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CAROLINA MASTER CHORALE ANNOUNCES ITS SILVER ANNIVERSARY SEASON

August 14, 2007 

Myrtle Beach - The Grand Strand’s oldest performing arts organization, the Carolina Master Chorale, has released details of its 2007-2008 25^th Anniversary Season.  Directed by Dr. Tim Koch, the group will be involved in seven major productions, performing in venues from Pawleys Island to North Myrtle Beach and Conway followed by a summer 2008 tour of Spain. 

The highlight of the season is sure to be a full-scale production of Giuseppe Verdi’s beloved opera, ‘La Traviata’, featuring the Long Bay Symphony, national and international opera stars, and production assistance from the Theatre of the Republic.  This follows a highly successful staging by the Carolina Master Chorale (CMC) of Georges Bizet’s ‘Carmen’ in June of 2006.  There are two scheduled performances at the Myrtle Beach High School Music and Arts Center; at 7pm on May 10, 2008 and at 3pm on May 11, 2008.  

In the first concert of the season, “Carolina On My Mind”, composer-in-residence Andrew Fowler offers a glorious new arrangement of Carolina native James Taylor’s most poignant songs.  This program is packed with colorful singing, powerful texts, dramatic beauty and virtuoso instrumental accompaniment.  This celebration of the history and beauty of the Carolinas will take place on October 27-28, 2007.  

On December 14^th, 15^th and 16^th, the CMC presents its immensely popular and unique holiday program, accompanied by brass, harp and percussion.  Conrad Susa’s, ‘A Christmas Garland’ is one of today’s most popular arrangements of beloved carols.  The world premiere of Dr. Andrew Fowler’s ‘A Sacred Harp’ features Southern holiday tunes from generations past.   

World renowned guest conductor Eph Ehly leads the CMC’s “Choral Festival by the Sea”- a festival chorus of over 200 from around the country- on March 1, 2008.  Guest choirs will also showcase their best for Myrtle Beach audiences.  

The CMC says THANK YOU to all its supporters for twenty-five years on June 8, 2008 with a free concert, featuring music to be performed during the Chorale’s June 2008 tour of Spain.

In addition to the five Carolina Master Chorale produced events, the group will also be a major part of the Long Bay Symphony’s presentation of Leonard Bernstein’s ‘Chichester Psalms’ on January 27, 2008.  The CMC has also been asked by the Theatre of the Republic in Conway to be part of its musical production of ‘Jesus Christ Superstar’, April 2-13, 2008. 

Season and individual tickets are on sale now by calling the Carolina Master Chorale office at (843) 444-5774 or by visiting the CMC website at: www.carolinamasterchorale.com.

 

AUDITIONS SET FOR CAROLINA MASTER CHORALE 

CAROLINA MASTER CHORALE PRESENTS SEASON FINALE: LULLABIES OF BROADWAY

May 11, 2007

Myrtle Beach, S.C. –The Carolina Master Chorale, Tim Koch, Music Director, concludes its highly successful 2006-07 season with, “Lullabies of Broadway”, a collection of popular showtunes, on Saturday, June 2, at 3:00 PM and 7:00 PM at the historic Myrtle Beach Train Depot, 851 Broadway, and again on Sunday, June 3, at 3:00 PM at the Main Street Theatre, 331 Main Street, Conway, home of The Theatre of the Republic.  

In cooperation with the Theatre of the Republic (TOR), the Carolina Master Chorale (CMC) will perform dynamic choral arrangements of the most beloved tunes from the shows performed by TOR in the 2006-07 season, as well as preview songs from the upcoming 2007-08 season.  Audiences will be treated to highlights from Oliver, My Fair Lady, Fiddler on the Roof, La Cage aux Folles, Chicago, and Guys and Dolls. New York vocal stars and frequent CMC collaborators Stephanie Gregory, soprano, and Joe Chappel, bass-baritone, join the CMC as featured soloists. The Chorale will unveil new arrangements by CMC Composer-in-Residence, Andrew Fowler, and a new Porgy and Bess medley by the emerging Hungarian Born jazz pianist-composer, Norbert Kael. The concert will be accompanied by the Andrew Fowler Jazz Quartet.

“Lullabies of Broadway” will also pay tribute to Arthur Kent, the local musician known world wide as the composer of many songs, including “The End of the World,” a pop music hit recorded by Skeeter Davis that enjoyed international success in the 1960s. It has since been covered by numerous top artists including The Carpenters, Loretta Lynn, Nancy Sinatra, and Anne Murray.

“A crystalline emotive voice” is how the Connecticut Post has labeled Soprano Stephanie Gregory, who returns to Myrtle Beach after well-received spring performance with the CMC in Bizet’s Carmen.  Ms. Gregory is the winner of the prestigious Jenny Lind Competition and has toured the US and abroad as a soloist in recital and operatic performances.  

Bass-Baritone Joe Damon Chappel is a graduate of the Eastman School of Music where he was a William Warfield Scholar. His career has demonstrated proficiency in a wide range of musical genres, from early music to opera and musical theater. The New York Times hails Mr. Chappel as a "warm bass anchor…" In October 2004, he sang his first Verdi Requiem with the South Carolina Philharmonic, Nicholas Smith, conductor. The State of Columbia, SC wrote "Chappel's 'Mors Stupebit' kept the audience hanging on every breathy syllable, filling the hall with his strength even in the softest moments."

Tickets for the Myrtle Beach performances of “Lullabies of Broadway” are available by calling the Carolina Master Chorale at (843) 444-5774.  Tickets for the Conway performance are available by calling the Theatre of the Republic at (843) 488-0821.   Tickets may also be purchased online at www.ticketweb.com. Tickets, $16 in advance and $20 at the door, should be purchased early as seating is limited and both shows are expected to sell out.

Carolina Master Chorale to Premiere Work by Local Composer at Lincoln Center

January 18, 2006

The Carolina Master Chorale, Timothy Koch, Music Director, and Andrew Fowler, Composer-in-Residence, along with members of the First United Methodist Church, Myrtle Beach, will make their debut at New York’s Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center on Sunday, February 18, 2007.  Koch, Fowler, and the choristers will join forces with the New Amsterdam Symphony Orchestra, professional soloists, and more than 250 singers from across the country, to celebrate the 300^th anniversary of the birth of hymn-writer Charles Wesley in the world premiere of Dr. Fowler’s Directions for Singing.  Wesley, the author of more than 9,000 hymn texts, including Hark! The Herald Angels Sing, O For a Thousand Tongues to Sing, and Christ the Lord is Risen Today, is considered one of the most prolific poets in the history of the English language.  Wesley may best be known as a co-founder, along with his brother John, of the denomination today known as United Methodism. 

Carolina Master Chorale Composer-in-Residence and Myrtle Beach native Dr. Andrew Fowler has been selected for the Wesley Tercentenary Festival’s greatest honor.  The combined forces will premiere Fowler’s newest major work, Directions for Singing, under internationally-renowned choral conductor, Eph Ehly.  Fowler’s Directions, approximately fifty minutes in length, features thirteen Wesley hymn texts, some set as grand arrangements of familiar tunes with which the texts are associated, and others set to entirely new music by Dr. Fowler.  The unifying element is a seven-item list titled Directions for Singing, written by John Wesley to encourage inspirational congregational hymn singing.  Though written to speak to 18^th-century congregations, the list, which offers such instructions as Sing Exactly, Sing in Time, and Sing Spiritually, has surprising relevance in today’s corporate church singing.

CMC Music Director Dr. Timothy Koch shares concert conducting duties and the title of Wesley Festival Artistic Co-Director with conductors Ehly, of Kansas City, Missouri, and James Ramsey, Koch’s former Eastman School of Music classmate, of Littleton, Colorado.  Of the opportunity to appear on one of the world’s most celebrated concert stages, Koch says,"I am certain that in my lifetime this will be a top five musical experience, one of life changing importance to me, the other performers, and probably those in the audience.  In this case, I am particularly thrilled that my CMC colleague, Andy Fowler, has finally received hard-earned and well-deserved recognition as one of the most accomplished composers of choral/orchestral music working in America.   The CMC has premiered about ten of Dr. Fowler’s most recent works, and all have been ecstatically received by audiences and performers.  Directions for Singing is, undoubtedly, his most important work to date, and I am excited beyond words to stand on that mountaintop with him and the wonderful singers of the Carolina Master Chorale and First United Methodist Church."

Celebrated New York vocal artists, Stephanie Gregory, soprano, and Joe Chappel, bass-baritone, will be featured soloists for the program,  Both are repeat performers with the Carolina Master Chorale who were last heard on the Grand Strand in the CMC’s Carmen performance of June, 2006. Both will also return to Myrtle Beach when the CMC repeats its New York program for local audiences at 7:30 p.m., March 17, 2007, presented by Coastal Carolina University, at Wheelwright Auditorium.  Tickets for the home concert are available at the CCU box office, (843) 349-2502.  For more information on the New York performance, visit www.lincolncenter.org and search the keyword “Wesley".

The Carolina Master Chorale is a non-profit performing arts organization based in Myrtle Beach, SC. Its approximately 60 members come from the greater Grand Strand area, from Brunswick County, NC to Pawley’s Island. The Chorale is directed by Dr. Tim Koch and is accompanied by Dr. Andrew Fowler, who also holds the title of composer-in-residence. Please visit www.carolinamasterchorale.com for additional information.