South Bend Chamber Singers South Bend Chamber Singers

Michiana’s Premier Vocal Chamber Ensemble

Winner 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
Robert A. Harris
J. David Moore
J. David Moore
Krista Bladel
Krista Bladel

featuring
the world premières of new works by American composers Robert A. Harris and J. David Moore along with favorite compositions from past seasons
Robert Harris’ new work is a setting of a poem by Clay High School student Krista Bladel, winner of the SBCS poetry contest.


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
Tsung Yeh
Maestro Tsung Yeh
Minnita Daniel-Cox
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
William Hawley
Jaakko Mäntyjärvi
Jaakko Mäntyjärvi


Listed concert times are Eastern Time
Tickets are $15.00 each; student and senior discounts available.
Call or visit the box office: 574.284.4626 or fax 574.284.4784.


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.

Go to the CD Page


SBCS in the lobby of the Little Theatre

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.

2008-2009 Personnel
Soprano

Sharon Bain
Stephanie Berry
Ann Divine
Donna Eggers
Cheryl Ferguson
Judi Larson
Linda Lewis
Emily Packard

Alto

Dea Andrews
Carrie Bjonback
Dawn Bontrager
Carol Bosler
Melaney Gabris
Mary Ann LaPlante
Sandie Laskie
Emily Schneider
Catherine Tadey

Tenor

Eugene Cottle
Kendall Dahlstrom
David Homann
Steven Mast
Thomas Olsen
Edward Sparks

Bass

Stephen Drendall
Michael Driscoll
Carlton Higginbotham
Michael Hildreth
Daniel Howard
Tom Miracle
Michael Wade
Doug Williamson

Singers’ Bios & Photos
Nancy Menk, Director Kathleen Keasey, Accompanist

Nancy Menk 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 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:

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

South Bend Chamber Singers

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