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SEVEN DECADES OF EXCELLENCE
The
North Shore Choral Society, a 120 member community
chorus, has been a prominent musical force serving
the North Shore and beyond
for almost 75 years. The Society's repertoire ranges
from the traditional to the avant-garde. Few choruses,
whether professional or amateur, have as distinguished a track
record of presenting such a variety of music. The chorus
has been invited to perform at Ravinia with the Ravinia Festival
Orchestra. The Society
features outstanding soloists, and some of the area's finest
musicians play in the orchestras engaged for the performances. Reviewing
the final concert of the 2000-2001 season, Dorothy Andries
of the Pioneer Press wrote: "Everything was right with the
North Shore Choral Society's performance of Bach's Saint
Matthew Passion. Donald Chen led his choristers in a strong
performance in German of this choral masterpiece. as the
afternoon went on, the chorus began to achieve a muted,
glowing sound highly suited to this sacred work. Chen
had prepared them well, working with the mostly unfamiliar
German and stressing the drama within the score as well as
its melodic beauty."
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Donald
Chen is on the faculty of the Chicago College
of Performing Arts (CCPA) of Roosevelt University.
He is a graduate of the Juilliard School and University
of Iowa, from which he earned the degree Doctor of
Musical Arts in Orchestral Conducting. He has been
on the conducting
faculty of Mount Holyoke College (Massachusetts) and
Webster University (St. Louis). While in St. Louis,
he served as
Music Director and Conductor of the Bach Society of St.
Louis and Chorus Master of the internationally
acclaimed
Opera Theatre of Saint Louis. In addition to his duties
at CCPA,
he is the Director of Music at the Village Presbyterian Church in Northbrook.
He has been Music Director and Conductor of North Shore Choral Society since
1984 and has served in the same capacity of Skokie Valley Symphony Orchestra.
His guest
conducting engagements have included the Promenade Family
Concerts of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, St.
Louis Philharmonic
Orchestra, various community orchestras in the greater
Chicago area, and All-State and All-District high
school orchestras
in Illinois, Wisconsin, and Nebraska. His conducting
teachers have included James Dixon, Abraham Kaplan,
John Nelson,
and Dennis Russell Davies. Dr. Chen is also director
of adult choirs at Village Presbyterian Church, Northbrook.
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| Sharon Rich Peterson has served as accompanist for the NSCS from 1979 to 1989 and 1994 to the present, having lived in Norway with her family in the interim. During those five years she was accompanist at the Royal Academy of Music in Oslo and developed a specialty in Scandinavian Piano repertoire which she had begun two years earlier in Sweden. Sharon is a graduate of North Park College and Northwestern University and has given several benefit concerts for NSCS. She has accompanied the Lyric Opera Chorus and has been Music Director of the Lyric Opera Center for American Artists's touring production of "The Magic Flute." She was the Swedish and Norwegian Language Coach for the 2006 season of the Steans Institute at Ravinia, working with Swedish Baritone Håkan Hagegård. She currently accompanies Chicago Symphony Chorus and at Northwestern University. Active as recitalist and vocal coach, Sharon is also organist at North Park Covenant Church and North Park Theological Seminary. |
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North Shore Choral Society Leaders
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To view a single job description, click on the job title
Donald Chen, Music Director
Sharon Rich Peterson, Accompanist
Len Barker, General Manager
Board of Directors
David Hunt, President
Julie McDowell, VP—Operations
Tom Keller, VP—Concerts
To Be Announced, VP—Public
Relations
Hank Bohanon, VP—Fundraising
Gary Hendrickson, Treasurer
Nancy Friday, Secretary
Steve Warner, Anthony Green, Anne Harkonen
, Directors at Large
Consultants
Legal Counsel, Kathryn Skelton
Tax Issues Consultant, John Darrow
Operations Chairs
Membership/Database,
Anthony Green
Music Librarian, Bruce
Gladfelter
Social, Yael Wurmfeld
Concerts Chairs
Box Office Manager,
Jamie Godshalk
Concert Manager, Paul Siegal
Tickets, Anne Harkonen
House Manager, Ron Tolisano
Public Relations Chairs
Art, To Be Announced
Archivist, Melinda
Kwedar
Community Relations,
Karen Rigotti
Desktop Publishing,
Ellen Pullin
Mailings, Kent Fuller
Publicity, Lenore
Dupuis, George and Cindy Zilliac
Program, Marcia Bollo
Webmaster, Jim
Miller
Fundraising Chairs
Patrons, Steve Warner
Program Ads, Mary
Ann Kissock
Store Benefit Days,
Harry Vroegh
Section Coordinators
1st Soprano, Julie
McDowell
2nd Soprano, Maria
del Rosario Gomez
1st Alto, Myra Sieck
2nd Alto, Antje Draganski
Tenor, David Crumrine
Bass/Baritone, Ronald
Dahlquist
A
Short History of the North Shore Choral Society
Founded
in 1936, the North Shore Choral Society is the oldest choral
organization on the North Shore . Now in its seventieth season,
the Society is an independent, self-governing body, incorporated
as a non-profit organization in 1978. It takes this as its
credo: The North Shore Choral Society explores, studies,
and performs a wide range of choral music for the enrichment
and enjoyment of its singers and audiences . To achieve
this goal, the Society prepares and presents three or more
concerts each year, relying on authentic performances that
use not only the composers' original vocal scores but also
their designated instrumentations.
The North
Shore Choral Society was born in Winnetka as a men's chorus.
Soon, however, its director, Lawrence Yingling, was persuaded
to lead a mixed chorus, whose initial appearance was on December
18, 1932. But the first rehearsal of the musical organization
which still goes by that name today was held on March 3,
1936, under the direction of Madi Bacon, who received an
annual salary of $250. Two concerts were given each season,
accompanied by a string quartet, piano, or organ. Early spring
concerts were held in an outdoor garden. In 1945, the chorus
welcomed back ex-servicemen and others who had been too busy
to sing during the war.
John Halloran
succeeded Bacon in 1946. Two years later, the Society began
presenting a weekly fifteen-minute radio program. A special
feature of a 1950 concert was a motet set to an Edna St.
Vincent Millay poem by Bain Murray, a senior at Oberlin College
from Winnetka . Under the leadership of the next director,
Alden Clark, the Society regularly presented its two annual
concerts at the North Shore Country Day School and was often
joined by the local Flute and Fiddle Club for its Christmas
programs. Alice Parker was prominent in the Society as accompanist
and arranger. After a two-year period with Barbara McFadden
at the helm, Vincent B. Allison took over the director's
role and changed the programming from a large number of shorter
works to major choral compositions, such as Bach's St. Matthew's
Passion and Brahms' German Requiem .
Nineteen
sixty-five was a watershed year for the North Shore Choral
Society, which was plagued by a small chorus and dwindling
attendance. But, largely through the efforts of a Women's
Board, the Society was revitalized. The new director, Ronald
Schweitzer, initiated a three-concert season with Tuesday
rehearsals and Sunday performances, as is the case even today.
And it was during his tenure that the Society selected the
Parish Church of St. Luke's in Evanston as its primary venue.
The first challenge for the next director, Richard Rosewall,
was to prepare the chorus for a performance of Rossini's Stabat
Mater with the Lake Forest Symphony under the baton
of Victor Aitay, to whose fast tempos Rosewall strongly objected--but
in vain.
From 1973
to 1984, David Larson led the Society. Perhaps the most glorious
concert during the Larson years was the performance of Haydn's The
Seasons , with members of the Lyric Opera Orchestra
and with a grant from the Illinois Arts Council for the first
time. Mr. Larson did double duty when he directed from the
harpsichord after the accompanist cut her finger along with
some meat that very morning. In 1978, the Society became
a not-for-profit organization in order to continue applying
for grants. The following year the Society's current accompanist,
Sharon Rich Peterson, was engaged. When Larson took a year's
leave of absence to teach in Japan , James Winfield took
the helm.
Donald Chen
became the North Shore Choral Society's tenth and current
music director in 1984. Chen put his own stamp on the repertoire
of the Society by presenting rarely heard works in at least
one of the annual concerts: Milhaud's Les Amours de Ronsard and Miracles
of Faith , Argento's Jonah and the Whale ,
Bernstein's Chichester Psalms , Schickele's Concerto
for Piano and Chorus: The Twelve Months as examples.
In 1988, the part-time position of General Manager was established.
And, beginning in 1991, rehearsals were held
in the Unitarian Church of Evanston. Gala celebrations were
held to celebrate the Society's fiftieth and sixtieth anniversaries.
In 2000, the present formal dress code was initiated. For
several summers, the Society sang under Erich Kunzel at the
Ravinia Festival. A highlight of the 2004-2005 season was
a performance of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony with
the Chicago Philharmonic Orchestra. At present, NSCS is celebrating
its seventieth season with a unique program featuring works
by Brahms, Shostakovich, Schumann, and Orff-and collaborating
with the Northbrook Symphony Orchestra and the Agape Handbell
Ringers.
The North
Shore Choral Society has a long and proud musical heritage.
Increasing costs of hiring professional soloists and instrumentalists
and increasing difficulties in raising the money to meet
these costs have not put a damper on its quest to present
quality choral music in a quality manner. As the Society
enters its seventieth anniversary, its credo is always there: The
North Shore Choral Society explores, studies, and performs
a wide range of choral music for the enrichment and enjoyment
of its singers and audiences.
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