APPLETON, WIS. — Thirty-one members of the Lawrence University Academy of Music Cantabile Girl Choir will lend their voices to one of the country’s biggest musical events of the year — the 400th anniversary celebration May 11-13 of the founding of the Jamestown colony in Virginia.
The Cantabile Choir has the distinction of being Wisconsin’s lone representative for the three-day-long “America’s Anniversary Weekend,” the centerpiece of an 18-month international commemoration of the 400th anniversary observance of the 1607 founding of Jamestown as America’s first permanent English settlement. The Anniversary Weekend will reintroduce the world to Jamestown, helping visitors discover how the settlement made democracy, free enterprise and cultural diversity defining characteristics of American society.
The Girl Choir’s 7th-9th grade singers will be among several dozen choirs representing nearly every state in the union who will combine to form a 1,607-voice choir Sunday, May 13 for a performance in the historic weekend’s grand finale event. The mega-choir will be backed by a 400-member orchestra selected from musicians from orchestras all around the country.
“We are certainly honored to have been selected to join other top-notch children’s, high school and even adult choirs from across the country for an event of this magnitude,” said Karen Bruno, director of the Academy of Music’s Cantabile Choir. “It’s a special thrill to represent the state of Wisconsin in this historic celebration and the girls are taking that honor very seriously.
“It’s always fun to go on tour, see new places, meet other talented musicians and perform for new audiences,” added Bruno, a 1993 Lawrence graduate. “I suspect the audience for this concert will have a few more dignitaries than we’re used to, including perhaps even her majesty the queen.”
Queen Elizabeth II of England is expected to visit Jamestown for part of the anniversary ceremonies.
The Sunday evening concert culminating the weekend celebration will include a live historical interpretative production told with music, dialogue, color and movement that recounts the key historical events of Jamestown in the years 1607-1619. A finale fireworks display timed and choreographed to the 400-member orchestra and the 1,607-voice choir closes the program.
In addition to their participation in the anniversary’s grand finale concert, Cantibile will be featured in a solo performance Friday afternoon (3:50 p.m.) as part of the weekend’s activities on the festival grounds. They will sing their own combination of American music, including Native American, Hawaiian and colonial-era works.
The choir was selected for the Jamestown celebration by audition tapes submitted from performances of the group during the last three years. Previous trips have taken the Cantibile Choir to New York’s Carnegie Hall and the Colorado Chautauqua in Boulder. The choir also was invited to perform at the 2003 international children’s choir festival in Toronto.
Other anniversary weekend events include a Friday performance of the Virginia Symphony Orchestra and the Richmond Symphony Orchestra, both separately and then combined for the first time ever, to premiere several new works written especially for the commemoration. Saturday’s highlights include performances by three-time Grammy winner Bruce Hornsby & The Noise Makers, legendary funk and R&B artist Chaka Khan, and progressive bluegrass master Ricky Skaggs and his band Kentucky Thunder.
