Announcements

Shir Darom Auditions
Shir Darom, the Jewish Community Chorus of Tidewater, is welcoming new members for the 2007-2008 season. Under the direction of Dr. Charles Weedman and accompanied by Arnel Senson, this diverse group of enthusiastic singers performs a range of Jewish liturgical, folk, and popular music. We sing in Hebrew, Yiddish and English (no fluency required.). Membership is open to all interested singers. Shir Darom will begin practice on Tuesday evening, September 18, 2007, 7:00-8:30 PM in the Furman Room at the Simon Family Jewish Community Center, Virginia Beach. For more information, contact Renee Mansheim at Rmansheim@earthlink.net

Auditions for Bay Youth Junior String Orchestras
Auditions for the Junior String Orchestra will be held on September 17 & 24 at Norview High School and September 24 at Cedar Rd. Elementary School. The Junior String Orchestra is one of Bay Youth Orchestra of Virginia's four performing orchestras. It is designed for string players with at least one year of note reading experience. Auditions are by appointment and can be scheduled by contacting the Bay Youth Orchestras manager at 757-618-1800 or bayyouth@excite.com. For further information and audition requirements, visit our website at http://www.bayyouth.org/AuditionInfo.htm or call the Bay Youth manager at the numbers above. Bay Youth Orchestras of Virginia is celebrating over 30 years of serving the Hampton Roads community by teaching and training over 250 talented musicians each year. Four orchestras rehearse Monday evenings during the regular school year in Norfolk, producing four different concert programs of orchestral music for the communities in Virginia Beach, Norfolk and Chesapeake each season. Participating students come from all over Hampton Roads including Norfolk, Chesapeake, Virginia Beach, Portsmouth, the Peninsula and North Carolina. Bay Youth Orchestras of Virginia is a non-profit organization that is funded through membership fees, municipal, state and foundation grants as well as corporate and individual contributions.

Franklin Community Choir Auditions
The Franklin Community Choir begins it's 2007-2008 season Sunday, September 16. Rehearsals are held Sundays at Franklin Baptist Church, 208 N. High Street in Franklin. The Christmas Concert is scheduled for Sunday, December 9 at 4:00 pm. The program will include works by the following composers: Biebl, Chilcott, Danner, Dinda, Gibson, Lohman, Nance, Page, Paulus, Rutter, and Scholz, as well as an audience sing-a-long. Interested singers should contact the Rev. Steven R. Gibson, conductor at 757-562-5135 or steve.gibson@franklinbaptist.org.

Hampton Roads Men's Chorus Auditions
The Hampton Roads Men's Chorus, will be accepting new singers through the end of September. The HRMC was established in 1996 to give voice to the LGBT community of the Greater Hampton Roads region and through its music promotes the inherent worth, equality, dignity and acceptance of all people. Rehearsals are held at St. Andrew's Episcopal Church in Norfolk on Sunday afternoons from 4:00-6:30 p.m. Interested singers may contact the director at iWant2Sing@steppingout.org to schedule an audition prior to rehearsals. The HRMC presents two concert series each season in addition to appearances at various local LGBT events. This upcoming season the HRMC will present the premiere of a commissioned work by Los Angeles composer Scott Henderson at the GALA International Choral Festival in Miami, FL in July of 2008.

Schola Cantorum Auditions
Schola Cantorum, Virginia's premier volunteer a cappella choral ensemble has selected Agnes Mobley-Wynne as its new artistic director and is accepting new members by audition. Please contact Agnes Mobley-Wynne by email at afuller@odu.edu or by phone at 683-4071 to make arrangements for an audition. Also go to our website at www.schola-cantorum.org for the latest information concerning our exciting upcoming concert series entitled Da Vinci Codas.

Tenor Section Leader
Baylake United Methodist Church Chancel Choir (4300 Shore Drive, Virginia Beach) has an opening for a tenor section leader, with strong sight-reading skills. Rehearsals are Thursday evening. Minimal additional rehearsals are required for special projects in the spring and fall. There are two Sunday morning worship services (at 8:30 and 11:00). For information and compensation specifics, contact Carin Cowell at 464-2423.

Tenor Needed
Tenor needed for Trinity Episcopal Church, Portsmouth. This is a paid position requiring good singing and sight reading techniques. Thursday evening rehearsal and Sunday service. Please call James E. Derr at 576-5430 (cell) or 587-7924 (home).

Composer Lee Hoiby's Setting of a last letter home on YouTube
Private First Class Jesse Givens, a setting for voice and piano of a last letter home from an American soldier who died in Iraq, performed by baritone Andrew Garland, is viewable on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5wqnPjkqu20

US Army Pfc. Jesse Givens died in Iraq in the service of his country on the first of May, 2003, in his 34th year. He wrote this letter to his wife Melissa, his five year-old son Dakota (nicknamed 'Toad') and his unborn child Carson (nicknamed 'Bean'). He asked Melissa not to open the envelope unless he was killed. 'Please, only read it if I don't come home,' he wrote. 'Please put it away and hopefully you will never have to read it.'

The work was originally written for a consortium of male vocal ensembles led by Cantus of Minneapolis, Minnesota. Cantus first performed it in March 2006. An audio file of Cantus's performance can be downloaded at www.cantusonline.org.

Shortly thereafter Hoiby made a version for baritone and piano which had its first performance by Andrew Garland with Mr. Hoiby accompanying at a concert of Hoiby's music presented by the music department of the University of Wisconsin at Madison in honor of the centenary of the birth of Gunnar Johansen, the Danish piano virtuoso who was Hoiby's musical mentor. The entire concert, which took place on September 17, 2006, can be found at www.music.wisc.edu/events/eventcalendar.jsp on the September page. The Youtube video dramatization features Mr. Garland lipsynching the Madison audio.

Baritone Simon Chausse of Montreal performed the song in October in Montpelier, Vermont. The music critic of the Montpelier Argus, Jim Lowe, wrote: "A new American song-one that is likely destined for worldwide importance-was presented just months after it was written . . . and because of the song's timeliness and fine crafting, it proved emotionally devastating. . . . Hoiby's simple, never maudlin, melodic lines were never histrionic, only quietly dramatic. Still, there was an underlying cataclysmic feel that was subtly interwoven into the modest tonal accompaniment."

Further information about Andrew Garland can be found at www.andrewgarland.com Further information about Lee Hoiby can be found at www.schott-music.com/news/komponistennews/show,16353.html -- and - www.leehoiby.com

Virginia Beach Composer Featured on Award-Winning CD
Virginia Beach composer John Winsor's orchestral work, Three Essays, is featured on Volume Two of ERMMedia's Masterworks of the New Era CD series. On November 4th, the CD rerceived the 2006 JPF Best Classical Orchestral Album award.

The CD, which contains only works by living composers, competed against standard classical CDs. It features Robert Ian Winstin conducting the Philharmonia Bulgarica. Just Plain Folks, which presented the award, is an organization of over 40,000 music publishers, record labels, recording studios, producers, and other music professionals and organizations. Other composers represented on the CD are Thomas Read, Nancy Bloomer Deussen, Gustav Hoyer, Frederic Glesser, and John Ernst.

John Winsor has taught music theory and designed bandsman training materials at the Armed Forces School of Music. He has also taught clarinet, music theory, and composition at the Virginia Governor's School for the Arts. He is clarinetist and composer-in-residence of the Hardwick Chamber Ensemble and Chairman of the Board of Directors for the National Association of Composers/USA (NACUSA).

John's composition prizes include 1992 and 1995 Delius Awards, the 1992, 1994, and 2004 VMTA Commissioned Composer awards, and the Modern Music Festival 2000 Film Scoring Competition prize. He has received grants from the American Music Center and Meet the Composer, Inc. as well as ASCAP standard awards. His works are performed throughout the United States and, occasionally, in Europe. He is the author of Breaking the Sound Barrier: An Argument for Mainstream Literary Music (iUniverse Writer's Showcase), which is listed as an iUniverse Editor's Choice and Reader's Choice book and won a Bronze Medal in ForeWord Magazine's 2003 Book of the Year Awards. His music is published by Conners Publications. His Caprice for clarinet solo (John WInsor, clarinet) was released on NACUSA's very first official CD - Greetings from NACUSA.

John received music degrees from Heidelberg College (B.Mus, 1974) and Kent State University (M.A., 1980). He studied clarinet with Robert Harrison, David Harris, and Robert Marcellus of the Cleveland Orchestra and composition with John Rinehart and James Waters. He serves as webmaster for NACUSA, the MusicLink Foundation, and the Virginia Music Teachers Association and works as a computer programmer for Unisys Corporation. He is currently sole proprietor of Benchmark Web Sites and an adjunct clarinet instructor at Tidewater Community College.

The Masterworks of the New Era recording series is available through fine retailers and at almost all on-line retailers, including Amazon.com and CD Baby.