Dear Friends,
I hope you are enjoying the first few days of spring! While our weather may not change very much (given the warmer winter), I would like to share with you some changes coming next season for Ensemble Companio.
We’re saddened to announce that this season will be Artistic Director Joseph Gregorio’s last at the helm.
Though we will miss him very much, the group’s other officers, singers, and I have supported him greatly through his process of making and announcing his decision. I smile, thinking back to what those first days in September 2011 must have felt like, when Ensemble Companio’s singers and Joe first came together in song without any idea whether their improbable and unusual model – whereby singers travel from all over the northeastern United States one weekend per month to rehearse and perform – would work, let alone whether it could last.
|
|
|
|
Monkeying around after lunch during March rehearsal at Swarthmore College.
|
|
I am very proud to say that Ensemble Companio, now completing its fifth season, has not only survived, but thrived. Under Joe's careful and loving direction, the group won a national prize in choral performance; commissioned a new work from New York City composer Vince Peterson; hosted luminaries Matthew Oltman, Alice Parker, and Jameson Marvin for workshops; performed at senior living centers and at a conference of the Pennsylvania chapter of the American Choral Directors Association; and hired its first-ever assistant conductor, Michael Weinberg. We are proudest, though, of the many bridges we have built between the hearts of listeners and singers through the music we have made under Joe’s baton.
Considering these endeavors, I am filled with joy: we have a bright future ahead of us.
When Joe shared with us that he would be stepping down, I was both sad that we would be losing him, and deeply grateful for the miraculous, improbable choir that he helped create. As one of our wise singers noted, “I can’t imagine what Ensemble Companio will be like without Joe. But then, I couldn’t imagine what it would be like with all our new singers the year after I joined, and it was wonderful!†We have such dedicated Companios and such a talented, hardworking corps of officers that I have no doubt that Ensemble Companio will continue charting its unique course, growing and surpassing its already impressive list of accomplishments.
Ensemble Companio will name an interim conductor to lead the 2016-2017 season. We then plan to carry out a search for a new Artistic Director during the 2016-2017 season, with the goal of hiring someone to succeed Joe as Artistic Director beginning in the autumn of 2017.
|
|
|
|
The altos and sopranos finish a performance of Las Amarillas, conducted by Michael Weinberg.
|
|
In this time of change for Ensemble Companio, we invite you to join us for Joe’s last concerts with us. This season’s program, Warnings, Wisdom, & Wit, includes music by Schütz, Bruckner, Stanford, and others, as well as arrangements of folk music, spirituals, and popular music by Bob Dylan and Francis Cabrel. Please come share music and fellowship at one (or more!) of our performances:
Saturday April 2, 7:30pm at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Brooklyn, NY
Sunday April 3, 2:00pm at St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church in Wilton, CT
Saturday April 30, 7:30pm at Trinity Memorial Church in Philadelphia, PA
You can find additional details at http://www.ensemblecompanio.org/concerts.
We also encourage you to stay in touch with us these next several months as we reflect on what Ensemble Companio has accomplished, discuss what we aspire to do, and explore the ways in which our next Artistic Director might guide us in our continued mission to build bridges between people through authentic performances of the finest choral music.
Ensemble Companio is, and always has been, a labor of love. We are grateful for your love now, more than ever, as we build our own bridge into the future.
Yours in song,
|
|
|
|
