CFO

CFO Young Artist to work with students in Chatham School

Chanel Wood, soprano, Columbia Festival Orchestra’s Young Artist 2008, will perform a short program and lead a masterclass with vocal students in the Chatham School District on Tuesday, May 20th, 8-10 am. The Chatham masterclass with Chanel Wood is an educational initiative of the Columbia Festival Orchestra. Ms. Wood is from the Graduate Program in Vocal Arts at the Bard College Conservatory of Music.

Students of Christian Ritter, vocal teacher in the Chatham High School, have prepared solos for the NYSSMA (New York State School Music Association) Festival in May and will work on them with Ms. Wood in a masterclass setting. A tentative list of students and their repertoire includes the following:

Stacey Williams: Apres un Reve—Faure
Adam Harrison: O Del Mio Dolce Ardor from Paride ed Elena—Gluck
Brittney Gerber: O Mio Babbino Caro from Gianni Schicchi—Puccini
Isabelle Curran: Someone to Watch over Me – Gershwin
Katherine Minahan: Habanera (L’amour Est) from Carmen—Bizet
Michael Franklin: It Is Enough from Elijah—Mendelsohn
Dylan Kazmierowicztrimm: Lullaby from The Consul—Menotti
Kristen Bervy: Vittoria, mio Core–Carissimi
Erin Lanphear: On My Own – from Les Mis – Schönberg

Another new CFO mentoring program for student instrumentalists, “Take a Seat…in the Orchestra,” will take place during the CFO’s residency at PS21 (Performance Spaces for the 21st Century) in Chatham July 25-27, 2008. Instrumental teachers are encouraged to recommend students for this program who play orchestral instruments: flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, french horn, trumpet, percussion and all strings. The deadline for submitting an application is June 1st.

Ms. Wood will perform Barber’s Knoxville: Summer of 1915 (text by James Agee) with the Columbia Festival Orchestra on July 26 at 6 pm and July 27 at 2 pm at PS21, conducted by Gwen Gould. Other works on the program are Prokofiev Classical Symphony, Grunberg Prelude to a New Theatre (world premiere performed with student interns from “Take a Seat…” and conducted by the composer) and Beethoven Symphony No 7.