by Jarrett Hoffman
This year and last, Thanksgiving has taken on an additional meaning, something that the Cleveland Chamber Choir will recognize in a free program to open its seventh season on Saturday, November 6 at 7:00 pm at St. Ambrose Parish in Brunswick.
Celebrating life and gratitude as a way of recognizing all that musicians and audiences have gone through over the last eighteen months, “A Season of Thanksgiving” brings together sacred music by Kerry Andrew, Gwyneth Walker, Kevin Allen, Josef Gabriel Rheinberger, Susan LaBarr, and Jose Elberdin, as well as arrangements by Sarah Quartel, Mark Butler, and Kevin S. Foster. (Click here to learn about CCC’s safety practices related to COVID-19.)
The Choir will be represented by an octet made up of sopranos Jackie Josten and Anna E. White, altos Katie Fowler and Kira McGirr, tenors Joel Kincannon and Peter Wright, and basses Jelani Watkins and Corey Fowler — CCC’s assistant conductor, who will also be directing the ensemble.
On that note, when I reached Fowler last Friday during a break in his teaching at Roosevelt High School, where he is Director of Choirs, we began our conversation on the topic of leading a group while also singing within it.
Summit Choral Society presented the first of three luminous Christmas Candlelight Concerts in Akron’s St. Bernard Church on Friday evening, December 18. The evening featured the adult Masterworks Chorale, a double brass quintet with organ, and two ensembles from its Children’s Choir Program: the Performance Choir and Advanced Choir. (The Intermediate Choir and Beginning Singing ensembles would rotate, each singing a set of their own on Saturday and Sunday evening.)