Michiana’s Premier Vocal Chamber Ensemble
Winners of the 2004 ASCAP Chorus America Award for Adventurous Programming

Twentieth Anniversary Season
2008-2009

Christmas at Loretto Beautiful Music for the Season Sunday, December 21, 2008, 7:30 p.m. Church of Our Lady of Loretto Saint Mary’s College

Robert A. Harris

J. David Moore

Krista Bladel

Feel the Spirit

An Anniversary Celebration with the South Bend Symphony Chamber Orchestra Tsung Yeh, Music Director Sunday, March 8, 2009, 2:30 p.m. DeBartolo Performing Arts Center University of Notre Dame featuring John Corigliano’s Fern Hill and John Rutter’s Feel the Spirit with Minnita Daniel-Cox, mezzo soprano

Maestro Tsung Yeh

Minnita Daniel-Cox

20th Anniversary Concert

Sunday, May 17, 2009, 7:30 p.m. Church of Our Lady of Loretto Saint Mary’s College featuring the world premieres of American composer William Hawley’s Mass “Our Lady of Loretto” for choir and orchestra and a new work by Finnish composer Jaakko Mäntyjärvi along with favorite works from past concerts

William Hawley

Jaakko Mäntyjärvi

The award-winning CD, Christmas at Loretto: Twentieth Century Music for the Season is still available.
Also available: the critically acclaimed CD Millennium, Choral Music of Today, featuring exclusive recordings of new music.

The South Bend Chamber Singers, an ensemble-in-residence at Saint Mary’s College, is celebrating its 20th anniversary season this year. Over the past 20 years the Singers have presented major choral-orchestral works such as Handel’s Messiah, Bach’s Magnificat, B Minor Mass, and St. John Passion, Vivaldi’s Gloria, Haydn’s Lord Nelson Mass, and Orff’s Carmina Burana. Yet the ensemble concentrates primarily on works by living composers and regularly commissions new works and unusual and complex arrangements. The Singers have commissioned new choral works from composers Stephen Paulus, Jan Bach, William Hawley, Steven Sametz, Libby Larsen, Gregg Smith, Carey Boyce, Frank Ferko, Dan Locklair, Carol Barnett, Paul Carey, Zae Munn, Robert Harris, J. David Moore, and others, most of which have been published and continue to be performed by choirs throughout the world. Other concerts have featured music from America, Canada, South America, Europe, Africa, India, Korea, and even Mongolia. The choir has joined with numerous other chamber and instrumental ensembles including the South Bend Symphony, the Chicago Chamber Orchestra, and Germany’s Chamber Orchestra of the Rhine; the Chester, Cavani, and Avalon String Quartets; the Northern Illinois University Steel Band, and most recently South Bend’s own Kennedy’s Kitchen.

From 1994 to 2001, the Chamber Singers were featured annually on The First Art, heard nationally on over 275 public and commercial radio stations. They have performed on area concert series in LaPorte and Warsaw, Indiana and Niles and Albion, Michigan, and were invited to give the opening concert for the Indiana Choral Directors Association summer conventions in 1993 and 1997. They were also selected to perform for the Central Division Convention of the American Choral Directors Association in 1996 (Cincinnati) and 2002 (Chicago). In 2000, the Singers were one of five finalists for the prestigious Margaret Hillis Award for Choral Excellence, given annually by Chorus America, and they won the ASCAP/Chorus America Award for Adventurous Programming in 2004. Since 1992 their efforts have been rewarded by annual grants from the Indiana Arts Commission.

Nancy Menk, Music Director, holds the Mary Lou and Judd Leighton Chair in Music at Saint Mary’s College, Notre Dame, Indiana. She also serves as Music Director of the Northwest Indiana Symphony Chorus. She holds the B.S. and the M.A. degrees in Music Education from Indiana University of Pennsylvania, and the M.M. and the D.M.A. degrees in Choral Conducting from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. Her teachers have included Earl Rivers, Elmer Thomas, Helmuth Rilling, and Teri Murai. At Saint Mary’s College, Dr. Menk conducts the Women’s Choir, the Collegiate Choir, teaches Conducting, and prepares the Madrigal Singers for the annual Christmas Madrigal Dinners. Under her direction, the Women’s Choir performed at the American Choral Directors Association national convention in Los Angeles in February 2005, and has recorded four critically acclaimed compact discs on the ProOrgano label: Ave, Ave!, recorded in 1997, Amazing Day!, recorded in 2002, Anima mea!, recorded in 2004, and Across the Bar…, recorded in 2007. Dr. Menk has been a conducting participant in the National Conductor’s Symposium with the Vancouver Chamber Choir and the Oregon Bach Festival. She is Editor of the Saint Mary’s College Choral Series, a distinctive series of select music for women's voices published by earthsongs of Corvallis, Oregon. Along with Dr. James Laster of Shenandoah Conservatory, she has prepared an annotated bibliography of women's choir resources, which has been published by the American Choral Foundation. Dr. Menk serves regularly as a guest conductor and choral adjudicator throughout the United States, and has spent two summers teaching and conducting in Hong Kong. She has conducted All-State Choirs in Delaware, Indiana, Kentucky, North Dakota, and Pennsylvania. In November 2005 she made her fourth appearance at Carnegie Hall, conducting music of American composer Gwyneth Walker for women’s voices and orchestra.

Kathleen Keasey attended Millikin University and received a Bachelor of Music degree from Oberlin College in piano performance and a Master of Music degree from the University of Illinois in piano performance. She served eleven years as choral accompanist at Penn High School. She received her teaching license from Indiana University at South Bend and taught high school choirs at LaSalle High School in South Bend for two years and for four years at Northridge High School in Middlebury, Indiana where her concert choir placed in the ISSMA State Finals. She has accompanied and served as music director for musicals both at the high school level and at the Firefly Festival. Kathleen teaches private piano lessons in her home studio and is Treasurer of the South Bend Area Music Teachers Association. She is currently serving as the Music Director at Unity Church of Peace in South Bend. At the University of Notre Dame, Kathleen has taught piano and accompanied opera rehearsals, performance classes and voice recitals.

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Visit these related web pages:

• ChoralNet
• Saint Mary’s College
• Thanks to the Michiana Freenet for a home!

The South Bend Chamber Singers gratefully acknowledge support from Indiana Arts Commission and Saint Mary’s College.