APPLETON, WIS. — The works of two aspiring student composers highlight the Lawrence Academy of Music Girl Choir spring concert “Phenomenal Woman” Sunday, April 22 in the Lawrence Memorial Chapel. Two performances will be staged at 2 p.m. and 6:30 p.m.
Tickets, at $10 for adults, $7 for students and seniors, are available through the Lawrence University Box Office, 920-832-6749.
Allison Shinnick, a junior at Fox Valley Lutheran High School, will perform her work, “Colors of the Land,” a composition she wrote for piano and violin. A member of the Bel Canto choir as well as a pianist, Shinnick has been writing music since the age of seven. She will be accompanied by violinist Yuliya Smead.
Appleton North High School senior Hillary Reynolds, will give both a solo singing and playing performance of her piano composition “Lost for Hours,” a work that seeks to capture the excitement of a summer romance. The piano evokes the “butterflies in the stomach” feeling while the lyrics stir memories and emotions of a summer love.
Reynolds, who will attend Berklee College of Music in Boston, Mass., this fall, spent eight years in the Girl Choir program prior to the 2007 semester.
In addition to Shinnick’s and Reynolds’ compositions, the concert will feature music written by women spanning both centuries and the globe, including a medieval French troubadour song, a piece by Clara Schumann, wife of German composer Robert Schumann, a work by American composer and pianist Amy Beach, a song written by Hawaiian Queen Liliuokalani, a Ukrainian folk song frequently sung by farm women as well as several works by contemporary composers.
“‘Phenomenal Woman’ is a celebration of women composers, young women singers, women who are mentors and the women who wrote the texts for many of the songs,” said Karen Bruno, director of the Cantibile and Bel Canto choirs. “This concert commemorates all the compositions and life stories of the ‘phenomenal women’ in music.”
The concert will feature performances of all five choirs of the Lawrence Academy of Music Girl Choir: Primo, Allegretto, Intermezzo, Cantabile and Bel Canto. The Girl Choir program includes 270 girls representing more than 50 Fox Valley schools, from Oshkosh to Green Bay and Waupaca to Brillion.
