Americana To Be The Focus

For WCSU Concert Choir, Chamber Singers

DANBURY — The dedication of a mural depicting Danbury music icons Charles Ives and Marian Anderson and a concert by the Western Connecticut State University Concert Choir and WCSU Chamber Singers will put the focus on Americana on Monday, November 20.

The 10-by-5-foot mural, painted by WestConn Master of Fine Arts student Betty Ann Medeiros, will be dedicated at a 7 pm ceremony in the lobby outside Ives Concert Hall in White Hall on the university’s midtown campus, 181 White Street.

Ms Medeiros’ mural was commissioned as part of the Global Heritage Project, a President’s Initiatives Fund endeavor. The dedication will be free and the public is invited.

At 8 pm, the WCSU Concert Choir, a 100-voice, nonauditioned ensemble, and the WCSU Chamber Singers, a select group of 20 vocalists, will perform in Ives Concert Hall in White Hall. The evening’s program will feature works by American composers from the 20th Century, including Randall Thompson’s “Frostiana” and compositions by Robert Young, Aaron Copland and Cecil Effinger.

Professor of Music Dr Kevin Jay Isaacs will conduct, with piano accompaniment by Adjunct Professor of Music Patricia Lutnes. The performance will be free and open to the public; donations to the music department will be accepted.

Ms Medeiros, who graduated from WestConn in 1989 with a bachelor’s degree in graphic design, is in her second year as a Master of Fine Arts in Illustration student at the university. She was selected to paint the Global Heritage Project mural because she has previous experience creating murals at restaurants and retail stores.

Before painting the mural, Ms Medeiros conducted extensive research into the lives of famed local composer Ives and opera singer Anderson.

“The mural depicts the contributions that they made and their love for their particular art,” said Ms Medeiros. “I tried to make my own contribution through my art. Even though I’m not a musician, a composer or a singer, I can relate to them as artists.”

For more information, call the WestConn music department at 837-8350.