BCCS Scholarship Winners Announced!

The BCCS 2013 Scholarship Auditions were held on Tuesday May 7 at the Second Congregational Church in Bennington.

Eight students competed this year for two $400 scholarships to help defray the cost of music lessons: six vocal performers, one tuba player, and one tympanist. Thanks to all eight competitors – they were all excellent candidates!

The Winners:
Nolan Downey, Sophmore at Mt. Anthony Union HS – TUBA
Arianna Besahra, Senior at Mt. Greylock Regional HS – VOICE

Many thanks to our judges: Bruce Lee-Clark, Sharon Yarnall and Lucille Croscup.

Call for singers!

Introducing Our Spring 2013 Program:

A Patchwork of American Folk Songs
June 15 & 16

The broad selection of pieces will include humorous songs, sea chanteys, ballads, and a spiritual or two, in arrangements by composers including Aaron Copland, Alice Parker, Robert de Cormier, Emma Lou Diemer and Ulysses Kay, and others.

No auditions necessary! (Must be able to match a pitch.) First rehearsal will be Monday, April 1, and will be held regularly on Monday evenings, 7:00 – 9:00 PM, at the Second Congregational Church, Hillside Street, Bennington. Please come at 6:45 PM to allow time for registration and payment of membership dues ($25 per concert, or $10 for students with ID).

We look forward to singing with you!

Giving to BCCS

YOUR financial support is critical to our success!

We are eager to welcome you as a contributor. Your tax-deductible contribution will assist us in purchasing music, covering advertising and program printing costs, paying our conductor, and hiring a rehearsal accompanist, concert orchestra and soloists. 

The value of your contribution doesn’t end there, however. A portion of your donation also fosters the development of young musical talent. We award scholarships for musical study each year to area high school students, through the BCCS Music Scholarship competition. 

PLEASE GIVE GENEROUSLY! 

And be assured that the applause you hear at our concerts will be not only for the performers but for you as well–as a proud supporter of the local choral arts! The Bennington County Choral Society is a 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation; your contributions are tax deductible.

For additional information, please write us at

P.O. Box 44
Bennington,VT 05201

Favorite Links

Berkshire-Hudson Singing

The internet clearinghouse for choral music in the Berkshire hills and the Pioneer and Hudson valleys.

Vox / In Camera

A classical music calendar, reviews and previews of events in northeast New York, western Massachusetts, Connecticut and Vermont – within a two-hour drive of SUNY-Albany.

Cyberbass

Free rehearsal tracks.

Past Repertoire

Programs we have presented over the past ELEVEN years:

2010-2011 Season Britten “Saint Nicolas” and “Te Deum” in C Kodaly “Missa Brevis” and Carissimi “Jepthe” Brahms “Liebesleider” Waltzes and More   2009-2010 Season “Krestliedjes and Noels” Handel’s Messiah (Parts II and III) “Every Time I Feel the Spirit”   2008-2009 Season “Regards to Broadway” Mozart “Requiem” “Rhyme and Rime” (Vermont poets)   2007-2008 Season “Christmas with the Masters” (Bach, Buxtehude and more) Honegger “King David” “These Green Hills” (Vermont composers)   2006-2007 Season “Kids, Carols and Tubas” Rossini “Petite Messe Solonelle” “P.D.Q. Pops”   2005-2006 Season “Hail! Bright Cecilia” Mozart “Vespers”-Brahms “Nanie” and more “A Night at the Opera”   2004-2005 Season Bach “Christmas Oratorio” part 1 Vaughan Williams “Dona Nobis Pacem” “Rhythm and Spirit”   2003-2004 Season “Carols, Noels and Villancicos” Haydn “Creation” “Folk Music of the British Isles”   2002-2003 Season “Handel!” Durufle “Requiem” and Vaughan Williams “Mystical Songs” “Topsy-Turvydom”   2001-2002 Season “Wolcum Yole!” “Psalms and Prayers” with Bernstein “Chichester” “Passport”   2000-2001 Season “What Child is This?” Mendelssohn “Elijah” “All’s Well”

RECORDINGS!

Did you know?

CD recordings of many of our concerts are available for sale!

For details, contact Joel Patterson, 216 Goodell Road, Petersburgh, NY 12138 [telephone (518) 658-9549; e-mail: mountaintop@taconic.net].  The price, $15 per copy, postage-paid (but please be sure to ask about any recent changes in these terms).

Our Director

 

Edwin T. Lawrence first conducted the Bennington County Choral Society in 1976.  Since that time, he has conducted the group in performances of works from the ninth to the twenty-first centuries, including a special performance of Poulenc’s Gloria and Carmina Burana with the Vermont Symphony Orchestra.

 

Mr. Lawrence has taught at Bennington College and is presently an adjunct instructor of keyboard instruments and a teaching assistant at Williams College.  He is also Minister of Music for the First Congregational Church in Williamstown, Massachusetts.

 

Mr. Lawrence also enjoys a career as a composer: Vermont orchestras, chamber music groups and singing groups of all ages have delighted in his music for over two decades. Six of his songs were chosen as part of a concert to represent the State of Vermont at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. to celebrate the Bicentennial. He was a founding member of the Consortium of Vermont Composers.