Songs Of Inspiration And Hope
Acts
Participating Groups
Special Guests
Artist's Name
Martha ShawArtist's Name
Holly Hall
Participating Group Directors
The Charlotte Children’s Choir of the Community School of the Arts provides choral music education focused on artistic excellence. Serving children between the ages of 8-18 from all religious, ethnic, cultural, and economic backgrounds, the Choir seeks to inspire, educate, and enrich its members by instilling a lifelong love of singing. The performance-based music education program promotes self-esteem and corporate responsibility while contributing lasting value to the Charlotte community. Throughout its thirty-year history, The Charlotte Children’s Choir has enjoyed unique performance opportunities with professional organizations like the Charlotte Symphony Orchestra, Opera Carolina, Carolina Voices, American Boychoir, and Canadian Brass. The Choir has performed at state, regional and national music educators’ conferences, appeared on NPR’s “From the Top” and performed at the White House. The Choir has toured nationally and abroad, enjoying performances in landmark locations in Washington, DC, New York City, France, Italy, and Scotland. Find out more at www.csarts.org
The Hilliard Memorial Middle School choirs have established a tradition of excellence over the last several years. Over 200 students participate in the Memorial Choirs. The Choirs perform a variety of repertoire in contrasting styles and genres. They have consistently received Superior and Excellent ratings at OMEA Large Group Contest and have been crowned Grand Champion at the Music in the Parks Competition at Cedar Point for several years. They have also been the recipient of the distinguished Esprit de Corps award through Music in the Parks in both 2012, 2013, & 2014. In 2016, the Hilliard Memorial Choirs have the honor of being invited to sing at Carnegie Hall with Distinguished Concerts International.
Ms. Crutcher has shared the stage with many talented musicians and organizations such as, Ken Ford, Rev. Dr. Dwight Andrews, Joseph Joubert, The Morehouse Glee Club, Clark Atlanta University Philharmonic Society, Still Waters Youth Sinfonia, and other Atlanta based musicians. In 2011, she performed at the Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center in a performance called Life and Remembrance in Honor of Memorial Day- The Music of Faure And Singh with Distinguished Concerts Orchestra and Distinguished Chorus Concerts Singers International. Her Honors include; Berkshire Choral Festival Scholarship Recipient 2011, Teacher of the Month for November 2015, Grammy Music Educator Award Nominee 2015, and several school Fabulous Falcon recognitions. Ms. Crutcher has also been recognized for marching in the Presidential Inauguration for President Barack Obama 2009 and publishing a winning student essay in School Band and Orchestra Magazine in, 2014, Kameron is thankful to share this amazing opportunity with her students for a concert they will remember for a lifetime.
Lindley Sixth Grade Academy Chorus is under the direction of Ms. Kameron T. Crutcher. Since the opening of Lindley Sixth Grade Academy, the choir has increased from 40 members to over 100 in 2013 and has been on the rise since. LSGA Chorus has performed at community events such as talent shows, black history programs, honors events, Mableton Day, and was recently invited to sing for the second time with Clark Atlanta Philharmonic Society. The chorus was one of three sixth grade choirs to attend Large Group Performance Evaluation this year. Ms. Crutcher’s years at LSGA has resulted in several students being accepted into the Pebblebrook High School Performing Arts Program, performing in Honors Chorus’ at Spivey Hall, and becoming members of the Georgia Youth Choir. Students under the direction of Ms. Crutcher know and understand their position as a musician. Daily, they recite their Musicians Creed which reminds them they are “talented, intelligent, disciplined, a team player, and a hard worker”. This is the first time the school has been recognized for their excellence in the arts and is honored to be asked to perform at a venue as grand as Carnegie Hall. For that, they are thankful.
Dr Margaret Pride is currently Music Director for the Perth Symphonic Chorus and the Perth Chamber Singers in Western Australia. Previously she has been choral music professor at the University of Western Australia, music history lecturer at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts, chorus master for the West Australian Symphony Orchestra Chorus and Music Director for Collegium Choirs. Margaret has a doctorate from the University of Southern California. Major American choral and orchestral conducting coaches during her time in the United States included Rodney Eichenberger, Hans Beer, Samuel Krachmalnick, Robert Shaw and Paul Salamunovich. Later international coaches were Eric Ericsson & Stefan Parkhman [Sweden] and David Willcoks & John Rutter [England].
Significant roles include past national president of the Australian National Choral Association and chief inaugurator of the National Youth Choir of Australia. In the youth arena she has also conducted the National Youth Choir of Great Britain. Her choirs have frequently toured nationally and internationally. In addition, she has conducted workshops and adjudicated in over nine countries. In honour of her contribution to choral music in Australia Margaret was awarded an Australian Centenary Medal, is Life Member of the Australian National Choral Association and has an Order of Australia Medal. Margaret was a member of the USC chamber choir which premiered Lauridsen’s choral music in New York [1988] in the Lincoln Arts Center.
Perth Symphonic Chorus [PSC] is an oratorio choir from Western Australia that specializes in major choral repertoire, but also enjoys the general smaller choral oeuvre of motets, cantatas, parts songs, spirituals and jazz classics. They are particularly well known for their memorised performance each Christmas of the full Messiah at the Perth Concert Hall. The choir has its own concert subscription series of choral-orchestral works but also presents smaller concerts outside this framework. From this organization is also drawn the Perth Chamber Singers. PSC has a national and international touring program. Along with their sister choir Collegium Musicum Choir they have performed at the Australian National Choral Association symposia and have toured internationally to the United States, Austria, Prague, Canada, Japan, Singapore & Hong Kong, often also giving open choral workshops. Last year’s tour was particularly significant, having been invited to perform Mahler’s Eighth Symphony with the Vocal Associates Festival Chorus of Singapore as part of the national celebrations of the country’s 50th Anniversary of Independence. In addition to their long string of concerts, Perth Symphonic Chorus has also frequently been broadcast and telecast by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.Their conductor is choral specialist Dr Margaret Pride, OAM.
The Southern California Children's Chorus (SCCC), Orange County's only chorus dedicated exclusively to meeting the educational and performance needs of children, seeks to do more than introduce youth to music and singing. It strives to enrich the lives of its members through programs stressing musical aptitude, teamwork, discipline, self-confidence and personal growth. Currently there are more than 300 young singers affiliated with SCCC, ranging from 5 to 21 years of age, and encompassing seven levels of sequential vocal and choral instruction. The children come from a wide geographic area of Southern California, sometimes traveling over an hour to attend weekly rehearsals. The SCCC has an outstanding faculty of six choral directors who are highly skilled in their chosen field of children's choral music. They provide the young singers with a caring, nurturing environment in which a full range of music can be learned. The choristers are immersed in compositions in multiple languages from many cultures, with themes ranging from the classics to folk and contemporary music. Choristers perform locally throughout the year at private and public concerts as well as participating in choral invitationals and their own Spring and Holiday Concerts. The SCCC has provided singers for Touchstone films, MGM films, music videos, commercials, symphony concerts, operas, television specials for Disney, the Academy Awards and many musical productions. The SCCC has received many awards including their third Emmy for their work in the television program E:60 honoring the Boston Marathon victims. They have also been privileged to present concerts at world renowned venues, including Westminster Abbey, the White House, the Washington National Cathedral, the Lincoln Center in New York, the Basilica San Marco in Venice, Italy, and Australia’s Sydney Opera House. Today, they are honored and excited to be in New York City performing with DCINY on the prestigious stage of Carnegie Hall..
The University Park Elementary School Choir is thrilled to make its second appearance on the stage of Carnegie Hall in three years. Normally comprised of sixty-five students in fourth, fifth, and sixth grade, twenty-seven of those students are ecstatic to be performing in DCINY’s Songs for Inspiration and Hope. Located in Hyattsville, Maryland, the University Park Elementary School Choir performs throughout the year at school functions, local events, and on special request. Their dedication and love of the arts is an inspiration to their families, teachers, and community members every day.
Stuyvesant High School’s Choruses number approximately 300 singers drawn from the international community of Stuyvesant, encompassing grades 9 through 12. Students accepted into Concert Chorus and/or Concert Choir commit themselves through senior year. Repertoire is varied, representative of masterworks and pieces from the popular canon. The choruses frequently perform with the orchestra. In recent years, the choruses have sung selections from Beethoven’s Choral Fantasy and Mass in C, Mozart’s Requiem and Coronation Mass in C, Handel’s Messiah, Brahms’ Ein Deutsches Requiem, Borodin’s Polovtsian Dances, Vasks’ Dona Nobis Pacem, Five Mystical Songs of Vaughan Williams, Haydn’s Creation, Rutter’s Requiem, Orff’s Carmina Burana, as well as other works. Under the direction of Ms. Holly Hall, the choruses were invited to perform in multiple venues: Federal Hall for the opening session of the U.S. Congress (2002), Central Park for the 9/11 commemorative concert (2002), Yankee Stadium, a special Citizenship Ceremony with U.S. Secretary of Labor Elaine L. Chao, and for Governor Pataki on the Intrepid. In June 2014, the Stuyvesant Concert Choir received a Gold Award (Level VI) at the NYSSMA Festival. The choruses have also performed Handel’s Messiah (2013), Verdi’s Messa da Requiem (2015), and Mozart’s Requiem with the Distinguished Concerts International New York (DCINY).
Under her direction, the Spivey Hall Children's Choir and Spivey Hall Tour Choir have been featured in performances for state, regional, and national conventions of the American Choral Directors Association, for the national conference of the Orff-Schulwerk Association, and for the 2010 national conference of Chorus America. Because of the artistry and mature vocal sound exhibited by her choirs, Dr. Shaw has received numerous invitations as a clinician and guest conductor throughout the United States, in Canada and in Korea.
For thirteen years, Dr. Shaw served on the faculty at Shorter University, which honored her as the 2008 recipient of its President's Award for Teaching and Scholarship. She also taught at the University of South Carolina, where she earned a Doctor of Musical Arts in Conducting with Larry Wyatt. Prior to her collegiate teaching, she was a music specialist for Atlanta's Fulton County for 15 years. Studying with Donald Neuen, she earned a Master of Science in Music Education from the University of Tennessee. She holds a Bachelor of Music Education from Shorter College.
Located on the campus of Clayton State University and dedicated to excellence, the Spivey Hall Children's Choir Program offers professional-level instruction in vocal technique, music theory, sight singing, ear training, and presentation as well as exposure to a variety of choral styles. Involvement also enhances young people's lives, helping them to develop self-reliance, personal integrity, responsibility, compassion, teamwork, and confidence in their abilities. The formation of the Spivey Hall Children's Choir Program is another successful endeavor by The Walter & Emilie Spivey Foundation, the Spivey Hall Education Committee and Clayton State University to provide supplementary music education programs to metro-Atlanta youth from seventeen different counties.
Founded in fall of 2002, the Spivey Hall Young Artists features students ages 10 through 13. Under the direction of Craig Hurley, the Young Artists serves as the preparatory choir equipping singers with the skills they need to participate in the Sppivey Hall Children's Choir.
One hundred twenty voices strong, the Spivey Hall Children's Choir was founded in the spring of 1994 and features singers ages 10-18. Dr. Martha Shaw, artistic director of the program, conducts this ensemble as well as its more advanced counterpart the Tour Choir.
Singing with unmistakable spirit, refinement, and remarkable beauty of tone and expression, the Spivey Hall Tour Choir is the select group of the organization. These outstanding young musicians proudly represent Spivey Hall's dedication to music education and commitment to artistic excellence.
As cultural ambassadors of the State of Georgia, the Tour Choir has recorded four professional CDs and performed to acclaim throughout the United States, as well as in Canada, Sweden, Norway, England, Austria, the Czech Republic, China, Scotland and Spain. February of 2015 they performed to standing ovations at the American Choral Directors National Conference in Salt Lake City. Next summer they will be on a performing tour in the San Diego, California area.
For more information or to schedule a performance, please contact us at 678-466-5566 or sing@spiveyhallchildrenschoir.org