New Location This Year—

Connecticut Choral Society To Host Summer Sing-In

BROOKFIELD — The Connecticut Choral Society (CCS), with newly appointed choral director Eric Dale Knapp, will host a Summer Sing-In on Monday, June 18. Selections from Handel’s Messiah, Vivaldi’s Gloria, and Mendelssohn’s Elijah will be sung by the participants. Music will be provided.

The sing-in is open to all adult singers. Cost is $7 which includes use of music plus refreshments. Registration starts at 7 pm, and singing will begin at 7:30.

After being in Newtown for a number of years, the Sing-In will be held this year at Valley Presbyterian Church, 21 West Whisconier Road.

Eric Dale Knapp is noted for his dynamism, fresh interpretations of musical repertoire and charismatic leadership of instrumentalists and singers alike. In addition to conducting the CCS, Mr Knapp is artistic director and conductor of New Jersey Choral Society and music director for The Mark Thallander Foundation in Los Angeles. He is the founder and music director of Orchestra de Camerata and serves as artistic director of chamber music at Salisbury House in Iowa.

In 2006, Maestro Knapp was artistic director and conductor of Voices in the House, an international music festival featuring organist Frederick Swann at Sydney Opera House. This year he will return to Australia as artistic director of the World Voices International Choral Festival and conduct the Voices in the House Festival Orchestra in Sydney.

Next year, Mr Knapp will lead the Olympic Festival Orchestra and Chorus in a concert of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9. The concert will be in celebration of the 2008 Beijing Olympics with sponsorship from the Chinese government and the International Olympic Committee.

Maestro Knapp was recently appointed artistic director and conductor of the International Haydn Festival 2009 in Vienna, Austria. He is a graduate of Drake University and has studied at the Juilliard School.

Founded in 1980, Connecticut Choral Society is committed to providing a music resource for Connecticut, encouraging the singing and performance of choral music of high artistic quality and stimulating greater appreciation and enjoyment of choral music. The group performs locally several times each year and has appeared at Carnegie Hall, toured internationally, and performed on network television.

CCS is supported in part by funding from the CT Commission on Culture and Tourism and also from the Nonprofit Assistance Initiative, a joint project of the Connecticut Community Foundation and the United Way of Greater Waterbury, as well as by contributions, grants and underwriting from our loyal supporters, businesses and financial institutions in the region.

For further information call 206-7186 or visit CTChoralSociety.org.