The Potsdam Community Chorus will present its fall concert, titled “Shadows and Light,” on Sunday, Nov. 19 at 3 p.m., in the Helen M. Hosmer Concert Hall at SUNY Potsdam’s Crane School of Music.
Musical director and conductor Matthew Gayle ’07 will lead the 100-voice mixed chorus, in a program featuring Schubert’s “Mass No. 2 in G-Major,” with soloists Jonathan Burnett, Laura Gilbert and Daniel Hunter, as well as works by Purcell, Brahms, Bach, and several contemporary pieces and spirituals.
Gayle is the vocal music teacher at A.A. Kingston Middle School in Potsdam and a 2007 Crane School of Music graduate. Student conductor Allison Grant ’18, a Crane senior, will lead two of the pieces. The Potsdam Community Chorus accompanist is Gerrie McGrath.
Gayle says the concert theme was inspired by two of his professors, Dr. Rebecca Reames and Dr. Heather Eyerly, who passed away earlier this year.
“Dr. Reames was a particularly important mentor for me, and several of the pieces on the program were ones I sang with her years ago,” Gayle said.
This concert is free, and the public is invited to attend. The chorus welcomes donations to help support its musical programming.
Now in its 17th year, the Potsdam Community Chorus is comprised of students at area colleges and community members from across St. Lawrence County. All voice parts are invited to practice and perform music in a variety of styles from many eras. Rehearsals are held weekly from 7 to 9:30 p.m. on Monday nights in Bishop Hall at The Crane School of Music. The spring season begins with rehearsals on Monday, Jan. 22. For more information about joining, please contact Gayle at gaylema@potsdam.edu.
For more information about SUNY Potsdam’s Crane School of Music, please visit www.potsdam.edu/crane.
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.
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