News – April 2006

Dorothy Biersach Bone (April 21, 1916, to April 26, 2006)

 

Having celebrated her 90th birthday with friends and family, Dorothy Bone died peacefully on Wednesday, April 26.
 

Born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, she graduated from the University of Wisconsin, majoring in music. While at the University, she met her husband to be, Allan H. Bone. They lived happily as a couple and a team for over 50 years. They had two children, Ronald and Holly, who were a constant source of happiness in their lives.
 

Dorothy and Allan moved to Durham in 1944 to accept a position in the Music Department at Duke University. During the 52 years in Durham, Dorothy was intimately involved with all aspects of the musical scene at Duke and in the community. She was her husband’s right hand in playing in the orchestra, singing in church choirs and the Durham Civic Choral Society, and offering support to all musicians by attending up to five concerts a week.
 

During the last sixteen years, she and her friend Julia Lewis supported all aspects of Duke and Durham music but most importantly the Ciompi Quartet, the Mallarmé Chamber Players, the Duke Symphony Orchestra and the Choral Society of Durham. She often remarked that her young friends gave her the reason for living. In fact, she in turn, provided support and encouragement for generations of students and faculty at Duke and for the Arts in the area.
 

Her son and daughter survive her. Ronald’s son, Brian, and wife, Callie and daughter, Jessica were constant sources of joy. Holly’s husband, Ed Nothnagel, and their daughters, Kira and Victoria, were always available to provide help and love.
 

Dorothy had an amazing life in Durham and at the family home in Vermont. Her happiness was made possible by her many friends and the musical community associated with Duke University. A memorial will be planned. Donations can be made to The Dorothy Bone Memorial at either:

Friends of the Ciompi Quartet, c/o Duke Performances (Attn: Kathy Silbiger), Box 90685, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina 27708-0685

or

Mallarmé Chamber Players, Durham Arts Council, 120 Morris Street, Durham, North Carolina 27701

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Classical Voice of New England
 

We are pleased to report that Marvin J. Ward and Mary Elizabeth Nordstrom, two CVNCers now living in Massachusetts and Maine, respectively, are poised to launch CVNewEng.org in time for the start of the fall season. The new non-profit merges proposals for sites serving Western New England and areas North of Boston. The new site will be the third large-scale non-profit of its kind in America. CVNC was established in the summer of 2001, based on the model provided by San Francisco Classical Voice (SFCV.org), established in 1998.
 

John W. Lambert
 

CVNewEng’s press release follows below:
 

Classical Voice of New England Founded on March 21, 2006, in Kennebunk, ME
 

On March 21, 2006, an organizational meeting was called at The Farragut by resident Mary Elizabeth Nordstrom, a music critic for Classical Voice of North Carolina who moved from North Carolina to Kennebunk, ME, in 2004. A number of interested parties gathered to discuss the desirability and logistics of launching a similar online journal featuring a calendar and reviews of classical music and theater performances for the New England region. Such reviews, once archived, become a regional arts history….
 

Nordstrom had been contemplating such an effort with the working title of Classical Voice North of Boston. Ward, of Northampton, MA, a critic with even greater longevity at CVNC, relocated to New England in 2003 and had set in motion plans to establish a Classical Voice of Western New England.
 

The two joined forces at the March 21 meeting, settled on the name Classical Voice of New England, Inc., and the URL of CVNewEng.org, and Ward agreed to be President and Nordstrom, Vice President, for purposes of incorporation. Ward will draft bylaws and file for incorporation. Upon locating a volunteer President, he will become Editor-in-Chief, to assure an ongoing presence, since presidents are elected periodically and are not involved in the day-to-day operations of the service. Ward and Nordstrom will also continue as part of a projected stable of at least a dozen critics.
 

The current goal is to establish Classical Voice of New England with four geographic divisions (Greater Boston, North of Boston, Western New England, and Southern Shores – representing concert-going areas rather than state boundaries), and with a target rollout date of September 2006 for the ‘06-’07 season.
 

The Board of Directors will include John Daamen, Fred Going, and Alex Pratt; others are being sought.
 

John A MacLeod II, Executive Director of Granite State Opera [who is a trumpet player and a graduate of Duke], has tentatively volunteered GSO as fiscal agent to receive funds necessary for Classical Voice of New England’s startup; confirmation of this offer is expected on or about May 16. Fred Going, a member of the firm of Worthing and Going in Saco, ME, will assist with the preparation of tax-exempt applications.
 

An Advisory Board has been established; the members are MacLeod; Philip Lauriat, Music Director of the Portsmouth Symphony and the GSO; Beverly Broyles, Executive Director, River Tree Arts; Joseph Mauro, writer and music critic for many Maine seacoast area newspapers; Everett R. Nordstrom, award winning retired fund raising counsel; and Norman Wilkinson, for 27 years a member of the theater department at University of Maine, Orono, and a board member of the Portland Ballet.
 

Other volunteers with affluence or influence in the field of classical music and theater are encouraged to contact Mary Elizabeth Nordstrom at MECN@alumni.middlebury.edu or at 106 Farragut Way #138, Kennebunk, ME.
 

(Posted 4/3/06)

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Triangle Youth Brass Band Wins National Championship
 

Research Triangle Park, NC- April 2, 2006. The Triangle Youth Brass Band won the Youth Division of the North American Brass Band Association (NABBA) Championships. The competitions were hosted by the North American Brass Band Association on April 1st, 2006 in Louisville, KY. This is the fourth time the Youth Band has received the First Place Banner and Trophy. They also won in 2001, 2002 and 2004. Brass bands from around the country participated in 5 divisions. Each band performed a test piece required for their division and other pieces to complete their short concert. The bands were judged by three Internationally-known brass band musicians. The Triangle Youth performed “Petite Suite de Ballet” by Eric Ball and “Roman Carnival Overture” by Hector Berlioz. The Triangle Youth Brass Band was also represented in the Percussion Ensemble and Youth Solo and Ensemble competitions. Their percussion ensemble, made up by Allison Melton, Nanako Tsurumi, Kuntal Shaw and Emily Roman, won first place in the Youth Percussion contest. Martin Warlick (euphonium) placed fourth, Ted Oliver (tuba) placed third, and Terri Williams (cornet) placed second in the Youth Solo contest. The TYBB Tuba Quartet, made up of Steven Hill and Hannah Fernandez on euphoniums and Cameron Watkins and Josh Adams on tubas, placed second in the Youth Ensemble competition, while the TYBB Brass Quintet, made up of Joelle Portzer and Cameron Long on cornets, Jenny Smoak on tenor horn, Anthony Parrish on trombone, Jacob Burgdorf on Tuba, placed first in the Youth Ensemble competition.

The Triangle Youth Brass Band’s next concert will be on May 27 at 8:00 pm at Meymandi Concert Hall in the Progress Energy Center for the Performing Arts in Raleigh. The concert will celebrate America with exciting American music with special guest Trumpet Virtuoso Vince DiMartino, and WRAL’s Greg Fishel.
 

Press release provided by Tony Granados, Director, TYBB.
 

(Posted 4/5/06)

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Asheville Bravo Concerts’ Diamond Jubilee
 

Asheville, NC: Established in 1932, the Asheville Civic Music Association became the Asheville Community Concert Association during the 1961-62 season after forging an alliance with Community Concerts, Inc. They operated under this structure until becoming Asheville Bravo Concerts, Inc., in 1999. As the extension of what was begun in 1932, they lay claim as one of the oldest arts presenting organizations in the mountain region of North Carolina. With a legacy of presenting the best the world has to offer, they combine a brilliant past with ebullient future plans for their 75th anniversary season during 06/07.
 

Here is the schedule:

October 14 New York Gilbert & Sullivan Players: The Pirates of Penzance
January 28 The Cleveland Orchestra, Franz Welser-Möst conducting
February 10 Boys Choir of Harlem
February 24 Moscow Festival Ballet: Sleeping Beauty
April 1 Hungarian State Folk Ensemble
 

All events are in the Thomas Wolfe Auditorium in Asheville, NC, at 7:30 p.m. except for the Hungarian State Folk Ensemble, to be presented at 4:00 pm.
 

The organization is also very involved in the community. Their first outreach effort was in November 1998 when the Asheville Community Concert Association presented the Boys Choir of Harlem. Over 700 complimentary tickets were provided to area youth and families representing those with limited exposure to live performing arts. The following year they sponsored six area performances of the Preservation Hall Jazz Band with New Orleans storyteller John O’Neal in Buncombe County (Asheville area) schools. The Asheville Bravo Concerts Music Education Partnership Program (MEPP) was created during the 2000-01 season; it has reached 5,000 students through 35 on-site programs in 20 schools. The kids have experienced the North Carolina Dance Theatre’s Company Two, the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, Proteus 7, the UNC-Asheville String Quartet and I Musici de Montréal with Yuli Turovsky conducting Tchaikovsky’s Children’s Album.
 

Current complimentary ticket distribution through partner school locations and social service agencies is around 800. MEPP has been supported by the Grassroots Program of the NC Arts Council, Wachovia, CP&L, Janirve, Asheville merchants, Beattie, the Susanne Marcus Collins and Ethel & W. George Kennedy Family Foundations, and individual donors. Local businesses have participated through the “Buy a Row of Tickets!” program, and Target stores have contributed significant resources to help provide tickets for children.
 

ABC is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization. Jan Milin is the current Executive Director, and from the bubble in her voice you can tell their office is buzzing. “We are really very excited about the coming season. Our 75th season will be great. It’s a big deal. Plus! we have the Cleveland Orchestra – again!”

Now longevity or time-in-service is but one measure. Another good measure is how an organization has filled that time. In addition to some legendary concert artists like Yehudi Menuhin, Artur Rubinstein, Isaac Stern, Fritz Kreisler, Marian Anderson, Jascha Heifetz, Jerome Hines, Rudolph Serkin, Van Cliburn, and Beverly Sills, they have presented the Robert Shaw, Fred Waring, and Robert Wagner Chorales and nearly every major orchestra worth talking about. Here is a listing of a few. Note the number of appearances– and some of the conductors!

Berlin Symphony Orchestra
Boston Pops Orchestra – Arthur Fiedler
Budapest Symphony Orchestra – Gyorgy Lehel
Buffalo Philharmonic (2) – William Steinberg and Lukas Foss
Cincinnati Symphony (2) – Eugene Goosens and Thor Johnson
Cleveland Orchestra (6) – Artur Rodzinski, Vladimir Golschmann, Eric Leinsdorf, Claudio Abbado, and Andrew Davis
Dresden State Orchestra
Leningrad Symphony Orchestra – Yuri Temirakov
London Symphony – André Previn
Minneapolis Symphony (2) – Eugene Ormandy and Dimitri Mitropoulos
Moscow Sate Symphony Orchestra – Vladimir Feltsman
New Orleans Philharmonic Orchestra – Arthur Fiedler and Phillipe Entremont
New York Philharmonic – Pierre Boulez
North Carolina Symphony – Benjamin Swalin
National Symphony (4) – Hans Kindler, Howard Mitchell, and Arthur Fiedler
Philadelphia Orchestra (5) – Eugene Ormandy
Pittsburgh Symphony (3) – Leonard Bernstein, Donald Johanos, and Paul Paray
Prague Symphony Orchestra
St. Paul Chamber Orchestra (2)
St Petersburg State Symphony Orchestra
Vienna Symphony
 

Such a lengthy and august listing of major figures and ensembles over the years gets my attention right away. You should ask yourself, “Do I want to be a part of these folks?” The answer seems easy – this Diamond Jubilee season looks very promising!
 

For more information, call 828/225-5887 or visit http://www.ashevillebravoconcerts.org/concerts.html.
 

Roger A. Cope
 

(posted 4/11/06)

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Enloe High School Wins Regional Chorus Trophy — Award of Merit Goes to Leesville Road High School
 

The Chamber Choir of Enloe High School, Raleigh, directed by Ann L. Huff, has won the 2006 Triangle Youth Chorus Trophy. An Award of Merit recognizes another Raleigh ensemble, Leesville Road High School Capital Pride, led by Diane Covington.
 

Established in 2004, the Triangle Youth Chorus Trophy is given each spring to a public school choir in Wake, Durham, Orange or Chatham county. The purpose is to encourage and promote choral singing in the schools, and to recognize the achievements of local youth choruses and music educators. An Advisory Board of educators, conductors, reviewers and choral enthusiasts reviews written material and performances to select the winner. Evaluation is based on musical excellence and other accomplishments – such as the choir’s development, and impact on members, the school and community.
 

The Trophy (photo at www.trianglesings.org/TrophyCompositeSmall.jpg) is an inventive metal sculpture, with 14 choristers on a wood base. It was designed by North Carolina artist Lyle Estill and commissioned by TriangleSings!, the regional choral website. Along with the Trophy, the chorus receives a $750 cash grant, to be used by the director for the choir, its members or the choral music department. Additional goods and services bring the total Trophy award to approximately $1,300. The Award of Merit carries with it a contract for professional recording services.
 

In 2004, the Durham School of the Arts Chorale, led by Scott Hill, became the first Triangle Youth Chorus Trophy recipient. The Sandpipers of Jesse O. Sanderson High School in Raleigh, directed by Marshall E. Butler Jr., won in 2005.
 

This year’s competition is sponsored by Hinshaw Music Company, TriangleSings!, Alice and Lance Buhl Fund of Triangle Community Foundation, Walton Music Corporation, Burrage Music Company, Sally K. Albrecht and Jay Althouse, and Lisa and Tom McIver. In addition, Hinshaw Music is providing a credit to the Enloe Chamber Choir for purchase of music for one year. VoChor, Inc., and recording engineer and photographer Mark Manring are donating professional recordings for the two honored choirs. Further, every 2006 applicant chorus will receive a Master Class from a distinguished conductor, including William Carroll, Lisa Fredenburgh, Fran Page, Lawrence Speakman, Alfred Sturgis and Rodney Wynkoop.

The 2006 Advisory Board members are: Lance Buhl, Buhl & Associates; Beverley Francis, Triangle Community Foundation; Scott Hill, Durham Children’s Choir; Ken Hoover, WCPE “Great Sacred Music”; John Lambert, Classical Voice of North Carolina (CVNC); Lisa McIver, Brightleaf Music Workshop founder; Fran Page, Capital City Girls Choir/Meredith College; Carol Robbins, TriangleSings!/Youth Pro Musica Fund; Al Sturgis, North Carolina Master Chorale/Carolina Ballet; as previous year Trophy recipient, Marshall Butler.
 

The 37-voice Enloe High School Chamber Choir, established in 1982, is part of a choral department at the magnet school that includes five ensembles and almost 180 singers. The Chamber Choir studies and sings a broad, challenging repertoire, performing for many community functions, civic groups, churches and school events throughout the year. Ann Huff became director five years ago.
 

The Enloe and Leesville Road ensembles and three other outstanding applicants – Middle Creek High School (Apex) Choral Ensemble, directed by Michael Gilliam; Apex High School Honors Women’s Chorus, led by Heather Copley; and C.E. Jordan High School (Durham) Falconsong, directed by Joe Lupton – will have their music featured on the 8:00-9:00 AM portion of “Great Sacred Music” on WCPE-FM, Sunday, April 23rd.
 

Marshall Butler and representatives from the Sanderson Sandpipers, last year’s winners, presented the Trophy – a surprise for the group and conductor – on Tuesday morning, April 11th, at 10:20.
 

For further information, contact Carol Robbins at 919/545-0343 or youthpromusica@aol.com.
 

(Thanks to TriangleSings & Youth Pro Musica for this announcement by Carol Robbins.)

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Dorothy Kitchen Named Maxine Swalin 2006 Outstanding Music Educator by NC Symphony
 

“The North Carolina Symphony will present the 2006 Maxine Swalin Outstanding Music Educator Award to Durham resident Dorothy Kitchen on May 21 at the 3 p.m…. Sunday Masterworks Concert in Meymandi Concert Hall… in downtown Raleigh.
 

“The award is presented annually to a North Carolina music teacher who serves the community as a role model in music education, instills a love for music in children and inspires students to reach appropriately high musical standards.
 

“As a co-founder of The Duke University String School in 1966, Dorothy Kitchen has been, as one nominator wrote, ‘a teaching force in the Triangle for 40 years. She has raised hundreds of violin students and hundreds more felt her influence as members of her orchestra at the Duke String School. Living within each of them is the memory of how it feels to create a beautiful sound on the violin, or to be part of an orchestra throbbing to the music of a great composer. This is a tremendous legacy.’
 

“Her many accomplishments also include founding music programs in the Lillington and Durham Public Schools, membership in several local symphony orchestras as principal player, summer teaching at the Ecole Ste. Trinite Camp Musicale in Haiti, being named ‘Teacher of the Year in Music’ by the NC School of the Arts in Winston-Salem, receiving the Durham Arts Council’s ‘Ella Fountain Pratt Lifetime Service to Music,’ and being invited to conduct the Duke University String School Orchestra at the White House.
 

“The Outstanding Music Educator Award honors Maxine Swalin, who together with her husband Dr. Benjamin Swalin, North Carolina Symphony Music Director from 1939-1972, established the children’s concert division of the Symphony in 1945. Largely because of the Swalins’ efforts, Senate Bill No. 248 (also known as ‘The Horn Tootin’ Bill’) passed, providing state fiscal support for the Symphony’s education program. Sixty-one years later, the program still brings live symphonic music to children throughout North Carolina.”
 

From NCS Press Release.
 

(posted 4/22/06)

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