Black Mountain Youth Chorale Presents Winter Concert on Sunday, January 23

The Black Mountain Youth Chorale will present its Winter Concert on Sunday, January 23 at 3 pm at the Black Mountain Center for the Arts, located at 225 W. State Street in the town’s original City Hall. Admission is a suggested donation of $5 or $15 per family. Under the direction of Aline Carillon, with accompaniment by Penny Rose, the Chorale is composed of students in the 4th-8th grades from throughout the community. This is the fourth year for the Chorale to perform. The Chorale is committed to exploring choral music from a variety of traditions, secular to sacred, ancient to contemporary, and especially arranged for young voices in 2 or 3 part harmonies.

About the concert Carillon says, “Our culture celebrates so many holidays during the winter, it seems appropriate to acknowledge them in this January concert. Sunday afternoon we will celebrate Christmas again with a contemporary setting of the ‘Kyrie’ from the Latin mass, Mozart’s famous, ‘Alleluia’ and the Praetorius ‘Nativity Carol.’ We follow those with ‘Hine Ma Tov,’ sung in Hebrew with a text from Psalm 133 that translates as ‘Behold, how good it is for brethren to dwell together in peace.’ In light of our recent national tragedy, this piece is especially appropriate now. We end our Winter set with several spirituals in honor of Martin Luther King’s birthday. Everyone will recognize the songs in ‘Swingin’ with the Saints’ and ‘My Lord, What a Morning.’ Less well known is ‘Yonder Come Day,’ a spiritual that hails from the Gullah tradition found on the islands off the coast of Georgia and South Carolina. The selections in our second set, ‘Music of our Time,’ including ‘I Love a Piano,’ ‘Syncopated Clock,’ and ‘Sarasponda,’ sample fun, upbeat rhythms and melodies so well cultivated during the 20th century.” Student members of the Chorale include Rachel Adams, Isaac Danenberg, Journey Dreyer, Eve Engel, Savannah Garrett, Caleb Pratt, Hannah Pratt, Samantha Reese, Claire Roth, Sophie Roth, Ava Scales, Ashley Sexton, and Amber Stevens.

The Youth Chorale has performed in Asheville, Black Mountain and Hilton Head (SC) with other youth musical groups. In March they will travel again to the coast of SC to perform John Rutter’s “Mass of the Children” with both children’s and adult choirs and orchestra. These trips are a treat for the singers as well as for the audiences.

The Black Mountain Youth Chorale is sponsored in part by a grant from the NC Department of Cultural Resources through the Asheville Arts Council, as well as by other donors who are particularly supportive of musical activities for youth in our community, and through tuition.

The Black Mountain Youth Chorale will begin its second semester on January 26, 2011. New members are welcome. No audition is required, but singers must be able to match pitch. The chorale rehearses immediately after school on Wednesday afternoons from 3:30 – 4:45. A family informational meeting for new members will be held immediately after the first rehearsal on 1/26/2011. Call the Center at 669-0930 or the director at 628- 1320 for further information. The Spring Concert is set for May 8.