The Rockbridge Chamber Singers Are Back!

Since 2020, the Rockbridge Chamber Singers have been side-lined by Covid-19.  The group’s comeback concert, planned for February, 2022,  had to be cancelled, again due to concerns over rehearsing and performing during an up-swing in Covid infections in the local area.  This season, Chamber Singers have finally returned to full numbers and began rehearsing in late December for their concert on Sunday afternoon, February 12, 2023!  We are pleased to bring to our audience a performance of two very special choral works – George Frideric Handels’s Dixit Dominus and Johann Sebastian Bach’s Cantata No. 4, Christ lag in Todes Banden.

            Bach’s Cantata No. 4 is Bach’s first cantata for Easter, and is likely his only extant original composition for the first day of the Easter feast.  It is also his earliest surviving chorale cantata and was related to his application for a post at a Lutheran church at Muhlhausen, Germany.  John Eliot Gardiner described it as Bach’s “first known attempt at painting narrative in music”.  The source was Martin Luther’s hymn of the same title, which is the main hymn for Easter in the Lutheran church.  Listen.

            Handel’s Dixit Dominus is a setting of the text of Psalm 110 which begins with the words “The Lord Said”.  The work, written in the baroque style of the period and scored for five vocal soloists, five-part chorus, strings and continuo, was completed in April 1707 while Handel was living in Italy and contains the composer’s earliest surviving autograph.  It is thought that the work was first performed on July 16, 1707 in the Church of Santa Maria in Montessanto.  Listen

            The Rockbridge Chamber Singers are excited to be joined by chamber orchestra and soloists to present these two works just ahead of Lent and the Easter season.  Christine Fairfield, soprano, and Scot Williamson, tenor, will again be our soloists. The Chamber Singers will also welcome singers from Southern Virginia University among their ranks. Please join them on Sunday afternoon, February 12 at 3 PM at the Lexington Presbyterian Church for Bach and Handel!

On-Line Tickets Available Now for Rockbridge Chamber Singers February, 2023 Concert

The Rockbridge Chamber Singers, under the direction of William McCorkle, are rehearsing now to be ready to present their first concert since COVID-19 sidelined them in late 2020! The Chamber Singers are pleased to bring you the music of Handel and Bach on Sunday, February 12 at 3 PM in the sanctuary of the Lexington Presbyterian Church. Tickets ($12.50) are available in advance on-line and will also be available at the door.($15). We are also pleased to be able to offer tickets in a family plan - $35 in advance or $40 at the door. Join us for a mid-winter afternoon of beautiful music!

Rockbridge Chorus Returns to Live Performance - Holiday Concert 2021

The Rockbridge Choral Society is pleased to announce the return of the Rockbridge Chorus to live performance with their Holiday Concert on Saturday December 4 at 7:30 PM at the Lexington Presbyterian Church in downtown Lexington.

Tickets are available on-line. Go to our website www.rcs.org and click on any ticket link or go to www.eventbrite.com and search Rockbridge Chorus, or use the link below to purchase tickets.

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-rockbridge-chorus-holiday-concert-2021-tickets-206911817817?utm-campaign=social%2Cemail&utm-content=attendeeshare&utm-medium=discovery&utm-source=strongmail&utm-term=listing

Due to Covid-19 protocols at our venue, all attendees must wear a face mask. Seating is limited to 350 to allow for physical distancing if attendees so desire.

Admission is free for children age 6 and under.

Audience caroling begins at 7:15 PM

Please join us as we return to live performance! Here is a sample of one of the works you will hear.

Happy Holidays! We hope to see you there!

Rehearsals Begin!

Our Artistic Director is excited to announce that rehearsals for the 2021/2022 season will begin on Monday, September 27, 2021 at Lexington Presbyterian Church in the sanctuary. Singers, please plan to come between 7 and 7:30 PM so that we will have time to check your contact information and your proof of vaccination against the Covid-19 virus. Prepared music packets will be available for pick-up once check-in is complete.

Covid Protocols for Rehearsals

Vaccination - Vaccination against Covid-19 is required and singers must bring proof of vaccination to the first rehearsal in order to enter the building. If you will miss the first rehearsal, please bring proof of vaccination to the first rehearsal you do attend. If you don’t have the card issued to you at your vaccination appointment and you were vaccinated in Virginia, you may obtain proof by going to https://www.vdh.virginia.gov/prince-william/lost-your-covid-19-vaccination-card/.

Masks and Physical Distancing - Masks must be worn at all times while in the building. Some seats in the rehearsal space will be kept vacant to promote physical distancing. The Lexington Presbyterian Church has a newly installed ventilation system to improve air exchange within the sanctuary.

LET'S SING!

RCS artistic director, William McCorkle, in consult with our board president, Margaret Howard, has a tentative rehearsal start date for our December 2021 Holiday Concert! The board will meet in early August. With input from Mr. McCorkle and pending CDC recommendations, we anticipate that the board will approve the resumption of rehearsals for the Rockbridge Chorus beginning on September 27, 2021. The Lexington Presbyterian Church on S. Main St in downtown Lexington, home to our usual rehearsal venues, has graciously invited us back as they and we start to open up after the long Covid-19 hiatus. We are excited to get back to singing. Our Holiday Concert is scheduled for December 4, 2021. Please check back on our website for updates and Covid-19 guidelines. And, yes, we are happy!

Meet the New RYC Interns

Top row from left: Interns Abby Hanson, Caleb Pena, Chris Vasquez, Haley Allen

Bottom row from left :Katelyn Roll, Interim Assistant Director and Nat Ledesma, Intern

The Rockbridge Youth Chorale has begun virtual and limited in-person rehearsals out of doors for the 2020/2021 season.  As with everything else, this season will be different.  Director Lacey Lynch has developed a plan to keep our young singers singing, collaborating, and learning in spite of the challenges of a global pandemic!  To assist her in her endeavors this season, the RYC welcomes new interim assistant director, Katelyn Roll, returning intern Caleb Pena, and new student interns Nat Ledesma, Abby Hansen, Hayley Allen, and Chris Vasquez.  Caleb, Nat, and Hayley are all students heavily involved with music and various singing groups at Washington and Lee University.  Abby and Chris are students with similar interests and musical involvement at Southern Virginia University. 

            Katelyn Roll is a music education major at Southern Virginia University and says “I’m so excited to begin working with the Children’s Choir. It is my dream job!!! Children inspire me and teach me so much. I can’t wait to learn and grow alongside these awesome kids."  All these young adults are excited to gain experience working with our Youth Choir and Children’s Choir members and we are excited to have them on board.  Check out the depth of experience we are able to draw upon with these great young musicians and catch up on all the RYC news. https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=2697312320372074&id=113471995422799

Rehearsals and Our Choruses for the 2020/2021 Season

It’s September. Ordinarily we would be meeting at 7:30 on Monday evenings to rehearse for our holiday concert. Unfortunately, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, rehearsals and concerts for the Rockbridge Chorus have been suspended according to guidance for group singing activities issued by the Virginia Department of Health and the CDC. This decision by our board of directors and our artistic director was not easy, and while we are all sad and miss singing together and for our audiences, this was the prudent thing to do to protect our singers and the community. In a chorus of 70 plus members, the space to adequately physical distance is just simply not available to us. To keep up with developments please subscribe to our monthly e-newsletter, Alla Breve On-Line and check us out on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/search/top?q=rockbridge%20choral%20society%20-%20rockbridge%20chorus

On the upside, the Rockbridge Youth Choruses are getting together to rehearse outside, weather permitting. Virtual rehearsals began on August 25. via Zoom so that the singers could get familiar with the music they would be learning for the fall semester. In addition to virtual rehearsals outdoor rehearsals are planned biweekly in September and October. These in-person rehearsals pull together the music the kids have been learning virtually. At the end of each semester the youth choruses will record their program and share it via a Zoom watch party. We are grateful to our youth artistic director, Lacey Lynch, and her cadre of technically savvy interns for making it possible to bring the youth from our community together to sing and learn about music in spite of the pandemic. Keep up with the Rockbridge Youth Chorale happenings here

Until we are all able to be together again in person, we hope you will remember us in your annual charitable giving. It’s easy to donate by going to our website and hitting the donate button. We welcome all support and thank you for keeping us singing!

Music in the Time of Corona Virus

Undaunted (mostly) by our current state of musical affairs, our artistic director, William McCorkle, can be found conducting virtual lessons with his piano students and playing for virtual church services at the Lexington Presbyterian Church.  This church is our principle rehearsal location and performance venue in normal times and we are grateful for all they do for the RCS.   Their youth pastor, Kelly-Ann Rayle, recently shared this short video from the church’s YouTube channel of an organ interlude with Bill.  We thought you’d enjoy it too.  We’d love to see more of these Bill!

RCS Board of Directors News

Lori Parker, director of our youngest youth choirs, is leaving us.  Lori has done a superb job with our youngest singers.  We will miss her expertise and always smiling face.  Lori will still be in the area and concentrating on other work, so if you see her around, please thank her for her work and her service to the musical development of these talented kids.  Thank you, thank you Lori for all you have given us!

              The RCS Board of Directors has voted to approve some new additions to the Board and a new slate of officers for the 2020/2022 term.  We’d like to welcome new board members Woody McDonald, Margaret Howard, Melanie Griffis-Hooper, Claibourne Edwards, Peg Leinbach, Taylor Walle, and Terry Southerington.   The Board’s new president beginning July 1, 2020 will be Margaret Howard.  Larry Evans will continue as treasurer, and David Biddle will take over as secretary from departing board member Pat Tichenor.  In addition to Pat, we would like to thank Jane Birzenieks, Anne Hansen, Melissa Holland, Deb Price, and Merrily Taylor for their service on the board as well.  Their terms will end on July 1. 

            Thanks to the tireless work of David Biddle and his bylaws committee members Larry Evans, Anne Hansen, Melissa Holland and Deb Price we have completed the new RCS bylaws and the board approved those at their May meeting.  This completes our legal transition from the Friends of the Rockbridge Choral Society to the Rockbridge Choral Society.  Singers, donors and supporters may request a copy of the bylaws by sending an email to admin@rcs.org. 

Rockbridge Youth Chorale and High School Honor Choir

Two of our Rockbridge Youth Chorale singers, Joe Harrison and Caroline Lauck,  recently auditioned and qualified for the Southern Division American Choral Directors Association (ACDA) High School Honor Choir event which took place March 11-14 in Mobile, Alabama.  Unfortunately, the session had to be cut short by, you guessed it, corona virus.  Nevertheless, the closing concert went forward on shortened rehearsal time.  Joe is a senior at Rockbridge County High School and this was not his first time at Honor Choir.  Here are some of his observations. 

            "It is always an interesting experience to work with different conductors with a unique style and personalities. We saw our two conductors deal with a stressful and unexpected situation - Covid-19, which was interesting to observe. Unfortunately, pieces needed to be cut for the performance, due to the time factor, and my favorite piece from the program, Ballad to the Moon, was one of the cut pieces. While it is not a technically challenging piece, the amount of time it would take to make those longer notes shimmer and the melodies flow was too much. Musically, the most interesting part for me was the metronome. They treated us like an orchestra first and then added musicality on top of that. I don't agree with the approach, but it was interesting regardless.”

            “One thing that always gets me at these honor choirs is all the basses who have an insane range. Being a bass myself, I get a twinge jealous when I hear the person next to me singing a low C louder than me. The person to the right of me had been to thirteen ACDA events and five all-state honor choirs. Part of the wonderful experience of being in a mass honor choir is you get to meet all sorts of people.  It is always a treat to go to these wonderful events!”

            We are grateful to our principle youth chorale director and ACDA member, Lacey Lynch, for recruiting these talented young people and for bringing them to a musical place where they can successfully audition for such a prestigious event.  Auditions are never for the faint of heart, and they are highly competitive.  We are really proud of Joe and Caroline!  Your donations help us achieve this support for the young singers of our community.  If you regularly attend our RYC concerts, you know how good these kids are.  Thanks for all you do to help the RCS achieve its mission goals which include the development of choral music among our community youth!

Joe Harrison

Caroline Lauck in Mobile

Singing in the Time of Corona Virus

In 2020, for the first time in decades, there will be no spring concerts by the Rockbridge Chorus and Youth Chorale.   We realize that this is one loss among many in this extraordinary time, but nonetheless our singers and artistic directors, who have worked so hard preparing, are sad to see the concerts postponed.  Our planned spring concerts WILL go on when this is over, regardless of the season, so stay tuned for updates.   The health and safety of our community and of those with whom we come in contact outweighs all other considerations, even performing and hearing beautiful music.   Thankfully, we live in an age of remarkable technology.  Music of all kinds is accessible to us in a variety of virtual ways (pointers to some of them often appear in our online newsletter, Alla-Breve, and on the RCS Facebook page).  

            In the meantime, as a Friend of the RCS you are well aware our choruses are funded and staffed largely by volunteers, donations, and ticket sales.   Our fundraising reminders usually go out in close proximity to our concerts with the very sensible notion that, having been swept away by a performance, you will be even more disposed to be generous.   The spring concert itself was expected to bring in $6,000 in ticket sales.   But this year, there will be no concert, so we have to rely on your memory of our work and on your generosity to raise the money we’ll need to function next year.    Please remember your spring donation, and if you can, be a little extra generous.  You might, for example, give or add the amount you would have spent on a spring concert ticket(s).  The Rockbridge Choral Society will be grateful, but more importantly, you’ll help to insure wonderful choral music in our area for another year and beyond.

            Donation is easy and you may contribute as little as $5.  Donate on our website, www.rcs.org, by clicking on the DONATE button, or you may donate by texting the keyword SINGON to 1-844-844-6844.  You will receive a reply text with a link to donate.  And as always, you may send your contribution via check to The Rockbridge Choral Society, PO Box 965, Lexington, VA  24450.

            Stay safe, stay healthy, and rejoice in the beauties of spring and in the music of nature around us.   We’ll see you on the other side.

O Say Can You See...

Rick Richter (back row second from left), member of our bass section, is also a basketball fan, more specifically a fan of the Washington and Lee women’s basketball team.  Rick recruited a group of Rockbridge Chorus singers to sing the national anthem at the team’s last home game with Eastern Mennonite on 2/11/2020.  Congrats to the W&L ladies who won 80-60 and thanks to Rick for this community outreach opportunity!  Who knows?  May lead to more such gigs!

"A Reputable Youngster"

Jazz journalist, James Karst, stumbled on an 8 second film clip on the Getty Images website and instantly knew the newsboy smiling at the camera in the footage could be Louis Armstrong.  In 1915 Louis Armstrong was a newsboy in New Orleans.  He would have been 13 or 14 years old and in need of a job since his recent release from a boys’ reformatory where he had been sent for shooting off a pistol in the air and where he learned to play trumpet. Since he was just starting on his musical career, playing a few local gigs, he likely would not have considered himself a musician.  His occupation was newsboy.       

In those days there weren’t many black newsboys in New Orleans. This video was made 6 blocks from the corner of Poydras and Baronne streets where Armstrong was known to sell newspapers. In the short clip of a crowded sidewalk, a newsboy crosses the camera field, turns to smile and then moves on .That smile, the location, and the date so convinced Karst that this was young Armstrong that he reached out to Dr. Kurt Luther, a professor at Virginia Tech known for his work identifying people in Civil War-era photographs. Luther compared the facial features of the boy in the video to those seen in the earliest known images of Armstrong. Karst accessed census records to verify the small number of black newsboys on the New Orleans records at the time the film was made and where they lived and sold newspapers. If Karst's theory is correct, the clip from 1915 shows Armstrong at a turning point in his early life, years before he became a jazz legend. There is that famous smile. You be the judge.

Does this 1915 stock footage represent Louis Armstrong's film debut?

The young Louis Armstrong

Woodstock at 50

This week marks the 50th anniversary of Woodstock where, by some counts, half a million people made their way to a field in upstate New York for a weekend of rock music in the mud.  The festival wasn’t actually held in Woodstock but outside Bethel, a small town about 75 miles away.  It rained.  They ran out of food the first day and the country roads were so blocked by abandoned vehicles that the US Army was enlisted to bring in food and some performers by helicopter.  Today the field where it all happened is conserved as the Bethel Woods Center for the Arts which maintains the site and offers a venue for the performing arts.  The Woodstock commemoration this weekend at Bethel Woods will be a much quieter and smaller affair.  Original performers John Fogerty, Santana, and Ringo Star will return for concerts August 15 -17.  If you don’t already have tickets, you probably are out of luck.

The Woodstock Music and Arts Festival Didn’t Happen in Woodstock. Find more fun and little known Woodstock facts.

Woodstock today at Bethel Woods Center for the Arts, NY

Woodstock, August 1969

It's A Small World After All

Our audiences may have noticed that our youth chorale has a pretty good accompanist on the piano. Dr. Anna Billias is a concert pianist. She trained in Ukraine at the Prokofiev State Academy of Music in Donesk and graduated with advanced degrees in both performance and piano instruction. She performs up and down the Shenandoah Valley and in the Lynchburg area, and has given concerts in London, Paris, Crimea, Russia and Ukraine. She is assistant professor and director of piano studies and collaborative performance and an instructor of Russian language at Sweet Briar College, and is a part-time accompanist and adjunct instructor at Washington and Lee University. She maintains a growing private piano studio and serves as the accompanist for the Rockbridge Youth Chorale. We are indeed fortunate and grateful to have the benefit of her time and talents right here in Lexington!

Anna Billias, Rockbridge Youth Chorale Accompanist

Volunteer Spotlight - David Sorrells, Poster Boy

Before every concert the Rockbridge Choral Society has to get the word out.  We rely heavily on our singers to distribute concert poster announcements throughout the community, and we have a coordinator for that.  David Sorrells, baritone/tenor depending on who needs him, is our new volunteer in this department.  David is a Lexington native who has been singing most of his life in church choirs, and a-capella groups and men’s choruses and community choruses from Lauderdale Presbyterian Church to the White House.  He and his musically gifted mother sang the Brahms Requiem with the Rockbridge Chorus in the 1970’s.  David ‘sang around’ in this community for most of his youth.  He graduated from Washington and Lee University in 1980 with a degree in Drama – Acting and Directing.  After college, he applied his skills as Director of Theatre Arts at Chapel Hill High School in Chapel Hill, NC.  There he and his students produced musical plays including West Side Story, Children of Eden, Secret Garden, Sweeney Todd, and Jesus Christ Superstar.  David says it was a dream job, but after 12 years, he was ready to move on.          

            Seven years ago David moved back to Lexington to support his mom as she transitioned through retirement.  His return has found him singing again with his church choir roots at Lauderdale, as well as with other local church choirs and community choruses.  In the fall of 2018 he returned to the Rockbridge Choral Society where he says he has been challenged musically by the repertoire of that chorus and that of the Rockbridge Chamber Singers.  Clearly, David loves to sing, and we are glad and thankful that he is back and lending his voice to ours.  And, last fall, he volunteered to be the new poster coordinator when John Rafferty, also a singing volunteer, retired after many years at that post.

  We are supremely grateful to all our volunteers.  Some are singers and some are not, and they are all among our most ardent supporters.  If you are interested in knowing more about how you can help the Rockbridge Choral Society, please send us an email.  You can reach the publisher of this newsletter at communications@rcs.org or our Executive Director, Melanie Griffis Hooper, at admin@rcs.org.

David Sorrells

George Washington's Harpsichord

Actually, the harpsichord played in the little parlor at Mount Vernon probably belonged to Washington’s step-granddaughter, Nelly Custis.  The instrument was a gift from the President to 14 year old Nelly around 1793 and was delivered from London retailer Longman and Broderip.  By all accounts it was a top-of-the-line harpsichord acquired as the piano was just coming into popularity.  It was an extensively modified double keyboard harpsichord containing a complex plucking mechanism utilizing leather plectra rather than quill, a set of knobs and pedals which operated stops, and a Venetian swell. All allowed the user to play more expressively giving this particular harpsichord a mellower sound well suited to the changing demands of compositions of the period.  According to conservators and music historians, these innovations made this particular harpsichord different from any other surviving period harpsichord in the US. 

            Eventually Nelly’s harpsichord moved to Washington’s Mount Vernon in 1797 at the end of his second term, and except for a short stay at the home of Nelly’s brother, remained there in its original condition until 2016 when curators determined that the environment in that old mansion was not good for the preservation of the instrument.  Mount Vernon called John Watson who is, as it happens, a builder of harpsichords.  They commissioned him to build a playable replica which would become part of the Mount Vernon exhibit.  And so the project was begun in Watson’s workshop using the original instrument, now housed in more friendly climes in Williamsburg, as a model for the building of the replica.  This year and in 2020, Mr. Washington’s harpsichord will once again be played in his home to better depict the important role of music in the late 18th century American experience.  Watson believes it will be close.

Recently, John R. Watson reconstructed George Washington's original harpsichord. The original harpsichord was on display at Mount Vernon but was transferred to Colonial Williamsburg and put on display in the museum. The finished re-construction will be a fully functioning harpsichord and will be on display in George Washington's mansion.

Civic Organist's Next Act May Surprise You

How do you follow an act like that? Dr. Carol Williams, former full time Civic Organist in San Diego, CA, has moved to Virginia and is currently living in the Lynchburg area and serving as artist in residence at Court St. United Methodist Church in Lynchburg. She has been busy since moving. In addition to her church duties at the organ, she still plays organ concerts all over the world, including back in San Diego on the Spreckels organ in Balboa Park, composes, and produces CD’s of her own compositions and organ performances. In June, 2018 she organized the first Lynchburg (now Virginia) International Organ Festival, a week long festival bringing renowned organists from all over to Lynchburg to perform. That yearly festival will continue.

The U. K. - born Williams studied at the Royal Academy of Music where it is reported that she got into trouble for playing ragtime instead of Rachmoninoff. When she finished her graduate studies at the Manhattan School of Music, she became the first woman civic organist in the world taking up the San Diego post in 2001, where she played weekly concerts on the world’s largest outdoor organ (see Alla Breve On-Line, December 2016). Now she plays weekly Sunday services at Court St. where she took over from retiring, long-time organist, George Clark who had been that church’s organist for 52 years.

If we are lucky, we will get to hear her one day soon. Watch this space.

San Diego Civic Organist Emeritus Dr. Carol Williams

Volunteer Spotlight - Ticket Master

This season, new alto section member Deb Price graciously volunteered to be the ticket manager for handling ticket distribution to chorus members and the general public.  Like most of her fellow chorus members, Deb is a long-time choir and chorus singer and enjoys singing all types of music. She also enjoys hiking, learning about Virginia’s history, and, lucky for us, volunteering.  Please, take a moment to thank Deb and her husband Jerry for taking on this important job for the RCS. 

           If you are interested in learning more about any of the jobs that our volunteers do, please check in with the Friend’s Executive Director, Melanie Griffis-Hooper.  Send her an email at admin@rcs.org to learn how you can use your non-vocal talents to help, or catch Melanie at one of our Monday night rehearsals, and thanks!

A French Connection

On February 3, 2019 the Rockbridge Chamber Singers will travel through Europe musically with composers from Germany, England, Ireland, Scotland, France, and Italy with some old favorites and some new encounters.  Among these is a collection of three lyric-driven French songs known as “Trois Chansons” by Claude Debussy.  Arguably, Debussy changed the sound world of classical music forever in much the way that his contemporary, Monet, changed the art world.  Debussy was not a slave to the Wagner worship of his day.  He put forth his own musical aesthetic in fluid orchestral works like “Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun”, and a few lovely choral works.  His “Trois Chansons” have become icons in the classical choral music repertoire.  These songs are set to poem texts by Charles D’Orleans, the 15th century French Duke of Orleans, who was captured at the battle of Agincourt in 1415 and imprisoned in England for the next 24 years.  He was a prisoner of war to be sure, though as was true of many captives of royal descent, he lived quite well within his confines and wrote more than 500 poems while in England.  Upon his release, he joked that he spoke English better than French. 

Listen here   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1qf7oH3GSVA

CLAUDE DEBUSSY