Classical music education: Madison Youth Choirs Presents the Fifth FREE Annual Madison Boychoir Festival this coming Saturday afternoon at West High School.

By Jacob Stockinger

Our friends at the Madison Youth Choirs write:

The Madison Youth Choirs, in close collaboration with the Madison Metropolitan School District and with special support from Edgewood College, will present the fifth annual FREE Madison Boychoir Festival on this coming Saturday afternoon, Feb. 7, at Madison West High School. (Below is the festival poster logo. For details, visit www.madisonyouthchoirs.org)

The festival is a daylong celebration of choral music for boys in grades 2-12, culminating in a free concert for the community. Hundreds of young singers, joined by the men of the Madison Choral Project (MCP), will present repertoire from a variety of cultural traditions and historical eras, delving beyond notes and rhythms to discover the context, meaning and heart of the music.

Admission is FREE to the Madison Boychoir Festival Concert on this coming Saturday, February 7, at 12:30 p.m. in the Stevens Gym at Madison West High School, 30 Ash Street, Madison, WI 53726

Madison Youth Choirs conductors, as well as Madison Choral Project Director Albert Pinsonneault (below) and MCP guest artists, will work with singers on vocal technique, teach music for the festival’s afternoon concert (no advance preparation for the festival is necessary for the participants), encourage singers to meet new people, and most importantly, generate enthusiasm about choral music.

Rehearsals will take place in classrooms at Madison West and will be open for observation by music educators, voice teachers, parents, and chaperones in attendance.

Here are the program and performers:

COMBINED CHOIRS Plato’s Take (sung in Greek) 
YOUTH CHOIR (Margaret Jenks, conductor; Andrew Johnson, piano/percussion)

Randal Swiggum

Take Time in Life Traditional Liberian folk song

MIDDLE LEVEL CHOIR (Randal Swiggum, conductor; Steve Radtke, piano)
Feste’s Song (from Twelfth Night) Traditional, arr. Swiggum

Words by William Shakespeare (1564-1616)

HIGH SCHOOL MEN’S CHOIR (Albert Pinsonneault, Michael Ross, conductors; Jess Salek, piano) Spaséniye sodjélalye sí (Salvation is Created) Pavel Chesnokov (1877-1944)

(sung in Russian)

THE MADISON BOYCHOIR (Randal Swiggum, Margaret Jenks, Michael Ross, conductors)
 Ayo visto lo mappa mundi, Anonymous, ca. 1450, Naples

Cindy Cameron-Fix, recorder; Elspeth Stalter, Paran Amirinazari, violins; Marie Pauls, viola; Lindsay Crabb, cello

COMBINED CHOIRS
 One Man’s Hands as sung by Pete Seeger (1919-2014)

This project is supported in part by the Madison Arts Commission, by the Wisconsin Arts Board with funds from the State of Wisconsin and the National Endowment for the Arts, and by Dane Arts with additional funding from the Pleasant T. Rowland Foundation and the Endres Mfg. Company Foundation.

ABOUT THE MADISON YOUTH CHOIRS (MYC)

Recognized as an innovator in youth choral music education, Madison Youth Choirs (MYC) welcomes singers of all ability levels, annually serving more than 500 young people, ages 7-18, in 11 single-gender choirs.

Our singers explore the history, context and heart of the music, becoming “expert noticers,” using music as a lens to discover the world. Through a variety of high-quality community outreach programs and performance opportunities, MYC strives to make the benefits of arts participation accessible to all.

For further information: Contact Madison Youth Choirs at www.info@madisonyouthchoirs.org or call (608) 238-7464.

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Posted in Classical music
Tags: Arts, boy, boychoir, Choir, choral music, Classical music, Dane Arts, Early music, Edgewood College, Jacob Stockinger, Madison, Madison Boychoir, Madison Choral Project, Madison Metropolitan School District, Madison West High School, Madison Youth Choirs, Music, Music education, National Endowment for the Arts, Pete Seeger, vocal music, Wisconsin Arts Board, youth choir