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Greenville Choral Society presents Christmas portion of ‘Messiah’ Dec. 12 The Greenville Choral Society will mark its 40^th anniversary as part of a “Holiday Choral Festival” Saturday, Dec. 12, at Memorial Baptist Church, 1510 SE Greenville Blvd. The two-part program will include the Christmas portion of Handel’s “Messiah,” along with the popular “Hallelujah” chorus, beginning at 7 p.m. The “Messiah” selections will consist of performances by the Concert Choir and four soloists: Rebecca Worthington, soprano; Nicole House, alto; Tim Messina, tenor; and Harris Ipock, bass. They will be accompanied by the New Carolina Sinfonia. The Choral Society’s Chamber Chorale will open the evening program with seasonal selections by Rutter, Helvey and others. The Choral Society started as the Greenville Community Chorus in 1969 and sang “Messiah” in its first public performance in December of that year. Also on Dec. 12, beginning at 3 p.m., the society’s three children’s and youth ensembles will perform seasonal music from around the world. Among the selections: “Winter Wind” and “What Child Is This?” sung by the Children’s Chorus, three German carols sung by Bella Voce Singers, and “A La Nanita Nana” and Purcell’s “Come Ye Sons of Art” sung by the Youth Chorale. Both programs are open to the public free of charge as the Choral Society’s gift to the community through a grant from the Mildred Sheffield Wells Charitable Trust. Donations of new or gently used stuffed animals will be collected at both programs as contributions to the “TEDI Bear” Children’s Advocacy Group. The Greenville Choral Society has as its main goal providing fine choral music for residents of Pitt County and beyond. In all, about 150 singers ranging in age from 8 to nearly 80 perform in the ensembles within the society. For additional information, call 252-353-5495, or www.greenvillechoralsociety.com.
Greenville Choral Society by Richard Parsons November 2, 2008, Winterville, NC: "North Carolina's Classical Music — The Moravians" was the advertised title of this concert by the Greenville Choral Society, Jeffrey Ward and Lisa Stockard, directors. That title sounds like somebody's unpublished thesis. So did the concert, which consisted of twenty, count 'em, twenty lovely little Sunday morning anthems, all accompanied in this concert by a well-played but miserable little upright piano in the Peace Presbyterian Church. With a concert time of 80 minutes, that averages just four minutes from the start of one to the start of the next. Along with the clatter of a church upright, maybe it sounded more like choir practice than a thesis. (The church choir I sing in doesn't rehearse in dinner suits with black tie nor handsome black formal dresses, and our director doesn't wear white tie and tailcoat, so maybe I am stretching the parallel just a little.) The chorus was handsomely turned out. Research suggests that most Moravian choir lofts usually contained a variety of wind and string instruments that would be used with the organ to accompany choral music. And while the three-minute Sunday morning anthem is a wonderful thing for Sunday morning, to take twenty of them out of liturgical context, and to strip them of their proper accompaniment, too, is a cruel thing to do to both these bijou little pieces and the audience as well. A different tack that needs to be taken about this concert is to tell how very, very good the singing was — there is no doubt about that! The chorus was as well-prepared for this concert as they were for their excellent performance of Haydn's Creation in May of this year. My notes from the performance say things like "careful and focused," "good attack," "excellent blend," "precise cut-offs," "good development of the long lines," "lovely quartet; good balance and voice matching!" That was true throughout the performance. The singing and conducting were superb. Peace Presbyterian Church, a new building of brick and wood, with a high ceiling and lots of corners to break up the sound, was an acoustically superb place to hear the Concert Choir and the Chamber Chorale. (There will always be serious stage-management problems in any church. Sunday was no exception.) There is no doubt that putting on a piece like The Creation, with orchestra, taxed the Greenville Choral Society to the limit; still on Sunday it was a shame to see so much effort expended so unevenly. It impresses me about like calling in Yo-Yo Ma to start your iPod. The music begs to be sent back to the choir loft and reserved for Sunday morning, and then with proper accompaniment. But who has the funds to hire musicians for three minutes? I am grateful to the Greenville Choral Society for their discipline and professionalism and for the lovely music that they make. And the music certainly was lovely; I hope all these musicians sing in church choirs and that they all take these pieces back to their choirs and ask them to sing them often on Sunday morning. And I really do look forward to hearing the Greenville Choral Society again soon. For their fine work, bravo!


Haydn, The Creation: Greenville Choral Society and New Carolina Sinfonia by Richard Parsons May 17, 2008, Greenville, NC: In the performer’s worst nightmare, even the walls are carpeted. While the walls at Oakmont Baptist Church are not carpeted, there is full thick plush luxurious carpet, on a thick pad, and the pew cushions are the thickest and deadliest I’ve ever seen. This is typical of many new Southern Baptist churches. These structures are now frequently of the highest, if most dubious tech for music performance. They favor another kind of performance, with everyone body-miked, controlled by a techie at a sound board and blared out in stentorian fashion over myriad speakers, in order to overcome the cushions and carpet. Such was the case today. Working hard against the sponge effect, both the singers and the orchestra acquitted themselves very well. Balance was generally excellent in every way, with the exception of the harpsichord, a “Revival-style” instrument with lots of pedals and complicated trapwork, a music desk as big as a sewer grate, and no volume to speak of, further choked down by a lid only six or eight inches open. It was probably nice to have been spared the tone quality. There was a further something going on with the acoustics in addition to the lack of reverberation, something that made a lot of the orchestral tone not as clear in the large pieces as they were capable of in the soft passages. This is intended as a review primarily of the Greenville Choral Society chorus. If the intention were different, one could write a strong review entitled “An Evening with Jon Shaw, soprano, and her back-up band.” Which is not meant to slight Carolyn Myers, soprano (Gabriel); Pablo Bustos, tenor (Uriel); and John Kramar, bass, (Raphael and Adam); all first rate!, nor the chorus, nor the New Carolina Sinfonia. Over the last 25 months, I’ve had the privilege of reviewing three different groups performing Haydn’s The Creation; it is definitely music that I love to hate (so to speak); the composition is on such a lofty plane and is so devoid of anything like evil, sex, or fun, that I find it seriously lacking in dramatic tension. I’ve also come to appreciate how very careful and clear the playing needs to be to succeed in “The Representation of Chaos.” This one movement was the one serious weak point of the Greenville performance. But once Raphael opened his mouth and sang, “In the beginning,” everybody, both singers and players, nailed it every time thereafter! John Kramar’s tone is warm; he has a fat voice running with marinara sauce, vino rosso, and good cheer, his diction is incredible. Every syllable of every word he sang was completely intelligible. He also had the volume necessary to stand up to the room. Carolyn Myers was equal to him in every way. These two were an interesting contrast in singing style, Kramar singing with a very closed mouth and Myers with her mouth wide open. Pablo Bustos was equal to him in every way save balance; he has not the volume to match Kramar or to cope with the room. His is a voice of pure silver by moonlight, with a very carefully controlled vibrato. His is a name to look for, especially if he finds venues and pieces better suited to his voice than The Creation. The effortless, beautiful, precise voice of Jon Shaw, who sang Eve, is in a special category by itself. Of special note was the excellent clarinet playing in Gabriel’s aria “On mighty pens uplifted” (No. 26). This aria also enjoyed the best orchestral playing of the evening, crisp and clear. In the recitative “And God created great whales,” (No. 17) the wonderful walking bass must have been lost in the room. The violins were strong and nice in the Trio and Chorus “Most beautiful appear” (No. 19); Kramar’s leviathan voice was perfect for singing of Leviathan. In Part Three, Barra’s interpretation of No. 28, the Duet with Chorus “By thee with bliss” made the structure clearer than I’ve ever heard! The chorus had a fine youthful sound and a little barefoot angel on the front row danced the whole movement. I could not have agreed with her more!
Greenville Choral Society names Ward new director; Bara takes over St. Paul’s Episcopal Church choir GREENVILLE—Dr. Jeffrey Ward, an assistant professor of choral music education in the East Carolina University School of Music, has been named director of the Greenville Choral Society’s concert choir. He succeeds Dr. Daniel Bara, director of choral music activities at ECU, who in addition to his ECU responsibilities is assuming a new position as interim choir director at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Greenville. Ward joined the ECU faculty at the beginning of the 2007-08 year and heads the choral music education program. During the Choral Society’s 2007-08 season, Ward also directed the Youth Chorale. Before coming to Greenville, he taught at Great Bridge High School in Chesapeake, Va. He also was artistic director of the Norfolk, Va., Cantata Chorus, director of music ministries at Monumental United Methodist Church in Portsmouth, Va., and associate conductor of the Virginia Children’s Chorus. He has conducted the Beaufort County Choral Society in Washington, N.C; First United Methodist Church of Winter Park, Fla.; and the Bach Children’s Choir of the Winter Park Bach Festival. Ward earned a bachelor’s degree from Rollins College in Florida and a master of music degree from ECU in 1999. He later earned his doctor of musical arts degree from Shenandoah University in Virginia. He has been active in the National Association of Music Education, the American Choral Directors Association and Chorus America. The Choral Society also has announced that Kathryn C. Holley, a 2008 graduate of D.H. Conley High School, is the winner of this year’s Fleming Scholarship, a $1,000 award to an outstanding participant in choral society youth programs. A member of the society’s children’s and youth groups since third grade and accomplished flutist, she intends to study music at Appalachian State University. The society also has a new president for 2008-09, Nancy Sturgis, who teaches music at St. Peter’s School, and three new directors: Robert Gennings, Etsil Mason and Amber Honeycutt. Gerry Arakelian is the new secretary of the society. The Greenville Choral Society, which will mark its 40^th anniversary in 2009, has as its main goal providing fine choral music for residents of Pitt County and beyond. In all, about 200 singers ranging in age from 8 to nearly 80 perform in the five adult and children’s groups within the society. The Concert Choir consists of more than 90 adults, including some college students, while the Chamber Chorale consists of more than 20 singers drawn from the Concert Choir. The Children’s Chorus is composed of middle school and older elementary school-age children, and Bella Voce Singers is a select group of students drawn mainly from the choral society’s high school-age Youth Chorale and advanced singers in the Children’s Chorus. For information on the choral society, call 252-353-5495, or www.greenvillechoralsociety.com.
At the Greenville Choral Society’s Winter Choral Celebration, over 100 stuffed teddy bears were collected from attendees and donated to TEDI BEAR Children's Advocacy Center. 755 Johns Hopkins Dr. Greenville, NC 27834, (252) 758-1200 "This organization serves children that have been physically and sexually abused and/or neglected as well as non-offending family members. Provides "nurturance" parenting programs and educational outreach. A team of physicians, nurse practitioner, social worker and therapist work to provide medical exams, counseling and referrals."	L to R: Julie Ocker, Executive Director of TEDI Bear, Rebecca Powers, GCS President.