Jefferson Choral Society (JCS) has been awarded a community residency for composer Aaron Garber from Meet the Composer’s MetLife Creative Connections program. As part of the residency, Mr. Garber will conduct a free workshop about composing in Altavista for local singers and musicians, students and the general public.Mr. Garber will demonstrate his composition process on computer, as well as playing examples of his works, and will introduce workshop participants to music composition.

 The workshop will take place at 7:30 PM at First Baptist Church of Altavista, 

on Tuesday, April 13th, 2010.  The church is at the Corner of Bedford Avenue

and 10th Street, across the Street from Altavista High School.

The workshop will be held in conjunction with the Jefferson Choral Society’s
world Premiere of Aaron Garber’s setting of Magnificat, to be presented as
part of the JCS 20th Anniversary Concert, Into the Future, on April 25th at
St. Thomas More Church 3015 Roundelay Road in Lynchburg, at 4 PM. Mr. Garber
will conduct, and the soprano soloist will be Carol Hill.

There will be an informal reception with Mr. Garber following the workshop.
Altavista singer and former President of Jefferson Choral Society Betty Cook
will chair the workshop event, assisted by area JCS singers Joanna Protz,
Bill Ferguson, Dennis Pruitt, Sue and Bill Wallace, Dan McLaughlin. Tommy
Thompson, Doris Hicks, and Cynthia Erb. For information call Mrs. Cook at
434-369-4181.

Mr. Garber said, “It’s wonderful that Jefferson Choral Society is able to
premiere Magnificat in Lynchburg’s beautiful St. Thomas More Church. The
sanctuary is modern, but also traditional….It’s right for the piece. It has
space for 80 singers and a thirty-four piece orchestra!”

The first half of the JCS Into the Future concert, also conducted by Mr.
Garber, will consist of classical choruses from major works by Handel,
Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Haydn, Fauré, and Duruflé. Garber says, “I think
these are great choruses from some of the greatest choral works ever!”

For those who are interested but unable to attend the workshop, more
information about composer Aaron Garber and his work can be found at
http://aarongarber.com <http://aarongarber.com/> . Information about his
Magnificat premiere and Into the Future can also be found at the Jefferson
Choral Society website www.jeffersonchoralsociety.org
<http://www.jeffersonchoralsociety.org/> . Tickets can be purchased at
LynchburgTickets.com, from JCS singers, or at Miller’s Jewelry in Altavista,
and in Lynchburg at Blue Marlin Seafood, Givens Books-Little Dickens, and at
Lynchburg Music Center/Fort Avenue.

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As part of its 20^th Anniversary season, Jefferson Choral Society, Greater Lynchburg’s Community Chorus, will sing “Echoes from the Past,” a concert of choral favorites, in both Bedford, at Holy Name Roman Catholic Church on Saturday, February 27^th, at 7:30 PM and in Lynchburg, at Court Street Methodist Church on Sunday, February 28^th at 4 PM. 

JCS Music Director and concert conductor Aaron Garber says, “Even though it is primarily classical music, there is a lot of diversity. Most of the music has been around for two to 400 years. These are all pieces that have stood the test of time -- ‘The best of the best.’  If you like Bach and Handel, we’re singing them.  We’ve got Brahms and Faure, if you want a more romantic sound. And some spirituals…..  The chorus needs to sing each piece in a different way.  Not many choruses are able to sing different styles well, and it is an enjoyable challenge.   

Mr. Garber says he is pleased to be conducting the chorus for the first time in Court Street Methodist Church. He continues, “The acoustics are great for choral singing – the a cappella sound will be wonderful. We are excited to use their organ -- it has a great sound! The C. Hubert H. Parry piece we are singing, I Was Glad When They Said Unto Me needs an organ like that.  You feel that you are in a grand old European cathedral listening to a concert in Court Street Methodist Church. And, of course, JCS are pleased to have wonderful accompanists, Peggy Haas Howell on the organ, and Rose Marie Peak on piano.

 Bedford’s Jacqueline (“Jac”) Hull, who is a singer as well as the Corresponding Secretary of Jefferson Choral Society (JCS), was the first person to bring up having JCS sing a choral classics program in Bedford this season.  She said last week, “People love music in Bedford. I’ve felt for a long time that if we came to sing in the Bedford area, people would enjoy hearing the music and would support the organization.”

 Jeanne Craig, Music Minister of Holy Name Church, who are hosting the concert, said that Aaron Garber, Music Director and Conductor of JCS, came over during the summer to look at the premises and check out the instrument. “We have great acoustics!” says Mrs. Craig, “We used to host formal classical concerts here, but it was before I came, and I’ve been here for ten years, so it has been a while.

 The two women say they are excited by the musical program.  Says Jeanne Craig, “What I like about the music we are singing is the diversity of styles.  We have everything from Palestrina to spirituals. I find myself singing the spirituals for days.  They aren’t a type of music we sing at Holy Name of Mary, but once we sing them at rehearsal, I am singing them for days! …. And Ave Verum Corpus by Mozart, we do that one at Holy Name of Mary.   Anyone who comes to this concert will find some thing that touches them, that speaks to them. For people who have never heard a top-notch musical group performing locally, we’d really love to see them come.

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Bryan “Ragtime Man” Wright, a Lynchburg native who has played in the
JVC jazz Festival in New York, will be the featured performer at the
Jefferson Choral Society’s 20th Birthday party to be held at the
Warehouse Theater of the Academy of Fine Arts on Friday, February 12th
at 7 PM. Yuko Eguchi, Mr. Wright’s wife, will also be featured, playing
a traditional Japanese instrument, the shamisen.  Also on the
birthday party program are Glenn Buck’s James River Swing and Sway
Dance Band and the Lynchburg quartet of the Smith Mountain Harmeneers.

Bryan and Yuko are both working toward PhD’s at the University of
Pittsburgh, he in historical musicology and she in Ethnomusicology.
Bryan Wright grew up in Lynchburg, where he graduated from EC Glass
High School, won music awards, played piano with the jazz ensemble, and
participated in piano competitions. Already interested in 20th century
arts and media, Bryan also hosted a radio show on WLQE and WLVA on
which he played vintage jazz and old radio shows.

Sandra Horwege of Amherst who was Bryan’s piano teacher from age 5
until he went to college remembers, “Bryan was always interested in
learning what made different kinds of music work. He learned Scott
Joplin’s The Entertainer at quite a young age, and he loved it. He
worked on Bach, Mozart, and Beethoven, as any well trained piano
student does, but he also was particularly interested in learning about
ragtime and early jazz.”

Bryan attended and graduated from College of William and Mary, where he
played viola and violin in Appalachian and Middle Eastern music groups,
and participated in ragtime festivals across the country.  His thesis
at William and Mary, ‘Cile Turner’s Contribution to the Preservation
and Development of African-American Traditional Music won him the
Lowens Award for Student Research.  He founded and owns Rivermont
Records, an independent label devoted to early 20th century popular
music. Rivermont produced two volumes of performances by ‘Cile Turner,
‘Cile Turner, Makin’ Glory, whose cuts Bryan transferred and remastered,
and for which he wrote the liner notes. The album became popular in
Lynchburg and was featured in Lynch’s Ferry magazine and The News and
Advance.  Bryan has also produced an album of his own piano
performances of ragtime music on Rivermont Records, titled Syncopated
Musings. In December 2009, Mark Berresford was nominated for  a Grammy
Award for “best liner notes” for his work on a Rivermont Records
produced CD of vintage recordings by the pioneering jazz band “The
Happy Six.”

Yuko graduated from Bates College in Maine where she majored in music
composition and composed for her senior honors thesis an opera, Anata
no moto e (I will follow you to the End). She is particularly
interested in musical performances of the geisha and gender issues in
her native country of Japan.