News from Chor Anno (Slides above describe 2011 program)

Latest news from Chor Anno singers

2012 SEASON
The 2012 "season" for Chor Anno is beginning to take shape.

Our first rehearsal weekend has been set for May 4 and 5 and will be held in Vancouver.

We're altering our rehearsal procedure a bit this year so that Chor Anno will be available to sing during a workshop being sponsored by the Church Music Institute, Charlotte Kroeker, Executive Director, and the American Choral Directors Association. This event is tentatively set for August 14, 2012. Chor Anno will meet August 12 and 13 for rehearsals and will participate as the guest choir in the workshop event. Planning continues by the workshop sponsors and details will be available after the first of the year.

Chor Anno will sing again in Vancouver, Washington September 22, 2012. We'll be singing in Trinity Lutheran Church again this year. We may have "outgrown" the space at the wonderful St. Stephen's Episcopal Church in Longview. With agreement from Gary Lindstrom, head of the church's Celebration Concert Series, we are accepting an invitation from the Community Concert Association of Longview/Kelso and will be sponsored by that organization at a Longview at, oddly enough, Trinity Lutheran Church in that city.

CD in the works...also possibility of availability of individual songs for downloading.
Our goal is to lift the best of our concert material from our first three years of live recordings and make a CD. Live recordings are exciting as well as filled with the possibility of a cough or the sound of a passing car. Having an audience often elevates the intensity of the performance. A "live" recording CD is then a mixed blessing fraught with a bit of risk. It's one we're willing accept for we know it's REAL. Most CDs are studio works, edited until "sheer perfection" is attained. Nothing wrong with that approach. We may try it someday. In the meantime, we're hoping you'll like us just as you heard us...the real Chor Anno.

Our target for having the CD available is August, 2012. You'll hear about it!

Photo collage from video of singers "in action" at concerts in Vancouver and in Longview.

Three new members; twenty-five singers now

Another three of the northwest's finest singers have become members of Chor Anno. Justin Raffa, tenor, Molly Holleran, soprano, and Daryl Browne, alto, have accepted Director Howard Meharg's invitation to become members of the ensemble, making a total of twenty-five.

"It's the perfect size for our approach to choral music," says Meharg. "It gives us the heft to take on much of the choral literature repertoire and still maintain clarity of sound as well as flexibility in stage formation and logistical matters."

Justin Raffa is the director of the Mid-Columbia Mastersingers in the Tri-Cities. He also manages the Mid-Columbia Symphony Orchestra and directs music at All-Saints Episcopal Church in Richland.

Justin is originally from the east coast...New Jersey. He studied music at Westminster Choir College in Princeton, working with both Joseph Flummerfelt and James Jordan, two of the country's best known figures in choral music.

His first teaching job was in Bisbee, Arizona. Justin got his Master's degree in music from the University of Arizona in Tucson.His singing experience includes the Berkshire Choral Festival, Spoleto Festival USA, Voces Novae et Antiquae, the Tucson Symphony Orchestra Chorus and he continues to perform as a founding member of the Tucson Chamber Artists.

He says, "I'm delighted to be a member of Chor Anno and it's a pleasure to sing alongside my friend and voice instructor, Reg Unterseher."

Molly Holleran is also from the Tri-Cities. Yes, she and Justin are well acquainted. She also has extensive singing experience, both as a chorister and as a concert soloist. She has performed in opera and in musical theatre.

Molly is a founding member of the Chicago Chamber Choir as well as the Tucson Chamber Artists. She, too, has performed with the Tucson Symphony Orchestra Chorus and now sings in the Mid-Columbia Mastersingers.

She holds degrees in voice and theatre from Lawrence University as well as master's degree in voice from the University of Arizona. Molly maintains a private voice studio in Richland.

 
Daryl Browne resides in Portland, again. She and her husband, Bruce (who conducted choral music at Portland State and professionally in this area for many years) moved back to Portland after spending a few retirement years in Eagle, Idaho, where Daryl taught full time and Bruce worked on a part-time basis at Boise State University.

She is now retired...full time, she says. Daryl has a rich alto voice. "She really helps us warm up the sound in the lower register," according to Meharg.

Daryl sang regularly with the Portland Symphonic Choir and in Choral Cross Ties. She holds a Bachelor of Music Education degree, majoring in flute performance. This was in Ohio...her native state. Her Master's degree is from Portland State.

Rob Dennis returns to Chor Anno; joins his father, Paul, as a member of the group

Part of the reason Chor Anno has jumped from twenty-one members to twenty-five is that Rob Dennis has returned to sing with us. Rob took last year off. He says, "I was just on the road too much to make it work out in 2010."

Rob's father, Paul Dennis, sings in the group, too. "The Dennis' have been a little like extended family to me for many years," Meharg said. Paul was a student of mine at Kelso High School when I first started to teach. After getting a degree in music at the University of Puget Sound, he returned to teach choral music at Mark Morris High School in Longview. Paul and his wife Karyl, son Rob and daughter Lindsey moved to Walla Walla where they now live. Paul retired from directing choral music at Walla Walla High School several years ago, but now works in the admissions office at Whitman University.

Rob was the choral director at Emerald Ridge High School in the Puyallup area last year. But his wife, Dominique took an administrator's job in Pasco. That meant lots of miles on the car and little time for singing activities. Amazingly, a job opened as director of choral activities at Pasco High School this past summer. Rob got the job...and a united family...as well as a little more time to sing again with Chor Anno.

First of three rehearsal weekends was June 3 and 4, 2011; the story on Chor Anno rehearsals

We're often asked how Chor Anno is able to put together a full concert with musicians who are coming from so many different cities.

We meet three times. The singers are to come to each rehearsal with notes learned. We're beginning our fourth year, but we're developing a pattern. Our first meeting is in the late spring. In 2011 we met June 3rd and 4th...a Friday evening and most of the day on Saturday.

Our second meeting last year was September 16th and 17th. Much the same schedule, but now we'll be adding some of the instrumentalists helping us with the program.

"Yes, it is a little risky...performing with limited rehearsals like this," says conductor Meharg. "Chances are that we're going to manage pretty well, given the experience and the abilities these folks have." "I suspect the risk factor for most people who love to sing actually adds to the enjoyment of the whole thing."