Bob is teaching a course at Saint Michael's College this semester. Music in Struggle, from 1840 to 1960 will include slavery and abolition, the labor union struggles, World War ll and the Spanish Civil War, and the Civil Rights Movement.
On May 4th in New York the Glass Menagerie, a New York choral group, will present a concert of Bob's music, including his cantata, The Jolly Beggars.
From June 12 through 14 Bob will be conducting the choirs participating in the Stowe International Choral Festival. Their concert will take place in the meadow at the Trapp Family Lodge on Saturday the 14th.
On May 10th Peter Yarrow will join Counterpoint for a gala concert, "A Folk Song Celebration" in Albany NY, to benefit the UAlbany Christopher De Cormier student research scholarship fund.
Friday, September 7, 2007
more news about the Counterpoint singers...
The singers in Counterpoint have busy musical lives outside the group--but, in many cases, they find themselves singing together in other projects!
Bob will be conducting the Vermont Symphony Orchestra and Chorus in Beethoven's "Missa Solemnis", and Roger will sing the tenor solos. Linda and Melissa join the chorus for the concerts in Burlington and Rutland in January.
Steve and Linda sang the National Anthem for Vermont Mountaineers games this summer, as well as solos with the Handel Society's Summer Sings at Dartmouth College.
Claire, Linda, Nat, and Brett sing in Vermont schools with Ah!Capella, a quartet founded by Bob in 1998 for the Vermont Symphony Orchestra's SymphonyKids program.
Linda joins the Randolph choral group Sounding Joy in a concert of Bob's arrangements at the Calvin Coolidge Homestead in Plymouth in September.
In our individual musical lives;
Claire sang with the Chevalier Family Band at at outdoor concert in St. Albans on Aug 18. 900 people attended!
Melissa runs the choral music program at the Long Trail School and led a Suzuki Camp in July.
Nat's Saint Michael's College Chorale will sing at the inauguration of the new college president this fall.
Steve sang operatic arias for Echo Valley's gala OperaFest IV at Unadilla Theatre in Calais.
Bob is working on a commissioned piece for Bella Voce; his "Christmas Suite" will be premiered on their concert in December.
Miranda sang musical theatre repetoire with the Citizens' Concert Band in summer concerts in St. Albans and Swanton.
Linda sang with the Mozart Festival this summer, as well as at the Vermont History Expo. This fall, the Vermont Humanities Council will sponsor her Vermont Songbook. She enjoys presenting monthly concerts of Rogers and Hart standards as well as hymns at a local nursing home.
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Counterpoint's summer concerts featured our first commissioned piece, "Solfege a la Francaise" by Counterpoint's dear friend, Louis Moyse, who died this summer at the age of 94. We dedicated our concerts to his memory.
Tuesday, March 27, 2007
Counterpoint News
The singers in Counterpoint have busy musical lives outside the group--but, in many instances, they find themselves singing together in other projects!
Mary Beth and Roger solo in Charpentier's Missa Assumpta Es Maria at the Immaculate Heart of Mary church in Rutland on May 20 at 4:30.
Sing for your supper: Claire, Linda, Roger, and Steve received bouquets of fresh garden produce at the curtain call of Dartmouth College's performance of PDQ Bach's The Seasonings. Also on the program, Roger sang the bargain-countertenor in Iphigenia in Brooklyn.
Eric, Claire, and David, conducted by Bob, sang with the Vermont Symphony Chorus at Elly-Long Music Center in Colchester, Vermont.
Claire, Nat, Linda, and Brett sing with Ah! Cappella, a quartet founded by Bob in 1998 to bring music to Vermont schoolchildren. By the end of this school year, the quartet will have performed 89 concerts in 75 Vermont schools.
In our individual musical lives:
Nat continues to direct the choral program at St. Michael's College in Colchester. The College Chorale and Chamber Singers under his direction sang well-received concerts on tour in Massachusetts and New Hampshire, and performed the Gypsy Songs of Brahms at their spring concert on campus.
Bob will receive an honorary doctorate from Middlebury College on May 27.
Steve sang the Commendatore in Mozart's Don Giovanni for Echo Valley Community Arts in March, and sang arias in Montpelier for an Opera Insights program.
Randi sings with the First Congregational Church choir in St. Albans.
Brett directs the choir at St. Mary's Episcopal Church in Northfield.
Melissa directed a student cabaret at Long Trail School.
Linda sang the Brahms Alto Rhapsody with the Vermont Philharmonic, Menotti at the Flynnspace in Burlington, and will sing in Opera Opera at the Vergennes Opera House on May 5 at 7:30, the Vivaldi Gloria at St. Barnabas Church in Norwich, Vermont at 4 on May 6., and solos with the Oriana Singers at St. Paul's Cathedral in Burlington at 3 on May 13.
Monday, February 26, 2007
Plenty of "new" news!
* Counterpoint will begin a three year Artists in Residence at St. Michael's College, Colchester, Vermont. St. Michael's will present Counterpoint in a concert series each year. Our first series will be in October and December of 2007 and April, 2008. Check our web site for dates and details of these concerts.
* Thanks to the generosity of our many friends Counterpoint is 90% on the way toward the full funding of our new CD, Counterpoint in the 20th Century. We will be recording in August at the UVM Recital Hall in Burlington and Albany Records will be releasing the CD early in the winter of 2007.
* Robert De Cormier will receive an honorary Doctor of Arts from Middlebury College at their May 27th commencement.
* Counterpoint's spring mini-tour will take us to Wolfeboro NH, Newtown CT, and Marietta University, Marietta, OH in April.
* Check our website soon for photographs from Counterpoint's collaboration with Newport High School's Anne Hamilton and her Select Choir. There is also an article/review from the Barton Chronicle. There will be two more high school collaborations; with Arthur Zorn and his choir at Spaulding High School in Barre on Wednesday March 21, and with Anita Cooper and her choir at Amherst High School in Amherst Mass. on Tuesday April 24. The evening concerts are open to the public and we urge you to attend if you are in either area.
"Let Me Fly: Music of Struggle, Solace and Survival in Black America," Counterpoint directed Robert De Cormier, with soprano Jonita Lattimore and narrator Louise De Cormier, Albany Records TROY896, 2006, www.albanyrecords.com.
"Counterpoint Sings Noel: 20 Rare and Wonderful Carols," Counterpoint directed by Robert De Cormier, with various instrumentalists, Albany Records TROY 801, 2005, www.albanyrecords.com.
Robert De Cormier calls black spirituals "the most beautiful and meaningful of American folk music," and the Vermont choral conductor's arrangements of them have been performed throughout the world. They also have been arranged to tell stories for two successful ballets.
De Cormier and Counterpoint, his professional Vermont vocal ensemble, have just released the album "Let Me Fly," which features the Harriet Tubman story in "They Called Her Moses" and a suite from "Rainbow 'Round My Shoulder," as well as several individual spirituals. Counterpoint also has a holiday album, "Counterpoint Sings Noel," filled with 20 unusual and colorful carols.
De Cormier is best known nationally as music director of the folk trio Peter, Paul and Mary and the former director of the New York Choral Society. Since "retiring" to Vermont some 10 years ago, he founded and directs both the Vermont Symphony Orchestra Chorus and Counterpoint.
In the late 1950s and early '60s, De Cormier created the music for two ballets with renowned choreographer Donald McKayle: "Rainbow 'Round My Shoulder," based on Negro folk material ? which remains standard repertoire for Alvin Ailey Dance Theatre, this country's most revered black company ? and "They Called Her Moses," based on the life of Harriet Tubman.
"They Called Her Moses" tells the story of Tubman's journeys on the Underground Railroad before the Civil War. Tubman herself escaped, then returned many times, bringing hundreds of slaves to free states and Canada.
This cantata is based on black spirituals, particularly songs that were set as signal songs. For example, "Follow the Drinking Gourd" refers to following the Big Dipper north. "Go Down Moses" refers to the fact that the slaves called Tubman Moses.
It's a wonderful tale, and well-told by De Cormier and his forces. Nobody is going to mistake Counterpoint for a Southern Baptist church choir. It's much too refined ? and it's much too accurate. But the power and beauty of this music is delivered beautifully.
Chicago soprano Jonita Lattimore sings the part of Tubman with brilliance and a style indigenous to the original. Louise De Cormier, Robert De Cormier's wife and a former Counterpoint member, delivers the narration clearly and dramatically.
Although the music is essentially a cappella, it is colored by various percussion instruments as well as guitar. The singers' diction and accuracy are excellent, so it is easy to understand and a pleasure to listen to. De Cormier's arrangement is filled with color and variation and tells the story dramatically.
It ends in a rousing manner that makes you think you might actually be in a Baptist church. It's quite special.
"Rainbow 'Round My Shoulder" is the tale of a prison chain gang. At the end of the ballet, one of the chain-gang prisoners attempts to escape and is killed by the guards. "Rainbow 'Round My Shoulder" refers to the arc the hammer makes when the worker swings it across his shoulder.
The four-song suite is sung entirely by men, and Roger Grow is the rich-voiced tenor who solos throughout. It opens with a chain-gang song, accompanied by the sound of picks (metal-on-metal percussion) and, after the sound of a gunshot, concludes with "Another Man Done Gone."
"Rainbow 'Round My Shoulder" is truly dark and beautiful. It's performed well, and the percussion makes all the difference.
De Cormier's arrangements of spirituals are very rich, using limited polyphony to underline the spirit in these a cappella works. Perhaps the most beautiful on the album is "My Lord What a Mornin'." It's warm and beautifully sung, achieving real tenderness. Appropriately, it is followed by a rousing "Amen," a lively tribute to Jesus, and only the Southern Baptists can do it this way.
The spirit of these performances is just amazing. There is nothing missing. These performances are really alive.
Last year, Counterpoint delivered this same spirit with very different vocal colors in "Counterpoint Sings Noel." The 20 varied carols, some familiar but most not, are variously accompanied by organ, guitar, flute and percussion. It's a rich album that takes the commerce out of Christmas.
Friday, February 3, 2006
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Counterpoint Sings Music to Remember ... Songs of Jewish Life
Sunday September 19 at 9:00 p.m.
Tune in for music that celebrates the strength, spirit and compassion of humankind sung by Counterpoint, the acclaimed 11-member vocal ensemble led by Robert DeCormier. Recorded live at Stowe Community Church, this poignant performance includes songs and readings that will take you from the village life of Eastern Europe to the dark years of the Holocaust -- to the heroic songs of the Jewish Partisan. Be sure to tune in Sunday night at 9:00 for this beautiful and inspiring performance. More information about this broadcast is available on www.vpr.net
Big News!
Dear Friends,
The next time you raise a glass, whatever may be in it, raise it in a toast to Counterpoint. We have just received news that the prestigious Joanne Rile Artists Management has added Counterpoint to its roster.
We are all very excited and hope that this collaboration will mean bookings in colleges and for arts presenters all over the country, and perhaps even beyond.
Warmest regards on this snowy March afternoon,
Louise and Bob
for information and a brochure call: 802-259-2327 by email: Counterpoint