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Children’s Chorus Springs to Life This April
At 6:00 p.m., Thursday, April 2, in the Currier Center of The Putney School, student singers from local independent schools will join forces for a debut concert of the new Connecticut River Children’s Chorus.
This will be the first time private schools in the area have collaborated on a music concert for the benefit of their students. The idea was spearheaded by Cathy Harvey, former music teacher at St. Michael School who now teaches at both public and private schools in Keene. Last year, when choruses from Keene’s public schools put on a joint concert, she was disappointed that the Keene private schools weren’t invited. “I wanted all of my students to enjoy the exhilaration of singing with a larger group of dedicated musicians,” she explained. So last fall, Harvey picked up the phone and contacted all private schools in the Keene-Brattleboro region.
The result? Teachers from interested schools met in January at Harvey’s Chesterfield home, and thus was born the new regional chorus. The group of approximately 100 voices will be comprised of singers from The Grammar School in Putney, The Neighborhood Schoolhouse and St. Michael Roman Catholic School in Brattleboro, as well as St. Joseph Regional School and Trinity Christian School in Keene. These school music programs are led by Alli Lubin and Amy Cann, Luz Elena Morey, Jennifer Hed, Vicki Moore, and Cathy Harvey, respectively.
The group reasoned that the most feasible scenario would be a single event, in which students rehearse and perform on the same day. Lubin offered the Grammar School campus for the rehearsal. She also contacted The Putney School, which graciously offered their new Currier Center auditorium for the performance.
Each school chorus will present two selections, and the wider group will together perform several numbers prepared for the event. Selections range from patriotic to folk and gospel.
Participants look forward to collaborating with such a diverse group of schools.
The chorus at St. Michael’s, formed just two years ago, frequently sings during Wednesday morning mass, but has never collaborated with another school on this kind of event. “It’s great to be working with other music teachers in the area,” commented Hed. She said teaching at a small school allows the flexibility to draw on individual student talents in instrumental and vocal arrangements, “but our students have missed the chance to sing with a large chorus. It should be a lot of fun.”
At The Grammar School, singing is an integral part of daily and community life. Singing in multi-level choruses culminates in 7th and 8th grade with an annual musical theater production. This year “South Pacific” will be performed May 6-9. Lubin added, “This children’s chorus is a unique and exciting opportunity for TGS singers to meet other private school students from the area, to hear other children sing, and to experience singing in a big group in a large concert hall with a public audience.”
Singers from The Neighborhood Schoolhouse recently shared the stage with BUHS Madrigals at a high school diversity assembly, in which they performed a beautiful global peace chant in several languages. Morey calls it “a very timely musical piece, because it invites people to embrace the heart of all spirituality, and of cultural diversity.” This selection will close the Thursday evening concert, with Morey inviting the participation of all five schools as well as the audience.
In the words of one student, fifth grader Abby Sherlock of Brattleboro, “I’ll get to sing with my friends from out of school and make new friends.”
The concert will be held at 6:00 p.m. at The Putney School’s Currier Center. It is free and open to the public. The chorus looks forward to sharing this experience with the wider community and perhaps widening the group of participating schools in future years.