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The Princeton Singers Celebrates Mothers Everywhere with Guest Artist, Princeton Girlchoir May 12, 2012

Songs My Mother Taught Me                         Saturday, May 12, 2012 - 8:00 pm

Trinity Church, 33 Mercer Street, Princeton, New Jersey

Princeton, NJ – On Saturday, May 12, at 8:00pm, The Princeton Singers, along with guest artist Princeton Girlchoir, present a rich repertoire devoted to mothers everywhere. Members of The Princeton Singers take on operatic and solo literature by Elgar, DuParc, Strauss, and Offenbach with choral works ranging from For the Mothers of Brazil to Blues in the Night. Princeton Girlchoir performs A Cossack Lullaby, Queen Jane, and Music in My Mother's House. This program is made possible with generous support from John and Melanie Clarke as well as the Edward T. Cone Foundation.

Tickets: $25, $10 for students.  Tickets may be purchased by phone at 866-846-7464, email at tickets@princetonsingers.org or by visiting our website at www.princetonsingers.org.

The Princeton Singers

            The Princeton Singers is a small, professional, independent chamber choir. In recent years, it has earned a reputation as one of the nation’s preeminent chamber choirs.  Founded in 1983 by John Bertalot, then choir-master organist at Trinity Church in Princeton, New Jersey, the ensemble was soon hailed by critics for its clarity of tone, elegance of execution, and purity of tuning.  Since being appointed Artistic Director in 1998, composer-conductor Steven Sametz has expanded the group’s repertoire to range from medieval to modern, including gospel, jazz, and popular song.   Today, The Princeton Singers is a vital force in the creation of new choral works.   Both through a strong commissioning program and participation in workshops for aspiring composers, The Princeton Singers is strongly committed to the creation of new choral repertoire.   

In addition to popular hometown performances, The Princeton Singers has been featured at conventions of the American Guild of Organists, the American Choral Directors Association and Chorus America.  Sametz has led the ensemble in collaborative concerts with Chanticleer, The American Boychoir, Westminster Choir College’s Schola Cantorum, the Princeton Symphony Orchestra and Lehigh University Choral Arts. The Princeton Singers has been heard on National Public Radio’s “Performance Today,” With Heart and Voice,” and broadcast by the BBC while on tour in Europe.  A full listing of The Princeton Singers’ CDs may be viewed at www.princetonsingers.org.

Steven Sametz

            Renowned composer and conductor, Steven Sametz, is the Ronald J. Ulrich Professor of Music and director of Lehigh University Choral Arts, one of the country's premiere choral programs. He is also the founding director of The Lehigh University Choral Composer Forum, a summer course of study designed to mentor emerging choral composers.

            Recent guest conducting appearances include the Taipei Philharmonic Foundation, the Berkshire Music Festival, the New York Chamber Symphony, and the Netherlands Radio Choir.  Dr. Sametz' compositions have been heard throughout the world at the Tanglewood, Ravinia, Salzburg, Schleswig-Holstein, and Santa Fe music festivals. His in time of appears on the recent Grammy award-winning CD by Chanticleer, "Colors of Love," and his work may be heard on six other Chanticleer CDs, as well as Lehigh University Choir's "Live from Taipei," Lehigh University Choral Arts' "What Wondrous Love is This," The Princeton Singers' "Reincarnations," "Christmas with the Princeton Singers," and "Old, New Borrowed, Blues," a collection of his choral arrangements and compositions featuring guest artists Chanticleer in collaboration with The Princeton Singers performing his Dudaryku -- A Village Scene, written for these two groups.  Most recently, Dr. Sametz conducted the Princeton Singers at the American Choral Directors' Association convention in Pittsburg as well as at the American Guild of Organists convention in Philadelphia.

            Dr. Sametz has received commissions from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Connecticut Council on the Arts, and the Santa Fe music festival, creating new works for Chanticleer, the Dale Warland Singers, Philadelphia Singers, Pro Arte Chamber Choir, the Santa Fe Desert Chorale, Connecticut Choral Artists, and the King of Thailand.  His compositions are published by Oxford University Press, Alliance Music, ECS Publishing, GIA, and Steven Sametz Publications.

Dr. Sametz has also served as panelist for the National Endowment for the Arts and Chorus America. He has been Director of Choral Activites at Harvard and is the founder and director of the Lehigh University Choral Union. At the Santa Fe Music Festival, he conducted his own works in a program entitled "Sametz conducts Sametz." He has conducted Chanticleer in the Monteverdi Vespers of 1610 in New York and San Francisco to critical acclaim.  Dr. Sametz holds degrees from Yale University, the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and the Hochschule für Musik und darstellende Kunst in Frankfurt, Germany.

Princeton Girlchoir

            The girls and young women of the Princeton Girlchoir embrace the opportunity to develop their musical, interpersonal, and performing skills, thus setting the stage for a lifelong passion for singing. 
            What Founder Jan Westrick started in 1989 as an after-school activity for a small number of girls interested in choral music has grown into the area's premier training and performance choir for over 200 girls ages 8 to 18. To date, Princeton Girlchoir's alumnae number almost 400 young women, many who continue to sing in their schools, churches, communities, and on stages around the world. 
            Princeton Girlchoir exposes girls to a variety of musical genres, conductors and composers. While honing their musicianship skills, they are able to befriend new girls who sing, enjoy professional performance opportunities, and travel the world. 
            Princeton Girlchoir includes five auditioned choirs beginning with the youngest preparatory choirs, the Grace Notes and the Semi-Tones. The Concert Choir, its select Ensemble, and the Cantores, are for older, more advanced singers. Choristers from towns throughout Central New Jersey and Eastern Pennsylvania come together each week from September through May to study and perform choral music of the highest caliber, covering all genres and periods.