5/7/2008:

If you like The Canitgas Women’s Choir at the Relay for Life event this Saturday, you’ll have another chance to see them on Thursday, May 29th at the St. Matthew Trinity Church!

A European Musical Adventure

Hoboken’s all-women community chorus, Cantigas Women’s Choir, presents its sixth annual spring concert entitled VIA VENEZIA: Choral Classics of Italy, France, and Beyond on Thursday, May 29, at 7:30 p.m. at St. Matthew Trinity Church at 57 Eighth Street (at Hudson Street) in Hoboken, N.J. The suggestion donation is $15 ($5 for seniors and students).

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Joan Isaacs Litman directs the chorus, accompanied by pianist Erasmia Voukelatos, in a culturally rich repertoire of music. The centerpieces of the program—Magnificat by Niccola Porpora and Selections from Magnificat by Antonio Vivaldi— are works composed for eighteenth century Venetian ospedalis, orphanages for abandoned and needy girls who were trained by master musicians. In the spirit of the ospedalis, a portion of the profits from the concert will go to girls in need.

To celebrate these works, Cantigas will bring in a celebrated guest conductor, Bridget-Michaele Reischl. “Every musical director must ask herself, ‘What’s in this music? How can a deeper understanding be brought to the learning and the performance?’” Cantigas director Litman says. “Thus we brought in Ms. Reischl, who has a lifetime of studying and performing the orchestral works of this period. She will bring a depth of musical understanding, precision, and expression that will be a new and invigorating experience to our group, so we can all grow musically.”

Other featured pieces include Messe Breve by Leo Delibes, Cantique de Jean Racine by Gabriel Faure, and Ode to Music by contemporary Australian composer Malcolm Williamson.

Read more about this event after the jump…

(Via Venezia, continued…)

Cantigas Women’s Choir, named after a medieval Spanish song form called a “cantiga,” is composed of 40 women of varying ages and backgrounds and brings women of the community together to explore the rich tradition of women’s singing. The group performs a broad spectrum of global music and advocates through song for those whose hearts need to be uplifted and whose voices need to be heard, performing regularly with the inmates of the Edna Mahan Correctional Facility for Women in Clinton, N.J., and other community groups. Litman founded the group in September 2002.

Guest conductor Bridget-Michaele Reischl is the music director of Orchestras at Oberlin Conservatory of Music. She was the first American to win Italy’s Antonio Pedrotti International Conducting Competition in 1995. Reischl is an active guest conductor internationally and throughout the United States. She is a graduate of the Eastman School of Music.

Director Joan Isaacs Litman is a native of Los Angeles and has been a choral director in the New York metropolitan area for 29 years. She was the winner of the first “Excellence in Teaching” award from Westminster Choir College. Litman is a member of the music faculty of the United Nations International School in Manhattan and a member of the summer faculty at the Kodály Institute at Capital University. In April 2008, Litman was the guest conductor at the American International School in Even Yehuda, Israel, and her United Nations International School children’s chorus performed for Pope Benedict XVI’s recent visit to New York. Additionally, Litman is the author of Song Caravan: Songs of the Middle East. She is a founder and Music Director Emerita of Mustard Seed School in Hoboken.

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