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Akron Symphony & Choruses in Verdi’s Requiem (May 5)

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by Daniel Hathaway

ASO Verdi ChorusThere are two varieties of concert Requiems — the comforting, consoling type (Brahms, Fauré, Duruflé) and the fiery Day of Judgment kind (Mozart, Berlioz, Verdi). The Akron Symphony chose one of the latter to close its season on Saturday, May 5. Led by music director Christopher Wilkins, the Akron Symphony Chorus and the Masterworks Chorale of the Summit Choral Society joined the Orchestra in Verdi’s Requiem, a thrilling choral conflagration that lit up E.J. Thomas Hall. [Read more…]

Marie Bucoy-Calavan to make her Akron Symphony conducting debut

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by Mike Telin

M.-Bucoy-Calavan-pic“If you delve into the choral works of Brahms, you will see that everything culminates in his Requiem. It’s what most people think of when you mention his works for chorus and orchestra,” conductor Marie Bucoy-Calavan said during a telephone conversation. “What I like about Gesang der Parzen (‘Song of the Fates’) is that you get the darker side of Brahms along with a little bit of heavy metal. It is very passionate and there are places where it’s harsh and heavy. I enjoy that aspect of it, and I think the chorus does too.”

On Friday, October 6 at 8:00 pm at The University of Akron’s E.J. Thomas Performing Arts Hall, Marie Bucoy-Calavan, who serves as director of the Akron Symphony Chorus and artistic director of the Summit Chorale Society’s Masterworks Chorale, will make her Akron Symphony Orchestra conducting debut when she leads all three ensembles in Brahms’ Gesang der Parzen. [Read more…]

Summit Choral Society Masterworks Chorale to perform Haydn’s The Creation November 6

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by Daniel Hathaway

Summit-Choral“It has sublime solos, jubilant choruses, and wonderful textures. And it’s very user-friendly,” Summit Choral Society music director Maria Bucoy-Calavan said in a recent telephone conversation. The subject was Joseph Haydn’s oratorio The Creation, to be performed by the Masterworks Chorale and Orchestra on Sunday, November 6 at 3:00 pm in Akron’s First Congregational Church. “It’s wonderful how Haydn is able to paint the creation story through music.”

According to the Scriptures, it took God only seven days to achieve that “glorious work.” It took Haydn a bit longer, but his efforts resulted in one of the most popular oratorios in circulation. The work was inspired by the composer’s visits to London in the early 1790s, where he heard George Frideric Handel’s oratorios for the first time, performed on a grand scale by large choruses. Haydn seemed to be particularly impressed by Israel in Egypt, with its graphic musical representations of the plagues visited on the Egyptians. [Read more…]

Summit Choral Society: “Dance with Me” at Tangier (April 10)

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by Daniel Hathaway

Marie-and-MCThe Summit Choral Society’s Masterworks Chorale earned high marks on Sunday afternoon, April 10 with its innovative end-of-season event at Akron’s Tangier Ballroom under the direction of Marie Bucoy-Calavan. The program of dance-inspired choral works combined singing, ballet, and ballroom dancing into an easy and delightful partnership, and even gave the audience the opportunity for some feet-on experience at the end. [Read more…]

Summit Choral Society concludes
season with dance-themed
program at Tangier

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by Daniel Hathaway

DancersChoral societies usually cap their seasons off with a big oratorio, but Summit Choral Society artistic director Marie Bucoy-Calavan has other plans for the 65 singers in her Masterworks Chorale this weekend. As the conclusion to her first season with the ensemble, Bucoy-Calavan will share her dual love of choral music and ballroom dancing with the audience at Akron’s event center Tangier on Sunday afternoon, April 10 at 3:00 pm. “Dance With Me” will feature dance-based choral music by Johannes Brahms, Carl Orff, and Cole Porter — and more.

In a telephone conversation, Bucoy-Calavan noted that she used to be a competitive ballroom dancer herself. “I thought it would be a cool idea to combine two of my passions in the same program. [Read more…]

Summit Choral Society at Holy Trinity Lutheran (November 1)

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by Daniel Hathaway

ChorusPerforming to a full house, the Masterworks Chorale of Summit Choral Society began its 26th season under the new leadership of artistic director Marie Bucoy-Calavan with warm, confident performances of Johannes Brahms’s Schicksalslied and Wolfgang Amadè Mozart’s Requiem on Sunday, November 1 in Akron’s Holy Trinity Lutheran Church. [Read more…]

Summit Choral Society: a conversation with new conductor Marie Bucoy-Calavan

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by Daniel Hathaway

Marie-Bucoy-Calavan-closeHaving guest conducted the Masterworks Chorale of the Summit Choral Society in Haydn’s “Lord Nelson” Mass last spring, Marie Bucoy-Calavan will begin her official tenure as artistic director of the ensemble on Sunday, November 1 at 3:00 pm at Holy Trinity Lutheran Church in Akron. The program will include Mozart’s Requiem and Brahms’s Schicksalslied. (Tickets here.)

Asked in a telephone conversation about her plans for her first season, Bucoy-Calavan told us, “Now that I’m the artistic director I want to concurrently honor the tradition that the Summit Choral Society has fostered — providing fantastic music to the community at large — and build a sense of growth and continuity for the organization. Our big theme for the year is ‘conserving, preserving and legacy.’ We want to build on our 25 year history as well as preserving choral and orchestral masterworks for the next generations, ensuring that the arts will live and thrive in the millenial generation as well as in the generation that has already been supporting choral music.” [Read more…]

Summit Choral Society: Christmas Candlelight Concert (Dec. 20)

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by Daniel Hathaway

SummitChoralSociety

On Saturday evening in Akron’s St. Bernard’s Church, the Summit Choral Society gave the second of three Christmas Candlelight Concerts, to a full house, proving that a Christmas concert can offer both substantial and lighter fare and remain thoroughly engaging without resorting to the false allure of tinsel-pop. The two-hour-long program featured the adult Masterworks Chorale, as well as the Society’s youth ensembles — the Touring Choir, Concert Choir and 2014 Alumni Choir — in a dozen selections, many of them written in the last decade or so. [Read more…]

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