Tag Archives: music

Christmas Gift Idea: Redfern Tickets, with Alumni Discount!

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Use your alumni discount to see the Alloy Orchestra’s brilliant accompaniment to the newly restored version of Fritz Lang’s 1926 silent film masterpiece The Complete Metropolis.

The Redfern Arts Center has made the dilemma of Christmas-gift giving a lot easier by offering alumni discounts on tickets. KSC alumni receive discounts of $5–$10 per ticket, depending on the event, for all the Redfern’s exciting season events.

This winter and spring offer a diverse roster of performing artists bringing spectacular music, theater, dance, and film to campus. Give the gift of a performance by the well-loved Apple Hill String Quartet with composer Christine Southworth or the futuristic silent film The Complete Metropolis (accompanied by the Alloy Orchestra). There’s something for every taste, including hip-hop artist Baba Brinkman’s take on evolution, Alaskan-born dancer Emily Johnson’s new work that explores cultural identity, and Chicago’s Griffin Theatre’s hit production, Letters Home.

Gift tickets for performances are now on sale at the Redfern Box Office, and can be purchased by phone (603-358-2168) or by visiting the Redfern online.

KSC Chamber Singers Build Trail to Porcupine Falls

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On the trail with the KSC Chamber Singers. Front row, l–r: Dr. Sandra Howard, David Parker, Emily DeAngelis, Kerri McCormack, Lauren Weiner. Back row: Nick Tocci, Kirk Bobkowski, Hannah Hall, Kevin Lackie, Dan Ciccarello, Brandon Carta, Jesse Oberg, Amy St. Louis, Kaitie Hart, Samantha McCloghry, Olivia Arciprete, and Ryan Owens (executive director, Monadnock Conservancy)

The KSC Chamber Singers as trailwrights? How does that work? Easy: For the past three semesters, the Singers have partnered with local non-profits. The ensemble works with an organization to learn about its mission, promote awareness about the group, and give a themed performance to raise money for that organization.

This semester, the Singers have partnered with the Monadnock Conservancy, a local land trust. They worked with the Conservancy to build a trail to Porcupine Falls in Gilsum, on land that was recently donated to the land trust. The Chamber Singers will give a concert this December (3 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 1, in the Alumni Recital Hall) to benefit the Conservancy, and that will include a world premiere of a commissioned work centered on the themes of conservation and land preservation. In addition, a discussion panel before the concert will feature the guest composer and the Conservancy’s executive director, Ryan Owens (also bass singer with the Chamber Singers of Keene), who will discuss the merger of music and the protection of land.
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Profs Promote International Partnership

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Members of the Chamber Singers of Keene, including Heather Gilligan (fourth from left) and Paul Vincent and Sandra Howard (fourth and third from right) stand at the newly dedicated Keene-Platz in Einbeck, Germany, near the New Town Hall.

In early July, three KSC faculty members—Professor of Holocaust Studies and History Paul Vincent, and Assistant Professors of Music Heather Gilligan and Sandra Howard—traveled with the Chamber Singers of Keene (CSK) to Einbeck, Germany, for a week of cultural exchange.
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Music Collaboration with Stonewall Farm

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On Sunday, April 15, at 3:00 p.m., the Keene State College Department of Music will present a choral concert entitled “The Cultivation of Sound” in the Redfern Art Center’s Alumni Recital Hall. The concert will feature selections based on cultivation and agriculture to commemorate the semester partnership with local nonprofit educational farm, Stonewall Farm. The performance will also include a newly commissioned choral work entitled “The Farmer” by KSC faculty composer Dr. Heather Gilligan and representative choral selections spanning 500 years. Stonewall Farm will offer cheese and yogurt sampling in the lobby, after the concert. The Department of Music will donate 20% of the concert proceeds to Stonewall Farm.

“In our local communities, music educators need to create social and cultural collaborations between their music programs and surrounding businesses, non-profit organizations, and community members to create experiences that help students connect to their communities on a personal level,” explained Assistant Professor of Music Dr. Sandra Howard.

The performance will feature KSC’s three collegiate choirs: the Concert Choir conducted by Prof. Diane Cushing, Canticum Novum conducted by Dr. Elaine Ginsberg, and Chamber Singers conducted by Dr. Sandra Howard. Tickets for this event are $10 for adults and $5 for students and senior citizens and may be purchased at the Redfern Ticket Office or online.

Attention, Composers!

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The KSC Music Department has issued its 2012 Call for Scores! And they’re offering a $500 cash prize to the winner.  Composers of any age, residence, or citizenship are invited to submit works for SATB chorus. Hurry! Submissions must be postmarked by April 15, 2012. For more information, check out the Call for Scores page.

Composing for the Bird Song Project

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Did you know that Keene State College has at least a dozen student composers and another half dozen faculty members who compose? They’re ready and willing to write music for anyone who needs it, and Stonewall Farm, a non-profit educational farm located in Keene, NH, has enlisted their expertise in an unusual way. Stonewall Farm has embarked on a project to teach the public about native birds, their habits, habitats, and songs, and they’ve asked KSC students and faculty to create original compositions which will help listeners to recognize and identify our native birds’ songs. The compositions will be housed in Stonewall Farm’s new Bird Center, where visitors will be able to watch, listen, and learn about birds. Each composition will help trigger an association with a bird song to help learners remember that song.

If you’d like more info on composers at KSC, contact Heather Gilligan, assistant professor of music (603-358-2327).

Chamber Singers of Keene = Community Collaboration

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The Chamber Singers of Keene comprises great voices and support from the local community, and KSC is an important part of that mix. Assistant Professor of Music Sandra Howard is the director, and Assistant Professor of Music Heather Gilligan composed one of the pieces they will perform next month. Holocaust and Genocide Studies Professor Paul Vincent is a featured bass soloist, and staff member Owen Davis is a featured tenor soloist.

The Chamber Singers will present “Rising Spring,” their last performance for the 2011–2012 concert season on Saturday, April 14, 2012, at 4 p.m. at St. James Episcopal Church (44 West Street, Keene). The concert will feature Bach cantata BWV 67 “Halt im Gedächtnis Jesum Christ,” and will include a world premiere of Dr. Gilligan’s “A Prayer in Spring.” Tickets for this event are $12 and can be purchased from CSK members or at the door. For more information, visit the Chamber Singers of Keene web page, or send them an email.

The Chamber Singers of Keene will be traveling to Einbeck, Germany this summer as part of the Keene Partner City project—now, there’s a real community outreach!

Sing in Dr. Lehman’s Final KSC Concert

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Dr. Carroll Lehman

Good singers take note: You’re invited to join in a special performance on April 28, 2012, as Dr. Carroll J. Lehman, professor of music, conducts his last concert with the KSC Oratorio Society, which he formed in 1985. The Oratorio Society will perform Dvorak’s very beautiful Stabat Mater, and KSC faculty, staff, and Keene community members are invited to participate. Rehearsals will take place on Monday evenings from 7:30–9:30, beginning on January 23, 2012. The orchestra will consist of faculty, students, and professional musicians. KSC alumni who have gone on to distinguish themselves in academe and on the stage will sing the solos. Interested singers who have sung this work with Dr. Lehman should contact him (via email or phone: 603-358-2179) about the number of rehearsals you need to attend. Let him know of your interest and if you have a score.

Developing a High School Music Curriculum

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Heidi J. Welch ’96 , director of music at Hillsboro-Deering High School

Music alum Heidi J. Welch ’96 will be on campus on Monday, November 28, from 10–11:30 a.m. in room 120 in the Redfern Arts Center as part of KSC’s Music Education Lecture Series. Her presentation, “Developing a High School General Music Curriculum” is free and open to the public and is sponsored by the KSC Music Department.

Mrs. Welch has been the director of music at Hillsboro-Deering High School for 14 years. In addition to chorus, a cappella choir, and concert band, she teaches courses in musical theater, music theory, American history through music, film music, and guitar. Prior to teaching in Hillsboro, she taught elementary general music, chorus, and beginner band in Claremont, NH. She has also musically directed a number of shows, and acts in the NH-based Not Your Mom’s Musical Theater company.

Two Nights of Song for Hundred Nights

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The KSC Chamber Singers have stepped up to support a different local organization each semester. This fall, they are partnering with the Hundred Nights homeless shelter, founded by Don Primrose ’07. The Chamber Singers have been preparing a repertoire based on the theme of “Songs from Sunlight to Twilight,” which they will present on Saturday, December 3, at 3 p.m. in the Redfern’s Alumni Recital Hall. Tickets for this event are $5 for students and $10 for adults. The Chamber Singers will donate twenty percent of the concert proceeds to the shelter, and they are requesting that attendees donate items for a food drive to benefit the shelter.
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Music Dept. Receives Gift of Vintage Bass

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Don Baldini (left) receiving the bequest of Jerry Levine's vintage Kay bass from Jerry's son, Michael (right).

On behalf of the KSC Music Department, Artist in Residence Don Baldini has accepted the gift of an upright bass from the estate of Jerry Levine, who passed away earlier this year. Levine and his wife met Prof. Baldini a few years ago when Prof. Baldini was playing bass in a regular concert series at an inn in W. Dover, Vt. As a result of that acquaintance, the Levines also became regular attendees at KSC Jazz Band concerts.

Obviously, Jerry Levine was a music lover. He, like Prof. Baldini, was also a bass player. As a teenager in the 1930s, he played in local dance bands, earning enough to help support his family during the Depression. Family members say that he performed with such famous bandleaders of the era as Louis Prima and that the teen had to be snuck into nightclubs and burlesque joints so that he could play his Kay bass with the house band.

So when it became time to pass his beloved instrument on to those musicians who would follow in his footsteps, the Levine family decided that Don Baldini and the KSC music program would be the perfect recipients.
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Rich Dart ’94 Keeps the Beat

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Rich Dart '94 on stage with Mickey Dolenz

Here’s another good answer to the question, “What do you do with a music degree?” Rich Dart ’94 left KSC with a BM in Music Performance with a specialization in percussion and a BA in Music Composition. Since then he’s played drums for Avenue Q on Broadway and for its first national tour. He’s toured with a production of Pippin and performs regularly at the Goodspeed Opera House in Connecticut. He’s played with Conan O’Brian’s famed trumpeter, Mark Pender, and the great David Johansen. He’s backed Mark Lindsey from Paul Revere and The Raiders, Peter Tork of the Monkees, and the late Andrew Gold. He’s received critical acclaim for his portrayal of “the Musical Merchant” in the Yale Repertoire production of Shakespeare’s Comedy of Errors. Oh, and he married Tracy Mintz (also from the class of 94) and they have a son who turned two in August.
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Young Composers Hone Their Craft at KSC

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For a young composer, the journey from the creative spark to the final performance can be a challenging one. KSC’s Young Composers Institute, held from June 20–22, helped seven student composers master some of the elements along that journey. The three-day experience, guided by Keene State’s Dr. Heather Gilligan and Dr. Paul Salerni from Lehigh University, offered the students an opportunity to hear their creations played in workshop and then in a formal concert.

KSC young composers and faculty: (l to r) Dr. Heather Gilligan, Dave Pastore, Shaun Cayabyab, Owen Davis, Dr. Paul Salerni, Miriam Sharrock, Rob Skrocki, Travis Corcoran, and Kyle Quirion.

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