News from JCS
Jefferson Choral Society Awarded $2,700 Grant from the Virginia Commission for the Arts
August 1, 2011
The Jefferson Choral Society is pleased to announce that it has been awarded a $2,700 grant from the Virginia Commission for the Arts. The grant is for general operating support of the choral group for the 2011-2012 season. In the letter announcing the grant, the Virginia Commission for the Arts stated "The Commission is grateful for your contribution in making high quality arts available to the citizens of Virginia."
The Jefferson Choral Society is a 90-voice volunteer regional chorus that performs choral works from all periods and many genres. Jefferson Choral Society has been entertaining audiences for the past twenty-one years with a variety of choral music and performances and has toured in Europe five times, as well as touring in the U.S. and Canada.
Jefferson Choral Society's annual concert season consists of three major concerts performed in Central Virginia churches. For the past nine years the chorus has also been the featured group in Moonlight Serenade, an annual concert to benefit the National D-Day Memorial in Bedford, VA.
The Jefferson Choral Society is led by Music Director Aaron Garber, a well-known and accomplished musician. Organist, pianist, and composer, Mr. Garber is also founder and music director of The Chorus of the Blue Ridge (formerly the Salem Choral Society).
Support the Arts and Protect the Environment
Jefferson Choral Society is tackling the problem of electronic waste while raising money for our upcoming season! Help celebrate our wonderful season of classical music by donating your unwanted cell phones, inkjets, toner cartridges and digital cameras.
Click here for more information.
Join JCS at a Valentine Fundraising Party!
Bring your sweetie to the JCS Nifty Fifties Sock Hop! Dance to music by Phil Tucker, "Official Entertainment" DJ playing music of crooners and rock 'n rollers Elvis Presley, Dinah Shore, Frank Sinatra, Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis. Listen to live music of the '50s by FACination Chorus!
You are welcome dressed in your bowling shirts, poodle skirts, bobby socks and leather jackets! Show us how well you can do the cha-cha, the twist, the stroll, the hand jive and the bop! Dance in the best bobby socks contest! Learn the hula hoop!
Friday, February 11, 2011 | 7 - 10 p.m.
Joy and Lynch Christian Warehouse Theater, Academy of Fine Arts | Map
- $40 per person includes hors d'oeuvres by Billie's Cakes
- Cash bar - wine, beer and soft drinks
- Silent auction items including jewelry, pottery, paintings and gift certificates
For reservations call the JCS office at 434-528-5700. Leave a message with name, contact number and number of reservations. All proceeds benefit the Jefferson Choral Society.
JCS Seeks Paintings and Drawings on Poetry Themes
Jefferson Choral Society is seeking Central Virginia artists interested in creating and exhibiting drawings, photographs and paintings on American and English poetry texts. Jefferson Choral Society will perform a concert of works composed to texts by E.E. Cummings, Emily Dickinson, Langston Hughes, Amy Lowell, Edgar Allan Poe, Carl Sandburg, Walt Whitman and William Shakespeare. JCS is seeking visual art reflections on these same texts.
Artwork must be submitted for judging by February 11, 2011, and will be exhibited at the Academy of Fine Arts /Joy and Lynch Christian Warehouse Theatre from February 26 to March 4, 2011. Work may be exhibited as "for sale" or "not for sale," with Jefferson Choral Society taking a 15% commission on works sold during the exhibition. Two small cash prizes of $175 each will be awarded, a Judge's Choice Award and an Audience Favorite Award.
For more information and application materials, please contact Charlene Ryan-Cooke at charlene.ryan@comcast.net. Charlene is coordinating the art exhibit for Jefferson Choral Society. Intent to apply is requested.
Greater Lynchburg Community Trust Awards JCS $4000
The Greater Lynchburg Community Trust has awarded Jefferson Choral Society $4,000 for its Virginia Choral Composer Competition and Art Exhibit, components of its Poetry in Music concerts on February 26 and 27, 2011, at the Joy and Lynch Christian Warehouse Theatre of the Academy of Fine Arts in Lynchburg. JCS extends its deepest appreciation to the Greater Lynchburg Community Trust for this grant from its William N. and Nancy S. Nelson Fund and the Faye Marcum Mifka Fund.
2011 JCS Virginia Choral Composer Contest Winner Announced
Dr. Ryan Hebert, director of Choral Activities at Longwood University in Farmville, Virginia, has been announced as the winner of Jefferson Choral Society's inaugural Virginia Choral Composition Competition. His winning work is a choral setting of the E.E. Cummings text, "I carry your heart with me." Dr. Hebert 's prize will be awarded personally at the first performance of the work by JCS on Saturday, February 26, 2011, at 7:30 PM at the Joy and Lynch Christian Warehouse Theatre/Academy of Fine Arts, Lynchburg, in the JCS "Poetry In Music" concert. The winning work will be repeated on Sunday, February 27, 2011, at 4:00 PM.
Ryan Hebert, D.M.A. has served as Director of Choral Activities at Longwood University since the fall of 2007. An experienced musician, conductor, and professor, Dr. Hebert has only recently become interested in composition, and expressed great joy at receiving the Virginia Composition prize from JCS.