This summer two new works from Glenn McClure’s series “Emancipation Again” will receive their second performances. The Emancipation Oratorio at Chautauqua The Emancipation Oratorio travels to the famous Chautauqua Institute on July 7 for two performances by the Rochester Oratorio Society under the direction of Eric Townell. They will join singers from the institute, soloists...
Read More“Soul of a Free Man” is the newest addition to “Emancipation Again: A Musical Freedom Trail.” The High School and Middle School Choirs of Geneseo Central School will join 3 soloists to sing this new work based the writings of Haitian Revolutionary, Toussaint L’Overture. This new work began with research by the 7th grade Social Studies classes (taught by Bonnie...
Read MoreNew music will be performed tonight and tomorrow in Saranac Lake and North Elba as part of the John Brown Day events. Voices of Timbuctoo is a new work based on the Adirondack settlement of Black farmers in the mid-1800’s designed to secure voting rights. Abolitionist Gerrit Smith gave away 120,000 acres of his land, beginning in 1846, hoping the Adirondack wilderness would offer refuge to...
Read MoreMy thanks to Gerry Floriano and the Spectrum Women’s Choir, Gwendolyn Gassler and the Concentus Women’s Choir, baritone soloist Jon Turner and drummers Jon Canning, Ted Canning and Yahaya Alhassan for a wonderful premier of the new Dante piece! Earlier in the concert, the two choirs performed a setting of an excerpt from Dante’s “Paradiso” by Giuseppe Verdi. Verdi had good reason to...
Read MoreBirmingham, Alabama University of Alabama I arrived in the deep South yesterday to snow storm shut down big chunks of Birmingham. While my hosts have asked me if I brought this weather with me from Upstate New York, I assumed that they arranged it for me to make me feel welcome. I never want to underestimate the power of Southern hospitality. Despite the weather, a bunch of high school singers...
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