SUNY Potsdam’s Crane School of Music Marks LoKo Arts Festival with April 29 Concert, Along with Other Free Musical Events
The Crane Chorus performs on stage during a pre-pandemic concert at Hosmer Hall in 2018.
SUNY Potsdam’s Crane School of Music will welcome a distinguished visiting conductor and present a special Spring Festival Concert during the 2022 LoKo Arts Festival.
The renowned choral composer and conductor Rollo Dilworth will lead the Crane Chorus and Crane Wind Ensemble in the LoKo performance on Friday, April 29 at 7:30 p.m., in the Helen M. Hosmer Concert Hall.
The ensemble will present Lawren Brianna Ware’s “Hurakan,” George Walker’s “Canvas,” concluding with one of the conductor’s original works, “Weather.” Dilworth’s piece is a gripping setting of a poem by Claudia Rankine, which was written in June 2020 to speak to the national climate at the intersection of racial injustice and the pandemic.
“We are thrilled to welcome Rollo Dilworth to Crane for this Spring Festival Concert. This performance will showcase months of hard work by the Crane Wind Ensemble and Crane Chorus, as they have prepared this challenging music. And this music is challenging indeed, not only because it challenges our students to improve as musicians (which it does!), but because it challenges each of us to improve as humans,” said Crane School of Music Dean Dr. William Gibbons.
The concert will close out 10 days of activities taking place all across campus during the LoKo Arts Festival, including an array of masterclasses, presentations and performances at The Crane School of Music. All events are free, and the public is invited to attend. For a full schedule, visit www.potsdam.edu/loko.
Maestro Dilworth will complete a residency on campus during the festival, as the 2022 Dorothy Albrecht Gregory Visiting Conductor. He will offer a public lecture on the origin and inspiration behind “Weather,” on Tuesday, April 26, from 12:30 to 1:45 p.m., in the Sara M. Snell Music Theater. Dilworth will lead a conducting masterclass with Crane students on Thursday, April 28, also at 12:30 p.m. in Snell Theater.
This performance will be broadcast live on the Crane School of Music YouTube channel at the concert time. To view the program and see other upcoming streaming performances, visit www.potsdam.edu/cranelive.
About the guest artist:
Dr. Rollo Dilworth is vice dean and a professor at Temple University's Esther Boyer College of Music and Dance in Philadelphia, PA. In addition to teaching undergraduate and graduate courses in choral music education, he serves as conductor for the University Chorale. Prior to his appointment at Temple, Dilworth served as director of choral activities and music education at North Park University in Chicago, IL for 13 years. He holds degrees from Case Western Reserve University, University of Missouri-St. Louis, and Northwestern University.
Dilworth has written and/or arranged more than 150 choral works that are currently in print. His choral compositions are a part of the Henry Leck Creating Artistry Choral Series with Hal Leonard Corporation and Colla Voce Music Company. He has recently published pieces with the Santa Barbara Music Publishing Company as part of the Mary Alice Stollak Choral Series. Dilworth is a contributing author for the “Essential Elements for Choir” and the “Experiencing Choral Music” textbook series, both published by the Hal Leonard Corporation/Glencoe/McGraw-Hill Publications, and for Music Express! Teachers Magazine. He authored a book of choral warm-ups for elementary and secondary choral ensembles, titled “Choir Builders: Fundamental Vocal Techniques for General and Classroom Use.”
A frequent presenter at local, state, regional and national conferences, Dilworth has conducted 43 all-state choirs at various levels (elementary, middle school, high school), and has conducted six regional honor choirs and four national honor choirs (ADCA, OAKE and NafME). He has most recently appeared as guest conductor for international choral festivals and masterclasses in Australia, Canada, Taiwan, Ireland, and China, as well as all-state choirs in North Carolina, Oklahoma, Ohio, Arizona and Massachusetts. He has also led honor choirs for the Central and Southwest regions of the American Choral Directors Association. International festival and clinic invitations include travel to Canada, Singapore, Austria and France.
Dilworth is currently National Board Chair for Chorus America, and is an active life member of the American Choral Directors Association. He also holds memberships with several other organizations, including the National Association for Music Education, the National Association of Negro Musicians and the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers. In 2017, he received the Temple University Faculty Award for Research and Creative Achievement.
The partnership of the Dorothy Albrecht Gregory Visiting Conductor Fund, established by Dorothy Albrecht Gregory ’61, and the Adeline Maltzan Crane Chorus Performance Tour Fund, established by Dr. Gary C. Jaquay ’67, brings distinguished conductors to The Crane School of Music for festival performances by the Crane Chorus and Crane Symphony Orchestra, and travel funds for the Crane Chorus to perform at major venues outside of Potsdam.
The LoKo Arts Festival is made possible by the generosity and artistic vision of Kathryn Kofoed Lougheed ’54 and Donald Lougheed (Hon. ’54).
North Country Public Radio is the media sponsor for the 2022 LoKo Arts Festival at SUNY Potsdam.
To learn more, visit www.potsdam.edu/loko.
About The Crane School of Music:
Founded in 1886, SUNY Potsdam’s Crane School of Music has a long legacy of excellence in music education and performance. Life at Crane includes an incredible array of more than 300 recitals, lectures and concerts presented by faculty, students and guests each year. The Crane School of Music is the State University of New York’s only All-Steinway institution and was one of the first Yamaha Institutions of Excellence. For more information, please visit www.potsdam.edu/crane.
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