Contact: Jenni Brockman
Telephone: 804-443-3357
Fax: 413-639-3999
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Community Chorus, SMS Perform Gloria at Essex High School
Led by choir director Emerson Hughes, the Tappahannock Community Chorus gave an outstanding concert performance Monday, May 15, at Essex High School. The concert, which featured the work of baroque composer Antonio Vivaldi and selections from the musical Big River by Roger Miller, was a rousing success.
Community Chorus director Emerson Hughes (foreground) directs during the first half of Monday's concert featuring Gloria by Italian baroque composer Antonio Vivaldi. Members of St. Margaret's Treble Choir and Ensemble are pictured (background) with SMS music teacher Beverly Gordon. Mr. Hughes' wife, Kathy, a harpsichord player, and daughter, Bekah, a soloist, also performed Monday night.
St. Margaret's School's Treble Choir and Ensemble and the Essex High School Choir both participated in Monday's concert. Although both schools received copies of the sheet music in February, the St. Margaret's and Essex school choirs each had only rehearsed once with the Community Chorus prior to Monday's concert.
The first half of the concert featured Gloria, a large-scale choral and orchestral work by Italian composer Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741). Vivaldi, a master of the violin, lived in Venice where he taught music at an all-girls orphanage for most of his life. He wrote hundreds of religious works and operas throughout his illustrious career. His contemporaries include musical heavyweights Johann Sebastian Bach, George Handel, Tomaso Albinoni, and Johann Pachelbel. Today, Vivaldi is considered one of the great composers of the baroque era.
After a brief intermission, Mr. Hughes told the audience that the second half of the performance consisted of possibly "the furthest thing imaginable from Antonio Vivaldi" - selections from the musical Big River. Based on Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Big River showcases the talents of country music songwriter Roger Miller. The music tells the story of Huck Finn and his friend Jim, a runaway slave, and their epic travels by boat down the Mississippi River.
The combined performance was the first for the three choruses. An orchestra, comprised of actual instruments available to Vivaldi in Italy during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, accompanied the mass choir during the first half of the concert. Instrumentalists were: Violin I: Rex Britton, Andrew Certner, Helen Coulson; Violin II: Elnore Andersen, George Giacobbe, Jill Foster; Viola: Janet Murray, Carl Anderson; Cello: Anne Bakker; Bass: Douglas Yarwood and Oboe: Leslie Moe. Kathy Hughes, wife of choir director Emerson Hughes, played the harpsichord.
SMS music director Beverly Gordon, like Vivaldi in both her passion for music and the fact that she teaches at an all-girls' school, joined her students and sang in the mass choir. Mrs. Gordon also sang both a solo and a duet, Laudemus te, with Essex choir director, Margaret Forrester. Bekah Hughes, a mezzo-soprano, was the third soloist. She sang the sixth selection of the mass, Domine Deus, with her father, Emerson, directing, and accompanied by her mother, Kathy, playing the harpsichord. Bekah, who graduated from St. Margaret's in 1990, attended Virginia Commonwealth University. She received her Masters Degree in December 1999 from the University of Maryland. After spending the summer months working and studying in Center Cross, Bekah will seek opportunities to audition this fall.
Following intermission, the mass choir performed selections from the musical Big River. The music, arranged by Ed Lojeski, was energetic and kept the audience entertained throughout. The highlight of the performance was the Essex High School Choir's high energy, knee-slapping version of "Hand for the Hog." Essex Music Director Margaret Forrester led the chorus in their rendition of the rollicking tune. "It was a blast," said SMS music teacher Beverly Gordon. "Oh, what fun. They [Essex High School] were great."
Emerson Hughes (foreground) directs a selection from the musical Big River by Roger Miller.
The 1999-2000 Essex Community Chorus members are: Alto - Lynne Baines, Kay Bodeen, Margaret Forrester, Patricia Given, Mary Ann Goodall, Cassie Haynie, Valerie Henry, Pat Parr, Dorothy Phillips, Betty Pronko, Becky Rich, Karen Wolcott; Soprano - Hilda Bronner, Mary Jo Douglas, Mary Jane Easter, Polly Gibson, Anita Harrower, Dorothy A. Holmes, Nora Howell, Carolyn Loritsch, Diane Moody, Elizabeth Roberts, Eleanor W. Smith, Nancy Taliaferro, Lois Ward, Maureen Whited; Bass - John Burgess, Alexander F. Dillard, Jr., Robert V. Funsten, Donald Risk, Steve Short, Bill Turpin, Kenneth Wilbur; Tenor - Kenneth G. Eubank, Walter B. Fidler, Hudson Hornsby, John Moody, E.A. Reinhardt, Jim Roberts, Jamie Ryland, David Toliaferro.
St. Margaret's School chorus members are: Treble Choir - Alexes Anderson, Graham Barlow, Kristina Bethea, Ariel Chan, Rina Chiu, Stacey Chung, Liz Davidson, Meredith Lawson, Hanna Lee, Annie Rooks, Maryama Tagoe, Sarah Taliaferro, Angela Wang, Leila Weissinger, Ashley Whitehead, Nina Zibule; Ensemble - Brandy Benito, Dwann Cutler, Yin-Chien Hou, Jeong Min Kim, Liz Ogren, Truc Pham, Rachelle Slotnick, Pie Terry, and Margot Whisnant.
Essex High School Trojan singers are: Alto - Venus Bowles, Holly Campbell, Whitney Carr, Carey Clark, Jaime Davis, Ashley Hayes, Samantha Johnson, Kristin Palbicke, Loquita Thompson; Soprano - Jennifer Ballinger, Michelle Brown, Sheena Burgess, Ashley Carter, Robin Moore, Maggie Prout, Bonnie Reis, Danielle Stokes, Katie Thompson, Tracy Thompson, Robyn Varnes; Bass - Theo Clarke; Tenor - Jamie Segar, Lewis Vaughan, Bryon Ware.
Membership in the Community Chorus is open to anyone interested in musical expression and fellowship. The Community Chorus performs two public concerts annually. Weekly rehearsals are held on Monday evenings. To donate to the Community Chorus mail your contribution to Cassie Haynie, Treasurer, 738 Waterview Road, Warsaw, Virginia, 22572.
