Oklahoma City's Spiritful Voices Community Choir to perform at Carnegie Hall
by Brandy McDonnell
June 3, 2009
Read more about our June 6 concert
Spiritful Voices Community Choir is in a "New York State of Mind."
About 30 members of the Oklahoma City choir have traveled to New York City to perform in a concert Saturday at Carnegie Hall.
"It's definitely the crowning moment of our 10 years. It's incredible to be asked; it's great that we have so many people who can participate. And we're just looking forward to an exciting adventure," said Spiritful Voices founder and music director Sam Vladovich before leaving last week for rehearsals in New York.
The choir, which will wrap its 10th season with the New York show, will join about 25 other choral groups from across the country in a special concert honoring the 70th anniversary of Shawnee Press, a Nashville, Tenn.-based music publishing house.
Singers from around the nation will come together to form two large choirs of about 350 performers each for the show. The finale will feature all 700 singers performing together, said composer Joseph Martin, who will be one of four conductors for the event.
Spiritful Voices has often performed Shawnee Press music, including Martin's "The Awakening" and "The Homecoming"; the choir debuted the latter work at the 2005 Festival of the Arts and made it the title track of its CD. Martin, sacred music editor for Shawnee Press, invited the choir last year to audition for the Carnegie Hall show.
"They have been champions of my music ... and done really a sensitive, a powerful, passionate job of interpreting the music," the Austin, Texas-based composer said. "I had a suspicion they would be accepted because they're an excellent group."
The invitation was surprising and flattering, Vladovich said. He said the choir members initially thought he was joking when he shared the news. After it sank in, the members, who are paying for their own travel and accommodations in New York, had to count the cost.
"It's an expensive proposition, and ... it's unfortunate that we can't take everyone," he said. "But we're bringing the most people of any one group."
The choir has spent the season preparing for Carnegie Hall by performing music by Martin and fellow Shawnee Press composer/conductor Greg Gilpin, along with songs such as "New York State of Mind," "New York, New York" and a medley from "A Chorus Line."
Alto Debbie Hogue-Downing, 59, of Oklahoma City, said she is a lifelong singer and musician but never imagined she would get to play Carnegie Hall.
"We're excited. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity," she said.
Soprano Leann Greeley, 75, of Bethany, is taking her daughter along on the trip, and they will be taking some tours and catching a Broadway show.
"I'm thrilled about it," she said. "It's my first time (to go to New York) so I didn't want to pass it up."
Bass Ron Stewart of Oklahoma City also decided to trip was too good to miss.
"When I first heard about it, I stopped and I thought ‘How many times will I be asked to sing at Carnegie Hall? Let me think, just this one,'" he said. "It's something you hear about your whole life."
|
