Communications Chair

(Un)Common Ground – Season 14 President’s Message

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Dear friends, 

 

Welcome to Season 14! A few highlights…

This weekend we’ll be heading to SUNY Schenectady for our third rehearsal of the season. We’ve welcomed a cohort of phenomenal new Companios and have already revisited some familiar spots–South Presbyterian Church and the public library in Dobbs Ferry, NY, and First Parish in Brookline, MA–as well as exploring a new and lovely space at Wellesley College. Later in the season, we’ll return to William Floyd High School for a workshop with their talented young singers. Our Artistic Director Erik Peregrine has brought us another transportative program, (Un)Common Ground, which celebrates our connections to our environment and each other. At its center is a brand-new work by Forrest Pierce, Fire in the Meadow, which we have the privilege of premiering after participating in a commission consortium earlier this year. We can’t wait to share it all with you at our spring concerts!

Of course, all art exists in context, and I composed this message in the leadup to Election Day here in the US. Amid the uncertainty, chaos, and acrimony in the public sphere, I am galvanized by the knowledge that there are also choirs. Beyond the power and catharsis of music in its own right, a choir gives a refreshing example of a healthy civic body. It’s not always easy and we make (many) mistakes, but choral singers show up. Choral singers reach out to help their neighbors. Choral singers work to achieve harmony and to share the stories told by dissonance. Our ability to live these practices, in and out of the rehearsal room, is more necessary than ever. 

With that in mind, I invite you to join me in supporting Ensemble Companio as we continue our season and begin planning our fifteenth anniversary celebrations. This month, we’re launching our annual fundraiser, Drive to Sing: Celebrating Our Legacy and Shaping Our Future. Your contribution will directly sustain the adventurous and deeply moving artistry you’ve come to know and love, support new commissions by underrepresented composers, and help us be a  source of joy, connection, and resilience for years to come. Also, speaking of our fifteenth season, if you or someone you know would like to join (or rejoin) our musical community, we’d love to hear from you (audition information here).

We are so grateful to you, our wider community, for the consistent outpouring of time, talent, and treasure which has allowed us to reach this milestone. We seldom, if ever, know what the future holds, but one thing I do know is that we choral singers in our millions (and Companios in particular) will keep turning up, week after week, month after month, season after season. Our pencils will be sharpened (or tablets charged) and our hearts will be open. We will keep seeking–and finding–(un)common ground.

 

Warmly,

Emily Higgins
President, Ensemble Companio

 

Communications Chair

SPOLIA – Season 13 President’s Message

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Dear friends,

This autumn, I spent a few days in my beloved Catskill Mountains hiking, relaxing, and dislodging my writer’s block re: this letter. The modern observer encounters a forest which is actually quite young, a result of nineteenth-century tanneries’ annihilation of the Eastern hemlocks which once covered these hills. Stubborn patches of old-growth forest still linger in the remotest places, where one can also find fossilized remains of creatures who, millions of years ago, knew the region as an inland sea. Stepping into these groves, I’m always acutely aware of being no more (and no less) than the most recent visitor in a vast procession stretching across the eons.

On this trip, I was especially drawn to the coexistence of the old and the new because I arrived steeped in the idea of SPOLIA, our theme for Season 13. To quote our Artistic Director, Erik Peregrine,

Spolia is an architectural term for materials removed from their original context and reused in a new one, such as a Roman column integrated into a Gothic cathedral. More broadly, spolia describes the creative re/appropriation of objects, ideas, and aesthetics to generate something which is simultaneously old and new.

You’ll hear more from Erik about how this concept plays out in our repertoire as concert season approaches. In my own reflections, I keep returning to a line from Michael Bussewitz-Quarm’s luminous Adoravit (performed by Ensemble Companio in spring 2022), “Senex puerum portabat: Puer autem senem regebat,” which David Fraser translates as, “An ancient upheld the Infant, But the Infant upheld the ancient.” To me this is the essence of choral music: visiting and revisiting existing texts and musical gestures, but each time creating a fresh realization of the ideas and emotions implied therein. The music, once written, can provoke, remind, and inspire, but to do so it needs our living voices. When we perform a piece, we have the opportunity to briefly share a space with every other person who has sung or will sing that collection of words and notes. It’s a powerful act of community which anchors us in where we’ve been and strengthens us to reach forward into the unknown.

EC is also experiencing the coexistence of old and new in our operations this season (working with some operational spolia, as it were). We’ve had the pleasure of welcoming both brand-new Companios and alumni who have returned after taking a few years’ break. This latest mix of voices is already yielding some gorgeous results in rehearsals. Additionally, several of us rejoined the Board of Directors: Mikey Steiger, former President/current Ensemble Advocate, Allison Bailey, former and current General Manager, Katie DiMaria, former and current Development Chair, and me, Emily Higgins, former Communications Chair/current President. Together with the rest of the board, we’re focused on building up the organizational muscle to realize our dreams and goals for EC’s future. It’s a tremendous privilege to have emerged from our first decade (and hopefully last pandemic) and be looking forward to our fifteenth, twentieth, and even thirtieth seasons.

Finally, as 2023 draws to a close, we invite you to consider supporting Ensemble Companio through your year-end giving. Your contribution plays a pivotal role in sustaining and elevating our musical endeavors, including projects like our newly released album, Journeys, now available on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube Music, and other platforms. Visit ensemblecompanio.org/support to discover the various ways in which your generosity can make a lasting impact on our multifaceted initiatives to foster musical excellence, engage with the community, and drive artistic innovation. Your year-end gift is not just a contribution; it’s an investment in the future of Ensemble Companio. Thank you for helping us continue to thrive!

I hope to see many of you at our concerts in the spring, and that you all have a happy and healthy new year!

Warmly,

Emily Higgins
President, Ensemble Companio

 

Communications Chair

I flow/I AM Presidential Farewell Message

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Ensemble Companio

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dear Ensemble Companio Community,

 

I hope you’re all healthy and enjoying the beginning of Spring!  Tomorrow is our first full concert for the 2022-2023 season, entitled I Flow/I AM.  It also marks the beginning of the end of my time as the President of Ensemble Companio’s Board.  I want to share some thoughts with you about these last three years.

 

Shortly after I became President-Elect of the Board in March 2020, news broke that a novel coronavirus named COVID-19 had spread beyond its initial outbreak.  Cases had been detected in the United States.  Ensemble Companio canceled its March 2020 concert given concerns for the safety of our members and audiences.  Shortly thereafter, we, like just about everyone else here in the United States, began a two-week quarantine to “flatten the curve.”  That went the way we all remember.  We canceled our entire 2019-2020 concert season.  Weeks of quarantine turned into months.  All of us did our best to get through.  None of us, thankfully, injected any bleach.

 

EC’s 2020-2021 concert season (which was, incidentally, our Tenth Anniversary season) was fully remote.  We continued to gather once a month, via Zoom, to be and sing together.  It was a balm for all of us in an otherwise incredibly lonely, frightening, and isolating time.  Under the steady guidance of our excellent Artistic Director, Erik Peregrine, we broke new ground as an organization with recording, remote collaboration, and streamed performances.  And unlike far too many performing arts organizations, we were, through the dedication of our members and volunteer Board, the quality of Erik’s leadership, and the generosity of you, our community, able to come through that more than a year without in-person performances intact.

 

We returned to in-person rehearsals for our triumphant Eleventh Anniversary season in the Fall of 2021.  Being back together was–not to overstate things–glorious.  As many of you know, I’ve been a choral singer now for over thirty years.  Before March 2020, I hadn’t gone for more than two months without experiencing the elation that comes with feeling my voice blending with the voices of other singers since I was nine years old.  Rehearsing with my friends, feeling all the joys of singing with EC again after 17 hard months, brought me so much happiness.  I know our members had similar experiences of being restored by our community and the opportunity it provides for artistry.  The 2021-2022 season added new joys, too.  Chief among those was the debut of our first commissioned piece, The Garden, by Carlos Cordero, and our renewed commitment, under Erik’s direction, to performing works by composers from communities that have been wrongfully excluded from the traditional Western choral canon.

 

During this 2022-2023 season, we have deepened our commitment to our mission of building bridges through authentic, inspiring performances of the finest choral music.  We have not only continued our efforts to highlight the works of excluded composers, but focused on outreach to young singers through a workshop with the William Floyd High School Chorus (directed by our very own Donia Rivera) and, tomorrow, a workshop and joint performance with the Rensselaer Concert Choir.  We are thrilled to be able to not only continue, but strengthen our charitable mission.  We believe it is ever more important at a time when marginalized and oppressed peoples in the United States are being targeted specifically through legislated bans on public artistry.  Our pursuit of that mission would not be possible without the incredible dedication of our singers, the quality and constancy of Erik’s artistic direction, and your ongoing support.

 

I hope to see you at our performances this year:

 

March 25, 2023 (Troy, NY);

 

April 15, 2023 (Brookline, MA); and

 

May 13, 2023 (New York, NY).

 

Finally, regardless of whether you are able to see us perform, I hope that you will continue your financial support of Ensemble Companio, and particularly our Joseph Gregorio Artistic Director Fund.  I firmly believe that Ensemble Companio would not have survived the last three years without Erik’s guidance, commitment to musical excellence, and skill at eliciting our best as performers.  The Artistic Director Fund has been critical in keeping them at our helm.   

 

Thank you for the support that has sustained and nurtured Ensemble Companio over these last 13 years.  It is a constant source of comfort and pride for me to be part of our joyful community.

 

Yours in song,

Michael

Communications Chair

Why I Sing: A Message from the President

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Ensemble Companio

Dear friends,

We close the first half of this season’s concert, Journeys, with one of my favorites: Benjamin Britten’s Hymn to St. Cecilia.  My introduction to this piece was also my introduction to choral singing, when I joined the university choir in my first semester of college.  I have to confess that I only signed up as a requirement of my major, initially viewing choral singing as nothing more than another credit to be earned.  But Britten soon changed my mind. From the first measure, the depth of harmony and poetry working together was a revelation. I was blown away at how the 4 voice parts come together to form something greater than the individual parts.  By the end of rehearsal, I remember thinking, “I’ve found my people.”

Starting college in a new place with new people is a rough transition for most; mine was made more difficult when my father lost his battle to cancer in the second week of the semester.   As an already painfully shy person, being thrust into a new school with unfamiliar people and simultaneously having to come to terms with the first big loss in my life was an overwhelming prospect.  But like St. Cecilia, who “poured forth her song in perfect calm,” I discovered that through singing my grief, anxiety, and uncertainty all faded into catharsis. My journey that first year mirrored the journey of the piece, as the tenor soloist reaches the climax of the hymn with my favorite line, “O wear your tribulation like a rose!”  In other words, own your suffering, celebrate the journey that got you here. And so when I reflect on the question of why I sing, the answer is simple: It’s my therapy.

Ensemble Companio creates exactly the right conditions for this kind of healing singing.  Our rehearsal weekends once a month function like retreats: closed in a rehearsal room with 24 of your friends, phones away, shut off from the world of work and obligations, with nothing to do for two days but make incredible music together.  What I love about our season-long concert cycle is the ability to spend time not only learning notes and honing our ensemble, but also to put our music aside, and share. It’s not uncommon for laughter and tears to accompany our rehearsal discussions as we delve together into what the words on the page really mean to us.  That connection – the bridge we build between each other – takes the experience to another level entirely.

Our Communications Chair, alto Emily Higgins, has coined a phrase to describe what we do: radical collective intimacy.  In an increasingly divided and self-absorbed world, it is a radical act to share each other’s burdens the way Ensemble Companio does.  What a gift to be able to turn stress, sorrow, and pain into joy, love, and community. It’s become our practice to close every rehearsal weekend by singing Duruflé’s Ubi Caritas, as a reminder of the love we create when we come together, and to take it with us as we return to the real world.

The love and fellowship we build also extends beyond our immediate members.  If you’ve been following us this season, you’ll know we launched a competition to commission a new work for our 10th Anniversary Season next year.  We were simply overwhelmed with the amazing response of applicants we received! Our mission and our call to collaborate with those who are underrepresented in the choral world clearly resonated deeply with the composer community.  It has also given us a wonderful way to invite in four of our alumni Companios to shape the musical future of EC by serving on the jury. I am thrilled to have the opportunity to make a space to collaborate with living artists to create something new and special next season.  I can’t wait for us to announce the winner, and begin the work of bringing new art into the word.

Today we celebrate Giving Tuesday with the launch of our annual Drive to Sing.  I’ve shared a little about why I sing in the hope that you will find Ensemble Companio a worthy cause to give of yourself to.  Quite simply, none of this would be possible without the support of generous donors like you.

Gifts of any amount are welcome through our Drive to Sing campaign website – making up over 80% of our annual budget.  You can also support us by purchasing our latest album: Warnings, Wisdom, and Wit, now available on our website, or anywhere you download music.

And of course, we also hope you and your friends will join us for our spring concerts, which we’ll be announcing in the new year!

Thank you for being a part of Ensemble Companio, and for helping us keep this incredible musical family singing.

With love and gratitude,

Mikey Steiger
President, Ensemble Companio

Communications Chair

Failed Saints: A Message from the President

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Dear friends,

On behalf of Ensemble Companio, I hope you are having a wonderful Fall! While you were enjoying the crisp autumn air – and pumpkin spice everything – we began our eighth season with rehearsal retreats in New York and Pennsylvania. We welcomed five new Companios into the fold, and set about the process of delving into the musical world curated for us by our artistic director, Erik Peregrine. We’ll be presenting the works of ten living composers this season, finding inspiration in the fact that our art is still keenly alive, and the finest choral music is still being written.

 

New members Adam, Chris, Rachel, and Erin

In this year’s program, entitled Failed Saints, we will explore the darkness and the light that exists within each of us.  Anger & fear fill the daily headlines in this increasingly divided world we live in.  Our season grapples with the idea that each day we have a choice: to feed the rage within us, or to choose to counteract it with compassion and love.  Failed Saints explores our shared imperfections, our shared humanity and divinity, and our collective power to create the world we wish to live in.

It is probably too early in the season to have a favorite piece, but Saunder Choi’s stunning new setting of The New Colossus speaks this message most clearly to me.  We all know by heart the famous excerpt from the sonnet written by Emma Lazarus in 1883, and set in bronze on the base of the Statue of Liberty:

Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,

I lift my lamp beside the golden door!

To be honest, at first, I embraced the darkness with this one. A patriotic song feels like an odd choice at this moment in history, when we’re at each other’s throats on a daily basis.

The piece contains a rhythmic pulse throughout that is constantly moving and changing – devilishly tricky to master, but so satisfying when it all comes together. We spent a good amount of time working on it as a choir and in sectionals last rehearsal weekend, which gave me a lot of time to reflect on the text. I found myself getting a little choked up at the words, “I lift my lamp beside the golden door,” a beautiful message of welcome to all, set to a soaring melodic line introduced by the tenors and basses, echoed by the sopranos and altos, and building to a crescendo by the chorus as one. In that moment, I recognize anew the land that I love – an America that works together toward a common goal, each voice clearly defined on its own, but each contributing to a beautiful, greater whole. It is an America we can find again, if only we are willing to do the work, on our own and together, to get there.

I continue to find inspiration, season after season, with this wonderful group of musicians. We will be announcing our concert season soon, and I hope you will get the chance to hear and be inspired with us!

With love,

 

Mikey Steiger

President, Ensemble Companio

Communications Chair

From Winter to The Greening: A Message from the President

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Dear friends,

A belated Happy New Year to you all! I hope your 2018 is off to a great start. I have so much excitement and wonder as I pause to reflect upon the year to come with Ensemble Companio!

We recently kicked off our first rehearsal of 2018 in the Boston metro area – one that we weren’t entirely sure was going to happen as weather reports of winter storm Grayson began predicting the first “snowpocalypse” of the year. Our members braved bitter cold, delays and cancellations of plane, train, and automobile, and still made it to rehearsal on time and excited to sing. It was perhaps fitting that Mother Nature should make her presence known at her fiercest and most beautiful, in a musical season exploring themes of the natural world.

We are now midway through the season. This is my favorite point in the rehearsal process. By now, the notes and rhythms are beginning to feel like second nature, and we can begin the real work of bringing the stories the music holds on the page to life. To that end, our Artistic Director Erik Peregrine set aside time for us to discuss as a group what some of the pieces mean to us, and how they fit into the overarching theme of the concert, The Greening. It is incredible to me how words written by Hildegard of Bingen in the twelfth century, or by Don MacDonald in 2016, can equally inspire us today – how the themes of the human condition are timeless, and cyclical. By the end of rehearsal, Erik needed only remind us to think about the emotional intent behind a piece, and you could instantly hear how the music was elevated by refocusing our intentions. Getting that time to explore deeper meanings in the music is a luxury that is not always afforded to community choirs, but one that I think makes all the difference in musicality.

(Photo: Ashley Prickel-Kane)

New member Ashley Prickel-Kane was our host for the weekend, welcoming us into her choir room at Walpole High School. Several of her students joined us in the afternoon to listen in on our rehearsal, followed by a Q&A session where the students were invited to discuss what they heard, and why they are drawn to choral singing. I smiled at how many of the reasons they gave – stress relief, making new friendships, exploring a love of music – could easily have been the answers a member of EC would give for why they sing. One student mentioned how she enjoying the unified sound of the choir, particularly how great it was to hear a full complement of tenor and basses (I don’t want to brag, but we have Walpole choir beat 10 to 5 in the tenor and bass sections). We finished out the day by sight reading selections from the Walpole choir’s repertoire together, which gave us a chance to fearlessly showcase our mastery of Russian with Pärt’s setting of Bogoroditse Devo (it helped that we had just sung the famous Rachmaninoff setting of the same text last season). It’s hard to tell who enjoyed the afternoon more: the young women of Walpole choir, or Ensemble Companio. Smiles, laughter, and joy was shared by all.  It was exactly the kind of heart-warming needed on a blustery January Saturday.

(Photo: Ashley Prickel-Kane)

Some Boston-area EC alumni also stopped in to say hello and catch up with members old and new. We always love seeing former and prospective members, and I would encourage you to reach out when we’ll be in your area! You have two more chances to catch us in rehearsal: February 3-4 in Brooklyn, NY, and March 3-4 in the Philadelphia metro. Drop us a line for more details, we’d love to see you!

To top off an incredible weekend, Erik stayed behind to work in some studio time, editing our album that was recorded at the end of season 5. We are so grateful to him for giving more of his time to help us finish and release our first studio album! Watch this space for updates about the release in the future.

Concert tickets will be going on sale soon! We hope you will join us on this musical journey of The Greening. Stay tuned for further concert announcements.

The Greening

March 24, 7:30pm
Good Shepherd-Faith Presbyterian Church, 152 W 66th St, New York, NY

April 28/29
Washington, DC – more info to come!

May 12, 7:00pm
St. Ann’s Episcopal Church, 82 Shore Rd, Old Lyme, CT

With love,

Communications Chair

New Beginnings: A message from Ensemble Companio

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Dear friends,

A new season is upon us, and with that, some new faces and new beginnings! My name is Mikey Steiger, and after four seasons of singing in the tenor section, I am joining the Board as the third President of Ensemble Companio (I’ll still moonlight as a tenor – never fear!).

Last weekend, we began our seventh season by welcoming our new Artistic Director, Erik Peregrine, into the Ensemble Companio family. After a long and productive day of charging fearlessly through the repertoire for this year, we gathered for the traditional dinner and fellowship at a nearby member’s house. Our Founding Director, Joe Gregorio, stopped by with his family, and there in the kitchen (where everything important seems to happen), Joe and Erik met for the first time and greeted each other with open arms. It was a moment of pure happiness and deep gratitude from both. A passing of the batons, from the founder of the group who brought us together and set us on our path, to the new director, whose artistic vision will carry us into the future.

I was immediately transported back to my first rehearsal with Ensemble Companio, in our third season. What I remember most about that first day was the welcome I received, which from the moment I walked in the door was warm, joyful, and all-encompassing. It was like discovering “old friends who’ve just met,” if I may borrow a line from The Muppet Movie. I’ve sung in many different choirs for nearly 20 years now, but never before have I felt so instantly, completely at home as I did and continue to feel from my very first moments with this group. In that moment 4 years ago, and again last weekend, I felt a joy and excitement that I hadn’t expected.

The truth is, I practically had to drag myself to rehearsal last weekend. Stories of anger, of division, of terrible natural disasters and destruction left in their path have been the top headlines this summer. At times, a feeling of hopelessness and despair has drained me to the very core these past few weeks. As Saturday approached, the idea of traveling hours from home and giving up my free time to spend poring over new scores seemed overwhelming, the complete opposite of self-preservation.

It turns out that it was. By which I mean that turning inward was not what I needed at all. I needed to sing, to discover beautiful music that I never knew existed. I needed to forge connections with our new director and new members, and renew those with returning members. By the end of a weekend spent with my amazing fellow singers and our inspiring new Artistic Director, my heart was full to bursting with joy, laughter, and song.

Every year, we form and reform this community of singers – each time new, and yet always somehow the same. As I returned home, I felt open to the world again, ready to face the challenges the next week would present, with a future that has never looked brighter. That is the power of music. That is the power of love, shared with friends old and new. That is the power of community. That is Ensemble Companio.

I am so excited about this season that we are making, friends! I can’t wait to share it with you.

With love,

Communications Chair

Introducing Our New Artistic Director: A Special Message from the President

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Dear Friends,

I hope you are all doing well, and enjoying time outside in the gorgeous warm weather we’re having!

It gives me great pleasure to announce that Ensemble Companio has chosen Erik Peregrine as our new Artistic Director.

Erik Peregrine

In his own words:

I am overjoyed to be joining the Ensemble Companio family and to carry on this vibrant tradition of heart-filled choral music in the coming season. Ensemble Companio’s mission of building bridges and human connections through music resonates deeply with my own artistic values, and I am so inspired by the musicians’ dedication to live out this mission in all they do together. I am both thrilled and humbled to be entrusted with artistic stewardship of this unique choral community going forward.

We, too, are overjoyed to welcome Erik into the Ensemble Companio family, and are eager for him to both push our musical boundaries and help us build exciting new bridges. He will begin his tenure as Artistic Director this summer.

For all the hard work, diligent follow-up, respectful debate, and thorough discussions that led us to this point, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to the members of the Artistic Director Search Committee, especially my co-chair Mikey Steiger, The Board, and the wonderful singers in Ensemble Companio. I would also like to thank Michael Weinberg for kindly and steadily shepherding the Ensemble through this most recent season. Throughout the entirety of the search, all were patient, thoughtful, and expressed great care for the Ensemble. I feel very lucky to have had the opportunity to serve as President for the past three years; indeed, it has been an honor.

A backstage moment with Megan Lemley (alto, Development Chair) and Mikey Steiger (tenor) during intermission in Washington, DC. (Photo: Sarah Glaser)

Since this will be my last message as President of Ensemble Companio, I wanted to share something with you that happened several years ago. In the spring of 2013, when I had just completed my first season with the Ensemble and was serving as Ensemble Advocate, I had the opportunity to attend the annual Chorus America conference in Washington, D.C. The conference was packed with inspiring lectures, round-table discussions, and opportunities to learn from more established groups. There were also “buttonhole interactions”–chances to speak with someone experienced in fundraising/musical direction/board leadership/etc one-on-one, for 15 minutes. I sat down with the then General Manager of the Los Angeles Master Chorale, and explained Ensemble Companio’s founding and structure, and our mission. He listened intently, offering sage advice and encouragement. He then asked about our long-term plans. Surrounded by representatives from other choirs that had been operating for 20 or 30 years–some even more–and with budgets much larger than ours, I wasn’t sure what to say. How could a choir like Ensemble Companio–barely 2 years old and with an improbable traveling rehearsal structure–hope to plan 10 or even 5 years out? I started, “Well, I really hope that we’ll be around 5 years from now…” And he answered simply, “You will. Of that I have no doubt.” I was surprised and heartened by his conviction. And he was right.

Having a laugh during our end-of-season brunch in Newport, RI. (Photo: Elise Croteau-Chonka)

Here we are, about to begin our seventh season. We have evolved with our membership, we have expanded our Board and our fundraising capacity, we have sung in seven states and Washington, D.C., won awards, completed our first-ever Artistic Director search, and continue to build bridges between people through authentic, inspiring performances of the finest choral music. It’s been an amazing journey–one I now look forward to participating in simply as a singer–and I can’t wait to see what comes next.

In the next few months, a new President will take the reins. We’ll have some new Board members, too, and I can’t wait for you to meet them. As always, we welcome you to contact us with any thoughts or suggestions you have along the way. Clearly, we couldn’t have done all this without your wonderful support: the Ensemble Companio family is incredibly special, and I know I speak for all the members when I say we know how lucky we are to be a part of it. Here’s to the next seven years.

With deepest gratitude,

Cailin

Communications Chair

Throwback Thursday with our President

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Dear Friends and Family,

Ensemble Companio is now excitedly looking forward to our fifth season. In the spirit of a “Throwback Thursday,” we wanted to thank you for all you did to make our fourth season so wonderful.

Thank you for supporting Ensemble Companio through a very successful 2015 concert season!

The text from Duruflé’s Ubi Caritas, one of the works we sang last season, is “Ubi caritas at amor, Deus ibi est,” which translates to “Where there is charity and love, God is there.”  This captures what I’ve felt about Ensemble Companio from the very beginning: when people who care for one another travel a long way to make something beautiful, it’s an incredibly uplifting—and yes, even spiritual—experience. Regardless of why and how each of us comes to sing with Ensemble Companio, we all have people in the wings: parents who cheer us on, spouses who listen to us practicing and welcome our tired selves back on Sunday nights, neighbors who watch the kids for a weekend, and friends and family who share and spread our enthusiasm. When we gather together for two days every month, it is very much an effort that reaches beyond the singers.

EC Women

 Megan Lemley (alto, Development Chair), Inès Thieme (soprano, past President), Christina Wallace (soprano, Communications Chair), and Julia Hillabrant (alto) share a moment before the Ridgewood, NJ concert in April.

One amazing example of that last season was your overwhelming response to our Annual Campaign, which raised more than $12,000 (and blew away our $10,000 goal)! You helped us build a stronger foundation and presented us with new opportunities, including the initiation of a fund to support singers’ travel, childcare, and other seasonal expenses. On behalf of the officers, I would like to express our joy at being able to offer such support to our singers and our optimism in increasing this support yearly. I hope that, in return, you joined us for a concert and allowed us to share our gratitude through song.

 

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Mikey Steiger (tenor), Evan Crawford (bass, General Manager), Michael Raffaele (bass, Ensemble Advocate), and Greg Pratt (tenor, Secretary) provide a backstage “interlude” between sets.

I’d also like to announce the appointment of Evan Crawford and Christina Wallace to the positions of General Manager and Communications Chair, respectively. Both just completed their first year of singing with Ensemble Companio and jumped right into leadership positions! We are grateful for the dedication and enthusiasm of these two and are excited to work with them to steer Ensemble Companio into this season and beyond.

Finally, for those of you who attended our Brooklyn or Ridgewood concerts, you’ll remember our encore performance of Il bianco e dolce cigno. At the request of an audience member, at our last concert of the season in Philadelphia, we instead closed with “In My Life” and invited the audience to join us. It was such a special encore that we wanted to share it with all of you.

Please join us again in song this season, which includes concerts planned in April and May 2016.  The theme will be “Warnings, Widsom, and Wit”, and we can’t wait to see you in the audience!  In the meantime (and as always), I look forward to hearing from you at president@ensemblecompanio.org.

All my best,

Cailin

CMW