Cantilena Chamber Choir

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Cantilena Chamber Choir Announces fifth anniversary season

LEE, MA.

The Cantilena Chamber Choir has announced a call for singers for its 2008-2009 season. The Berkshire region's premiere a cappella choir is comprised of 24 singers who possess vocal training, good sight-reading skills, and considerable choral experience. Rehearsals will be held in Lee on Wednesday evenings from 7 to 9:30 p.m. The first rehearsal will be on Wednesday, Sept. 3rd at the First Congregational Church located on Park Street. Singers are invited to sit in on the first rehearsal before committing to an audition, but must call or email to reserve a space. The season will include programs at Trinity Church in Lenox, the Berkshire South Regional Community Center and the Old Parish Church in Sheffield.

Opening the season, the choir will present a concert with the Trinity Church Choir in Lenox during Lenox's America's Harvest Festival weekend on Sunday, Oct. 12th at 5:00pm. The concert will feature Randall Thompson's Frostiana. On Sunday, Dec. 7 (repeated Dec. 14, at the Old Parish Church in Sheffield), the choir will present Christmas in the Harvard Tradition at Trinity Church in Lenox. The remaining concerts for 2009 will include a children's concert on Saturday Feb. 14, and a concert of a cappella masterworks for chorus by Verdi, Shostakovich and Pizzetti at Trinity Church on Saturday, May 16.

Leading the group is Andrea Goodman, the director of the Saratoga Choral Festival and the newly appointed conductor of the Northern Berkshire Chorale. She has directed the New England Conservatory Women's Choir, the Concord (Mass.) Chorus, the Berkshire Bach Society, Skidmore Choruses, the NYU Choral Arts Society, and has a Doctorate in Conducting from the University of Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music.

All accepted members will receive full scholarship, but must purchase their own music. Those interested in more information can email Goodman at satbchoir@yahoo.com. Phone: 518-791-0185.

Now in its fifth season, the 24-voice Cantilena Chamber Choir is the Berkshire region's premiere a cappella choir. It is comprised of singers from the Berkshires and Eastern New York area who possess good vocal training, sight-reading skills, and considerable choral experience who seek more challenging music in the choral repertoire. Past seasons have included performances with the Empire Brass, Aston Magna (Purcell's Dido and Aeneus) and the new England Baroque Soloists, a concert of works by Berkshire Composers, a special benefit for the Lenox Library with Shakespeare and Company's Annette Miller, and a a collaboration with Boston University's Tanglewood Two symposium at Williams College. This season it has collaborated with the New England Baroque Soloists for two concerts, October and May, and presented a special performance of Ron Perera's The Golden Door as a benefit for the Berkshire Immigrant Center.

Andrea Goodman is the founder and director of the Cantilena Chamber Choir. Last fall she was a visiting professor of conducting at the New England Conservatory of Music where she also directs the women's choir. During the summer she serves as the Director of the annual summer Saratoga Choral Festival. She has prepared choirs for the Philadelphia Orchestra under Charles Dutoit, and has previously served as Director of the Concord Chorus (MA), Director of Choirs at Skidmore College and New York University. Her guest appearances have included the Aspen (Colo.) Music Festival, the Festival de Musique Sacree in Fribourg, Switzerland, and the Festival of White Nights in St. Petersburg, Russia. Dr. Goodman holds a Doctor of Musical Arts in Conducting and teaches music sight-reading for adults on Tuesday evenings in Lenox.

Photo taken October 2007