots Reggae and West African world fusion performances delivering a soul awakening musical experience.


Black Rebels are a multi generational and intercultural group fusing Reggae and African vibes with a message of love, righteousness and world unity. Their energy and creativity onstage is duplicated in the studio and they’ve released a half dozen albums and counting. Black Rebels have played all down the East Coast, West to Texas and California, across the Atlantic, in Cape Verde and West Africa. Their recordings have been played globally spreading their conscious message across world nations.


Mamadou and his band perform original music that combines African rhythms and lyrics with western musical influences. At the heart of the music is the drum, making a connection with the soul of the singer and the audience. Mamadou has performed with the most celebrated musicians of Senegal including Baaba Maal, Africando and the Grand Soda Mama.


Black Rebels and Mamadou are available for advance interviews about the tour and their music.

For more information and to be included on the guest list, please contact nk.noci@gmail.com or check out www.mamadou.com, www.myspace.com/blackrebels, www.a3dinc.org.
 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 2009
Amherst, MA

Music on Main’s Seventh Season, “A Diversity of Music” begins with
An Afternoon of Chamber Music
Sunday, October 4, 2009, 3 pm
First Congregational Church in Amherst, 165 Main Street, Amherst

Music on Main opens its seventh season with a new quartet of widely experienced and highly talented instrumentalists. Pianist Alissa Leiser, Violinist Joel Pinchon, Clarinetist David Schneider, and Cellist Marie-Volcy Pelletier come together from backgrounds rich in performance and musical education. They will present Beethoven’s Trio in B Flat Major, Op. 11, for clarinet, cello and piano (1798); Allen Shawn’s Cabaret Music for clarinet, violin, cello and piano (1948); and Shubert’s Trio in B Flat Major, Op. 99, for violin, cello and piano (1828).

An Afternoon of Chamber Music will be held at the First Congregational Church, 165 Main Street, Amherst at 3 p.m. Tickets can be purchased at the church office or at the door as subscription (for all three concerts) for $30.00 each. Individually tickets are $12 for adults, $10 for seniors and $6.00 for children and students. A family rate is also available for $25.00. An informal reception with the performers follows each concert. For more information, call the church office at 413 253-3456 or Carlton Brose 413 256-8425 E-mail: firstchurch_amherst@comcast.net or visit www.firstchurchamherst.org.

Parking for Music on Main is available in the church lot behind the church, corner of Spring and Churchill Streets, as well as nearby streets (restrictions do not apply on Sundays). First Church sanctuary and lounge are wheelchair accessible from Main Street.
Music on Main has two goals: to bring interesting artists and groups to valley audiences, and to make our acoustically pleasing sanctuary available to musicians as a new Amherst venue. Proceeds from the concerts will help complete the cost of the restoration of our superb 1897 Steinway A Drawing Room Grand Piano and support the church’s music program.


FUTURE CONCERTS: On February 28, 2010 Music on Main will present Jerry Noble and Bob Sparkman in duets for piano and clarinet. Inspired by such “jazz luminaries” as Louis Armstrong, Sidney Bechet, and the Condon Mob, this duo became an instant hit when they joined up in 1995. They have since recorded five compact discs of their favorite tunes like Good Talks, Still Talkin’, Talkin’ It Over, Sweet Talk and Something Mellow, Something Blue.
On April 11, 2010 Grammy-nominee Evelyn Harris and the Ku’umba Women’s (A Cappella) Choir will surprise and delight. They sing from a wonderfully diverse repertoire of African-American Spirituals and branch out from there to blues, folk songs, oldies-but-goodies, African freedom songs and sacred and contemporary material from the African Diaspora. “Ku’umba” (pronounced koo-yoom-ba) is the Swahili word for creativity. This performance will swell with creativity.
-end-end-end

 

Moriah Chamber Choir Reaches Out to the World
A concert to benefit the students of the Mathieson Music School of Calcutta, India

What: Moriah Reaches Out to the World: A concert to benefit the Mathieson Music School
Where: Church of the Atonement, 36 Broad Street, Westfield, MA
When: Sunday, September 27, 2009, 4:00 p.m.
Admission: Free. Suggested donation to the Mathieson School: $5 per person

WESTFIELD, MA, September 15, 2009 - Westfield, MA and Calcutta, India will connect through music in a fundraising concert presented by the Moriah Chamber Choir, a division of the Young Singers of Greater Westfield. The concert is being organized to raise funds for the Mathieson Music School, a school for some of the poorest children of Calcutta, India, which was damaged heavily by a hurricane this past spring. The performance will take place at the Church of the Atonement, 36 Broad Street, Westfield, MA on Sunday, September 27 at 4:00 pm. The choir will sing music based on Indian ragas, as well as Celtic tunes, gospel favorites, Broadway hits, folk, classical, and contemporary music in an afternoon of truly international music making. Donations for the Mathieson School will be collected; admission to the concert is free.

Three years ago, the Young Singers of Greater Westfield (YSGW) began a cultural enrichment and exchange program with the Mathieson Music School (MMS). YSGW and MMS each include about 60 students ranging in age from seven to seventeen, and both have made music an important educational focus. Through this collaboration, students in the two organizations have been establishing a musical partnership and an ongoing friendship, allowing children from India and the U.S. to make a personal and meaningful connection with young people from another country. They are learning about each other's culture and music, and, by exchanging drawings, letters, and workings, they can make music "together" even though they are separated geographically.

The Mathieson Music School was founded by cellist Anup Kumar Biswas in memory of Father Theodore Mathieson, an Anglican priest who died in 1994. Father Mathieson had been involved with the running of an orphanage in Calcutta for over 50 years and had established a unique musical tradition where children were taught both Western and Indian classical music. Many of his students went on to enjoy successful musical careers, the most distinguished being Biswas himself, whose unique talent Father Mathieson spotted when the boy was still in the care of the orphanage. Towards the end of his life, Father Mathieson became very concerned that after his death the musical aspect of the children's lives would also die. He and Biswas conceived the idea of founding a special music school in Calcutta to continue the tradition and good works the priest had established. In February 1994 the dream of providing ongoing education and musical opportunities for the poorest children in Calcutta was realized when the Mathieson Music School was launched.
The children at the MMS are selected on a basis of need, either because they are orphans or come from destitute, illiterate and often emotionally disturbed backgrounds. Musical training not only furnishes the children with a way of expressing themselves, it also offers them the means of securing life-long employment. The flourishing Indian film industry, military establishments, hotel and entertainment sectors are all crying out for Indians literate in both classical Indian and Western music, and trained musicians have an earning potential two to three times that of the average Indian school graduate. The majority of former Mathieson students have obtained work solely because of the academic and musical skills they acquired at the school.

The Moriah Chamber Choir is the teenage division of Young Singers of Greater Westfield, an auditioned chorus of nearly 65 young singers ranging in age from nine to seventeen. The chamber choir includes eight to twelve accomplished young women who perform regularly with the other YSGW divisions and who give special concerts to raise funds for charitable causes. The group is directed by Janet St. Jean, a seasoned music educator, conductor and accompanist who is also the Director of Choral Music at Westfield Middle School North.

Moriah will be accompanied by pianist and guitarist Clifton J. (Jerry) Noble, Jr.

The performance is free and open to the public. Donations to the Mathieson School will be collected. For more information, email info@ysgw.org or call (413) 536-5156.

Web: www.ysgw.org
 

BRATTLEBORO – Twilight Music presents An Evening with Jonatha Brooke at New England Youth Theatre in Brattleboro, VT on Friday, September 25 at 8:00 pm. One of the leading singer/songwriters in the folk/rock field since the early 1990's, Brooke merges elements of folk, rock and pop, with poignant lyrics and complex harmonies. Billboard Magazine calls her "one of the most gifted and unique artists of the decade."

Jonatha Brooke is touring in support of her eighth solo album, The Works, a collection of songs inspired by the quintessential father of all American singer/songwriters, Woody Guthrie. When Guthrie died of Huntington's disease in 1967, he left behind a trove of unpublished lyrics, ramblings, notes and letters that his daughter, Nora, organized into the Guthrie Archives. An invitation from Nora to peruse the archives led to The Works, the album of new songs with never before heard words by Guthrie, and music by Brooke. The CD features keyboardist Joe Sample, bassist Christian McBride, drummer Steve Gadd and steel guitarist Greg Leisz, with guest appearances by Keb' Mo', Derek Trucks, Glen Phillips andEric Bazilian. Brooke's concerts showcase the best of the new Woody Guthrie "works" along with songs of her extensive repertoire.

Brooke and fellow Bostonian Jennifer Kimball began playing music together in the 1980's while attending Amherst College in western Massachusetts. After performing as Jonatha & Jennifer during their college career, the duo took a break, during which time Brooke focused on her ballet career. In 1989, the two friends, eventually to be re-named The Story, reunited and recorded albums for Green Linnet and Elektra Records.

In 1994, Brooke parted ways with Kimball and pursued a solo career. Her second solo album, 10 Cent Wings, released in 1997, marked the shift from her earlier folk-pop to more of a radio-friendly style. In the late 1990's, Brooke began working independently of major record labels by starting her own label, Bad Dog. In 2002, she performed a pair of songs on Disney's Return to Never Land soundtrack, contributing an original composition (I'll Try) and a cover (The Second Star to the Right). Brooke has been featured as a guest vocalist with artists such as Lisa Loeb, Chris Botti and Patty Larkin. In 2008 she participated in an album called Songs for Tibet, which is an initiative to support Tibet, Dalai Lama Tenzin Gyatso and to underline the human rights situation in Tibet.

"Brooke restores artistry to the popular song with a distinctiveness not heard or enjoyed since the prime of Joni Mitchell and Carole King." - Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service

"Brooke has one of the most distinctive voices in the crowd of singer-songwriters, both as a writer and a vocalist." - The San Francisco Chronicle

New England Youth Theatre is located at 100 Flat Street in downtown Brattleboro, VT. Tickets for the concert are $25. For more information, to reserve tickets or to order tickets by mail, call 802-254-9276 or visit www.twilightmusic.org. Advance tickets are also available in Brattleboro at Hooker-Dunham Theater & Gallery, Turn It Up and In The Moment Records. For additional information, visit www.jonathabrooke.com and www.neyt.org.
 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Young Singers of Greater Westfield Invites New Members to Audition


WESTFIELD, MA, August 25, 2009 - Young Singers of Greater Westfield (YSGW) is kicking off its ninth season, and they are inviting singers in grades two through twelve to join their choruses and share in the fun and excitement of performances, choral festivals, exchange concerts, retreats, and more in one of the area's most affordable after-school music programs.

Each audition is brief (about 15 minutes), easy, and fun. They give new singers a chance to meet YSGW Artistic Director Janet St. Jean and Assistant Director Elizabeth Dominick and help them determine the best singing situation for each student. Auditions can be scheduled by calling Mrs. St. Jean at 563-5156 or by emailing her at janetstjean@ysgw.org. Auditions will be held early in September by appointment at North Middle School, 350 Southampton Road, Westfield, MA.

YSGW includes approximately 65 singers organized into three chorus divisions by age. The Junior division is for students in grades two to four; they rehearse every Wednesday afternoon from 4:15-5:30 p.m. The Senior division, which is for students in grades five and up, rehearses Wednesday evenings from 7:00-8:30 p.m. Moriah is the group's chamber choir for grades eight and up; their rehearsals take place on Tuesday evenings from 7:00-8:30 p.m. All rehearsals are held at North Middle School on Southampton Road in Westfield. They begin in mid September and run through through April, with a winter recess in December.

Each chorus performs a variety of types of music, including folk, jazz, contemporary, and classical. Singers have the opportunity to work closely with professional musicians and educators regularly perform with each other and with other groups in the area, including other choral groups, symphony orchestras, and individual performers. The groups present two concerts annually, as well as attending choral festivals, singing with other local musical groups, and performing at area functions. YSGW offers a terrific way for students to develop their vocal skills and musical knowledge while having a great time.

For more information on joining the Young Singers of Greater Westfield, visit their Web site at http://www.ysgw.org or call (413) 563-5156.
 

Hello all!

On our MySpace site, http://www.myspace.com/dookiefrookie, we have been collecting submissions from our over 700 friends of YouTube vids featuring local bands or venues!

Here's the first on we received!



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PvtxaxusbCQ&feature=player_embedded