This e-newsletter updates you on what's happening at TriangleSings!, the website for vocal ensemble music in and near the Triangle and Triad, and offers other items of interest to North Carolina choral enthusiasts. Generally sent out the last week of the month, Choral Notes goes to some 2,200 subscribers. You're encouraged to sign up for the free newsletter, forward it to others and circulate the website's listings.
Choral Notes Newsletter

Welcome to Choral Notes for the first part of April 2011. There are so many events this month that there'll be another newsletter, around April 10th, to cover the second half.

Upcoming on the Events Calendar (April 1-17)

April's cosponsors look ahead to concerts early in the following month: Durham Chorale, presenting their 24th annual spring concert, Shine a Little Light, on Sunday, May 1st, 3:00 PM, at St. Paul's Lutheran Church in Durham; and Women's Voices Chorus, whose Return to Joy will explore themes of grief, loss, rebirth and joy on Sunday afternoon, May 1st, 4:00, at Duke Chapel. (March cosponsor Durham Savoyards celebrate their 48th season with Princess Ida in this last weekend of March.)

Still to come this month: the 2011 production by our March Calendar cosponsor, Durham Savoyards: evening performances of Princess Ida tonight, Thursday (preview), and Friday and Saturday, plus a Sunday matinée on March 27th, all at the Carolina Theatre in downtown Durham.

Other events closing out the month of March: Concert - The Tallis Scholars; H.M.S. Pinafore - Piedmont Opera; Spring Musical: 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee - Northwood High School; Over Jordan: A Gospel Brunch - Triangle Gay Men's Chorus; The Franciscan & the Gypsy: Liszt Anniversary Concert - UNC Chamber Singers; Workshop - Vocal Folk Music from the Republic of Georgia.

Singing Opportunities

Triangle Gay Men's Chorus and Thelonius will be auditioning for new members throughout April. For details on these and other opportunities, please visit the Auditions & Calls Calendar.

From the Choral Directory

New to the Directory but certainly not to the Triad is Spiritual Renaissance Singers of Greensboro, an accomplished a cappella ensemble of 24 voices directed by Dr. Patricia Trice. Formed in 1999, SRSG offers "concerts, 'informances' and clinics to community groups, musical experiences for elementary and middle school children, as well as vocal awards to deserving young students." Their tenth season featured a concert of spirituals by children and youth choirs, and a concert of spirituals as art songs.

Despite recent events in Japan, the Durham Children's Choir still plans to embark on its second international concert tour in July: to Toyama, one of Durham's Sister Cities. A contingency of 30 young singers will participate in home-stays, sharing their music with the local community. (Situated on the opposite coast from the Japanese earthquake, Toyama is home to the language school that lost many students in the Christchurch, NZ, quake in February.) DCC has set a $10,000 fundraising goal for student scholarships, to offset the high cost of the trip for individual singers and to pay for performance-related expenses. "We would like to give all our choir members an equal chance, free from financial considerations, for a place on this trip," says Founder and Artistic Director Scott Hill. For information on making a tax-deductible contribution, contact her at scotthill@dcchoir.org.

The Common Woman Chorus and Triangle Gay Men's Chorus have two get-togethers coming up to support their joint gala performance in June, A Proclamation of Hope, Featuring Sing for the Cure. The first is a casual evening (hors d'oeuvres, cash bar) upstairs at the Mint Restaurant's eXchange Bar, 219 Fayetteville Street in downtown Raleigh, Thursday evening, March 31st, 6:00 to 8:00. The second is at Durham's Revolution Restaurant, 107 West Main Street, Sunday afternoon, April 17th, 3:00 to 6:00. You may donate ($20 suggested) at the door for each event; details are on TGMC's website.

Reminder: April 1st is the deadline for entries in North Carolina Master Chorale's collegiate choral composition contest. First prize is $500 and performance of the winning work by NCMC. The competition is open to students under the age of 30 at North Carolina colleges and universities, and state residents under 30 who attend colleges or universities outside N.C. An Information Sheet and Application are available online.

Elsewhere and Otherwise

Every now and then, TriangleSings! receives support from an unexpected source. Chapel Hill's Restaurant Bonne Soirée is such a place, and we are deeply saddened to learn of its imminent closing. As the Indy's Adam Sobsey wrote, this establishment "feels like a world apart from the place where your day is: a voluptuous, sumptuous yet elegant place, intimate and personal in a way that relates as much to other luxuries like massage or therapy as it does to mere sustenance." Oh, and the food is sensational. You still have a few weeks to make a reservation (919-928-8388); when you go, be sure to thank owner Tina Vaughn for those TriangleSings! program ads. Let's hope she and husband/chef Chip Smith resurface somewhere else in our area.

If you've been matched with a Berkshire Choral Festival singing vacation for 2011, you'll be receiving your scores any day now. If you've put off registering, there still are possibilities. The Vancouver (June 15-23) and Salzburg (September 9-18) weeks have availability in all voice parts. In July, at the Sheffield, Massachusetts, campus, there are openings for sopranos, tenors and basses in Weeks 1 ("Sacred American Voices") and 3 (Robert Page conducting works by Elgar, Brahms and Vaughan-Williams); Week 4 (Monteverdi Vespers) is by audition, and instructions can be found online. The BCF website has further info, or you can phone 413-229-8526.

Here's an update online on composer Eric Whitacre's remarkable Virtual Choir project for 2011, along with blog entries and the full video for last year's project, Lux Aurumque. The latest effort, apparently now being edited, will be linked in a future newsletter.

Recent reviews of interest at CVNC: NC State Chorale Singers Spring into Spring at Holy Trinity and American Guild of Organists Workshop Produces Rewarding Results.

Choral Notes Coda

You can access the main sections of the TriangleSings! website with a click below to:

You're welcome to submit Calendar listings and items of interest for inclusion in the newsletter. For May, these must be sent a couple days earlier than usual, by April 18th,for the Choral Notes that will go out on April 25th.

'Til next time...
Carol