The Sippican Choral Society, in conjunction with the Tri-County Symphonic Band, presents “Golden Anniversary Memories” for its 50th Anniversary Spring Concert. The concert will be in the Fireman Performing Arts Center in Hoyt Hall at Tabor Academy on Sunday, April 26 at 3:00 pm.
It is fitting that the chorus is singing with the Tri-County Symphonic Band because in 1965, John Pandolfi, the band’s director and founder, invited 35 singers from Marion and surrounding towns to sing with the band, with the understanding that the group form its own chorus and continue on its own.
The “Regional Civic Chorus,” as it was first known, was directed by Xavan Mazmanian, a music teacher at Old Rochester Regional, with Thelma Ostenfeld as accompanist. Shirley Cowell was its first President. Much credit goes to those two women for the chorus’s beginnings and early success.
One of the songs the chorus sang in that first concert was the spiritual “Ride the Chariot,” and this year, the audience will hear it again – along with 10 other of the chorus’s favorite and most popular pieces from past concerts. Among those are “The Heavens are Telling” from Haydn’s The Creation; “How Can I Keep from Singing,” the Quaker hymn arranged by Bradley Ellington; Felix Mendelssohn’s “Da Nobis Pacem”; a beautiful arrangement of the spiritual “Kumbaya,” arranged by Paul Sjolund; and John Newton’s “Amazing Grace,” exquisitely arranged by Keith McCutchen.
The chorus will be joined with the Tri-County Band on several pieces as well, including the Chorus of the Gypsies’ “Anvil Chorus,” from Verdi’s Il Trovatore; “Lacrymosa,” from Mozart’s Requiem (K.626); and the “Triumphal March” from Verdi’s Aida.
Tickets for the concert are $15 each ($7 for children under 18), and are available at The Bookstall in Marion, the Symphony Shop in Dartmouth, Euro in Fairhaven, No Kidding at The Ropewalk in Mattapoisett, and from chorus and band members.
The Sippican Choral Society has been performing at least two concerts every year for over 50 years. Under the direction of Brian Roderick for the past 11 years, and with Michelle Gordon of Mattapoisett as the chorus’s brilliant accompanist, the chorus has presented well over 150 concerts of classical and popular music throughout the Southcoast, Plymouth, and the Boston area.
Doors will open at 2:30 pm for the 3:00 pm concert, and the venue is wheelchair accessible. A special 50th Anniversary reception will follow the concert in the lobby of Hoyt Hall, to which all are invited to attend.
For further information about this concert, please contact Peter McDonald at 508-748-0286.