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Berkshire Choral Festival E-Newsletter January 2007 HAPPY NEW YEAR! * * * * * * * * Spotlight on... Grant Gershon Conducting the 3rd week in Sheffield this summer – An evening of Te Deums – is Los Angeles Master Chorale’s Music Director, Grant Gershon. Los Angeles Times proclaims, “Gershon is a direct, unfussy conductor, who values clarity, clean execution and immediate statements.” He has also been hailed for creating “a dark, rich sound awash with resonant sparkling amplitude” and his programming has been applauded for being “as warmly spiritual as it is ambitious.” To learn more about Gershon, visit our website or the LA Master Chorale website at www.lamc.org,
then sign up to sing Te Deums by Haydn, Bruckner, Verdi and Pärt with him July 22- 29! By now, you should have received an impassioned plea from fellow chorister Patty Kruglak to support BCF’s 2007 Annual Fund.
Many of you have already responded – thank you! Watch the website for updated donation pages, including information on our
Sponsor a Scholar Program and a printable Debit Authorization Form. 2007 Annual Fund as of January 5: Received - $53,787; To Go -$166,713; Goal - $220,500. Faculty News!  Several Faculty members have upcoming concerts; they would love to see you there! Catherine McKeever Barbara Peters * * * * * * * * Twenty-five year BCF-er Irene V. McDonald, 79, passed away on December 24. Many of you may remember Irene from the soprano section, as well as in the Box Office and as a tour guide for BCF. Irene had a long and illustrious career as a professional singer and dancer, then became director of drama and music at Berkshire School, where she instilled a love of theater in 25 years of students. Irene’s talent, charm and vivaciousness will be sorely missed by all. * * * * * * * * “To be caught up with other people in a moment of grace…like geese flying in formation, like a tree full of birds that suddenly rise up and wheel off toward the west, like a school of fish – the beauty of music, the beauty of being with the others, to be beautiful in just the same way that all of them are beautiful, that’s the gorgeous thing about music.” * * * * * * * * BCF Year in Review What a year it was! We celebrated our 25th anniversary in style. We put most of our resources into the programming – three big Requiem masses (“Requiems-R-Us” as Frank liked to say), Elijah, St. John Passion, Mozart in MozartLand, and most challenging, a Latin American week. In between, we had a lot of fun with nightly give-aways, BCF lollipops, a Memorabilia Room, a silent auction bidding for the chance to conduct the chorus and orchestra in rehearsal, honors to our 25-year choristers, and special presentations to the founding members of BCF – John and Appy Stookey, Mary H. Smith, Charles Dodsley Walker, Robert Page, and the Springfield Symphony Orchestra. John Alexander, artistic director of California’s Pacific Chorale, opened our anniversary season with Brahms’s Ein deutsches Requiem. John is an inspiring conductor and lovely person with a good understanding of volunteer singers and how to motivate them. The result was a very moving performance of the Requiem in which the chorus and soloists sang beautifully. Craig Hella Johnson, artistic director of Conspirare and the Victoria Bach Festival, both based in Texas, conducted our Mendelssohn Elijah week. He brought with him meticulous musicianship and a keen ear for tuning and eliciting a choral sound capable of broad color and warmth. We had the riveting bass-baritone Donnie Ray Albert as our Elijah. It was a spectacular evening, with gorgeous singing from all of the soloists and from the chorus in particular. The dynamic Maria Guinand, artistic director of the Schola Cantorum de Caracas and conductor at the Oregon Bach Festival, put together our Latin American week. Hola! Podemos cantar en español! Of course, we couldn’t sing in Spanish all that well when we started, but we got it right by week’s end. Our two Venezuelan soloists arrived just in time for rehearsals for Antonio Estévez’s buoyant La Cantata Criolla, which they sang from memory and with great acting, in turn dramatically inspiring the chorus. Osvaldo Golijov’s Oceana was a difficult piece to learn but everyone worked hard to master it. From the audience’s perspective, the concert was a fantastic experience. It was sonically and visually complex, rich with exotic sounds, colors, percussion instruments, the children’s chorus, the inestimable cellist Maya Beiser, the duo guitars, and our triumphant chorus. Bravi tutti! Golijov himself attended the after-concert party where he congratulated the chorus for having the courage to learn and perform new music and for putting their hearts and souls into the evening. And then there was The Week That Started It All: Verdi’s Requiem with Robert Page. We replicated the very first BCF singing week and concert as a centerpiece of our 25th anniversary. Bob Page was in fine form, as usual. We established the Robert Page Conducting Apprentice Endowment Fund with funds from the proceeds of our weekly silent auctions and the Saturday night chorister scholarship gift in honor of Bob. Recently, we received a large gift from our Swiss choristers, Claire-Jeanne and Pierre Keller, which helped to bring the fund to over $16,000. We need $75,000 to fully endow the position. Our final week in Sheffield brought the elegant Jane Glover back to conduct Brahms’s Schicksalslied & Alto Rhapsody and the sublime Mozart Requiem. We were able to have on hand copies of her new book, “Mozart’s Women” and had a book signing one night after rehearsal. If you haven’t yet read it, do – it is fascinating. The performance of the Requiem was a real highlight, as Jane is one of the most important Mozarteans of our time. I would love to have gotten to Canterbury, but the week coincided with the Latin American week, in which all hands were needed on deck. However, in the brilliant administrative hands of Heather Cleobury and the artistic hands of David Hill, from all accounts it was a wonderful week. David conducted Bach’s St. John Passion and told me he was very pleased with how well the chorus sang. Did you know he was recently appointed the new director of the BBC Singers? Salzburg! I cannot tell you how meaningful it was to sing Mozart’s Missa Solemnis in the Salzburg Cathedral. The last of the “Salzburg masses,” it was written in 1780 as part of his duties as organist and choirmaster there. And so it was that BCF was part of the global Mozart 250th anniversary celebrations and in the very space in which he wrote! We also gave a lovely concert of motets in the Mondsee Pfarrkirche which was much appreciated by the townspeople of Mondsee. What’s Up Next? The staff is at work planning the myriad details of our 2007 season including facilitating enrollment, writing the audience brochure, hiring seasonal staff, engaging soloists, and finalizing the new Vancouver venue. The application deadline is January 15 – just ten days away! I just want to thank you for being part of the BCF community and for making my work so meaningful. It is a great privilege to be able to be part of your musical enjoyment. With all best wishes for the New Year and with the hope that we see you again next summer – Trudy Trudy Weaver Miller All of us at BCF wish you and yours health and happiness in 2007!
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