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The Michigan State University Children's Choir (MSUCC) is a Grammy Award-winning children's choir located in East Lansing, Michigan. In 2009, Kristin Zaryski was named director, succeeding the founder of the choir, Mary Alice Stollak. Following Ms. Zaryski, Kyle Zeuch was named Director. After 5 years, Kyle Zeuch departed for Lebanon Valley College. He was succeeded by current director Alison Geesey-Lagan. Most choristers in the choir come from the two other children's choirs in the program, the CMS Singers, and Preparatory Choir. The choir has performed at Carnegie Hall in New York City, Orchestra Hall in Detroit, Symphony Center in Chicago, and the Kennedy Center, in Washington D.C. In 2006, the choir won two Grammy Awards for their contributions to William Bolcom's Songs of Innocence and of Experience : Best Choral Performance and Best Classical Album .
Founded in 1993, the choir's founder and director was Mary Alice Stollak. Stollak led the MSU Children's Choir in performances at such prestigious venues as Carnegie Hall, Detroit's Orchestra Hall, and Chicago's Symphony Center. Some of their notable performances include:
1998: American Choral Directors Association Central Division Convention, Detroit, MI
1999: American Choral Directors Association National Convention, Chicago, IL
2000: The Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Neemi Jarvi, Conductor. Carmina Burana
2000: premiere performance and recording of "Symphony No. 4 (The Gardens)" Ellen Taaffe Zwilich, composer, Leon Gregorian, conductor.
2002: Sixth World Symposium on Choral Music: International Federation of Choral Musicians Official Representative of the United States, chosen by audition. Seventy-Three countries and 3000 delegates represented with only thirty-two choirs accepted for performance. Minneapolis, MN
2003: American Choral Directors Association-Michigan: Grand Rapids, MI
2004: American Choral Directors Association Central Division Convention: Indianapolis, IN
2004: Grammy Award winning recording of William Bolcom’s "Songs of Innocence and of Experience", with University of Michigan ensembles, Leonard Slatkin conducting.
2005: Premiere: John Burge’s "Angels’ Voices" with the Lansing Symphony Orchestra, Gustav Meier, conducting. "Angels’ Voices" has since won the Association of Canadian Choral Conductors’ 2006 Outstanding New Choral Composition.
2006: premiere performance of Marjan Helms’ "Voices of a Vanished World", a large scale multi-media presentation exploring the emotional and spiritual implications of the Holocaust, particularly as seen through the eyes of children. This two-hour work draws on the melodic contours and instrumental colors of Yiddish folk music, as well as Jewish liturgical chant.
2007: performance of the Pulitzer Prize winning work, "On the Transmigration of Souls", with composer John Adams conducting the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and the UMS Choral Union.
2009: premier performance of “Songs For Lada” Alla Borzova, composer, Leonard Slatkin conducting the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. Sung completely in Belarusian, this 40 minute work for children's choir was recorded on the Naxos label.
The MSU Children’s Choir has been chosen nine times, through audition, to perform for national, division and state conventions of the American Choral Directors Association, under Stollak’s direction.
Thirty treble choral works have been commissioned by the MSU Children’s Choir and are published with major choral publishing companies.
May, 2009: The choir performed for the last time with their retiring founding director, Mary Alice Stollak, at the Wharton Center for Performing Arts for their Farewell Concert.
The Michigan State University Children's Choir has recorded several albums:
1.Songs from the Heart
2.What Sweeter Music
3.A Classic Christmas
4.America the Beautiful: Songs of Our Heritage
5.Rejoice!, traditional Christmas music recorded in the historic chapel of the School Sisters of St. Francis, Milwaukee
6.Songs of Sorrow, Songs of Hope, containing works with texts written by children caught in the Holocaust and in the Bosnian war
7.Songs of Innocence and Of Experience – A Musical Illustration of the Poems of William Blake by William Bolcom: Naxos Recording Leonard Slatkin, Conducting, University of Michigan Orchestra and Ensembles
8.Voices of a Vanished world
9.This Joy!
10. Zwilich Symphony No. 4, The Gardens, Koch Records, Leon Gregorian, Conductor, MSU Orchestra and ensembles. Premiere Performance and Recording
11. Songs for Lada, Alla Barzova composer. Naxos Recording release, spring, 2011. Leonard Slatkin, Conductor, Detroit Symphony Orchestra. Premiere Performance and Recording
12. " Michigan Music Conference 2017" "Sound Waves Recording" Performed January 19-21, 2017. Kyle Zeuch Conductor
Alison Geesey-Lagan is the current director of the Michigan State University Children's Choir.
The choir rehearses every Tuesday and every other Saturday of each month.
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The Detroit Symphony Orchestra (DSO) is an American orchestra based in Detroit, Michigan. Its primary performance venue is Orchestra Hall at the Max M. Fisher Music Center in Detroit's Midtown neighborhood. Jader Bignamini is the current music director of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. Leonard Slatkin, the previous music director, is the orchestra's current music director laureate. Neeme Järvi, music director from 1990 to 2005, is the orchestra's current music director emeritus.
Leonard Edward Slatkin is an American conductor, author and composer.
William Elden Bolcom is an American composer and pianist. He has received the Pulitzer Prize, the National Medal of Arts, a Grammy Award, the Detroit Music Award and was named 2007 Composer of the Year by Musical America. He taught composition at the University of Michigan from 1973 until 2008. He is married to mezzo-soprano Joan Morris.
The BBC Symphony Chorus is a British amateur chorus based in London. It is the dedicated chorus for the BBC Symphony Orchestra, though it performs with other national and international orchestras.
Mass is a musical theatre work composed by Leonard Bernstein with text by Bernstein and additional text and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz. Commissioned by Jacqueline Kennedy, it premiered on September 8, 1971, conducted by Maurice Peress and choreographed by Alvin Ailey. The production used costume designs by Frank Thompson. The performance was part of the opening of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. Mass premiered in Europe in 1973, with John Mauceri conducting the Yale Symphony Orchestra in Vienna.
Jerry Blackstone is a Grammy Award winning American choral conductor. He was the Director of Choirs and Chair of the Conducting Department at the University of Michigan and the Music Director of the University Musical Society Choral Union.
The 48th Annual Grammy Awards took place on February 8, 2006, at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California honoring the best in music for the recording year beginning from October 1, 2004 through September 30, 2005. Irish rock band U2 were the main recipients with five awards including Album of the Year. Mariah Carey, John Legend, and Kanye West were each nominated for eight awards and won three; Alison Krauss & Union Station also won three awards; and Kelly Clarkson won two. Green Day were amongst the big winners, winning the Grammy Award for Record of the Year.
The Nashville Symphony is an American symphony orchestra, based in Nashville, Tennessee. The orchestra is resident at the Schermerhorn Symphony Center.
James Whitbourn is a British composer and conductor.
The St. Lawrence Choir is a Canadian mixed-voice choir that performs music from the classical choral repertoire as well as contemporary works by Canadian and other composers. It was founded in 1972.
Christine Brewer is an American soprano opera singer.
The RTÉ Concert Orchestra is one of the two full-time professional radio orchestras in Ireland that are part of RTÉ, the national broadcasting station. Since its formation as the Radio Éireann Light Orchestra in 1948, the RTÉ Concert Orchestra, has grown from a small studio-based recording group to become an active 45-strong orchestra performing over eighty concerts annually. It is part of RTÉ Performing Groups. The orchestra performs classical, popular and big band evening and lunchtime concerts, covering a range of music from baroque to contemporary.
Annelies is a full-length choral work based on The Diary of Anne Frank. Annelies is the full first name of Anne Frank, now commonly referred to by her abbreviated forename, Anne. The music is by British composer James Whitbourn and the libretto is compiled from the diary by Melanie Challenger.
The Dessoff Choirs is an independent chorus based in New York City. Margarete Dessoff established the organization in 1930 as the union of two choirs she directed, the Adesdi chorus and the A Cappella Singers, whence the plural Choirs. Today, the plural connotes Dessoff's various ensembles, which range from the large Dessoff Symphonic Choir, which appears with major orchestras, to the Dessoff Chamber Choir, which performs in more intimate settings.
Ilana Davidson is an American operatic soprano who has had an active international singing career in operas and concerts. She has sung on several recordings, including as a soloist on a recording of William Bolcom's Songs of Innocence and of Experience with Leonard Slatkin and the University of Michigan chorus and orchestra which won four Grammy Awards including Best Classical Album in 2006. She is the co-artistic director of the Chamber music series ClassicalCafe.
Kenneth Kiesler is an American symphony orchestra and opera conductor and mentor to conductors. Kiesler is conductor laureate of the Illinois Symphony Orchestra where he was music director from 1980 to 2000 and founder and director of the Conductors Retreat at Medomak. In 2014, Kiesler was nominated for a Grammy Award for his recording of Darius Milhaud’s opera L’Orestie d’Eschyle. He is Director of Orchestras and Professor of Conducting at the University of Michigan.
Black conductors are musicians of African, Caribbean, African-American ancestry and other members of the African diaspora who are musical ensemble leaders who direct classical music performances, such as an orchestral or choral concerts, or jazz ensemble big band concerts by way of visible gestures with the hands, arms, face and head. Conductors of African descent are rare, as the vast majority are male and Caucasian.
Graham Ross is a British conductor and composer.
Symphony No. 4, The Gardens, is a choral symphony for chorus, children's choir, and orchestra by the American composer Ellen Taaffe Zwilich. The work was composed in 1999 on a commission from the Michigan State University in honor of John D. Withrow and Dortha J. Withrow, to whom the work is dedicated. It was first performed by the Michigan State University Orchestra, Choral Ensembles, and Children's Chorus conducted by Leon Gregorian on February 5, 2000.
Judith Clurman is a conductor and educator. She is the musical director for Essential Voices USA and The Singing Christmas Tree Float in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade(NBC). She teaches voice and ensemble voice at The Manhattan School of Music and edits two choral series for Hal Leonard Music. She is a member of ASCAP, ASCAP's Special Classification Committee, and the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.
