Choral Arts New England presents grant awards to thirteen New England choruses, Lifetime Achievement Award to Dr. Gerald R. Mack

Thirteen New England choruses receive grants totaling $15,500 and a Lifetime Achievement Award is presented to Dr. Gerald R. Mack, former Conductor of the Worcester Chorus, founder of the Great Waters Music Festival, and Professor Emeritus at the Hartt School of Music, at the 30th annual Alfred Nash Patterson awards ceremony, held at 3:00 pm on October 19, 2014, at the First Unitarian Church, 90 Main Street, Worcester, Massachusetts.

This year’s Alfred Nash Patterson Grant recipients (detailed below) are from five New England states: seven from Massachusetts, four from Connecticut, and one each from New Hampshire and Rhode Island. Funded projects include a program in Maine focused on Alzheimer’s, featuring the New England premiere Robert S. Cohen’s Alzheimer’s Stories; the production of a video recording of last year’s performance of a new oratorio about the effects of post-combat stress on a family in Connecticut; a collaborative performance at a Massachusetts choral directors conference of an oratorio based on the diary of Anne Frank; a unique concert of 17th century Italian Baroque music composed in South America; and a performance and recording highlighting neglected works by woman composers. Several grants were for new compositions (at least nine new works in all), and one supports recording an innovative contemporary choral work. Two grants particularly support the inspiration and development of young choral singers through workshops in Rhode Island and a mentoring program in Massachusetts. Choral Arts New England also continued its four-year commitment to support the recording of the important Peterhouse Partbooks of early English church music.

Dr. Gerald R. Mack, 2014 recipient of the Alfred Nash Patterson Lifetime Achievement Award, is a nationally-known conductor, educator, and mentor. He was conductor of the Worcester Chorus in Massachusetts for 28 years (1976–2004), founder and leader for 15 years (1995–2000) of the Great Waters Music Festival in Wolfeboro, NH, and Director of Choral Activities and a faculty member for 27 years (1966–1993) at the Hartt School of Music at the University of Hartford, Connecticut. After retiring to Nantucket, Massachusetts in 1999, he served for six years as Executive Director of the Nantucket Community Music School; he later established the Nantucket Arts Council's highly successful winter concert series, which he still produces. Dr. Mack has conducted choruses at Carnegie Hall, Tully Hall, and many renowned concert halls throughout western Europe and Russia. The Worcester Chorus of Music established the Dr. Gerald R. Mack Scholarship in his name 2010.

The Lifetime Achievement Award is presented annually by Choral Arts New England to individuals who have made exceptional contributions to choral singing and its culture within New England. Previous recipients are E. Wayne Abercrombie, Sonja Dahlgren Pryor, John Oliver, Jameson Marvin, Richard Coffey, David Hoose, Craig Smith, Robert de Cormier, Donald Teeters, Alice Parker, John Bavicchi, Roberta Humez, Mary Whitney Rowe, Blanche Moyse, George Kent, Allen Lannom, Florence Dunn, Daniel Pinkham, Lorna Cooke DeVaron, and Elliot Forbes.

The 2014 recipients of Alfred Nash Patterson Grants are:

• Blue Heron of Auburndale, Mass., to support recording the Peterhouse Partbooks (third year of a multi-year grant);
• Boston City Singers of Boston, Mass., to commission several new works from Jim Papoulis that will be performed at three or more community-based public concerts in spring 2015;
• Cantata Singers of Boston, Mass., to commission Elena Ruehr’s Eve, a 14-minute work based on a text from the book of Genesis, which will be performed on November 8, 2014 at Jordan Hall in Boston;
• Choral Art Society of Portland, Maine, for a program featuring the New England premiere of Robert S. Cohen’s Alzheimer’s Stories on May 9, 2015 in South Portland, Maine;
• The Concord Chorus of Concord, Mass., to commission Michael Schachter’s American Requiem, which incorporates English-language texts from a variety of faiths and cultures and aims to “relate to and hold a dialogue with the moods and texts of standard Requiems,” to be performed in May 2016;
• Crescendo of Lakeville, Conn., for “Italian Baroque in the Jesuit Settlements of South America,” a program of works by Domenico Zipoli (1688–1726) to be performed with period instrument orchestra in churches in Lime Rock, Connecticut and Great Barrington, Massachusetts on November 15–16, 2014;
• Greater Middletown Chorale of Middletown, Conn., to help fund the creation and production of a concert DVD of the 2013 world premiere of Sarah Meneely-Kyder's oratorio, Letter from Italy, 1944 (supported in part by an 2012 Alfred Nash Patterson grant);
• Joyful Noise of Torrington, Conn., for a project to record the Brian Coughlin’s Requiem, a work that includes both traditional texts and music and contemporary texts with “indie rock”-style music played by amplified chamber ensemble;
• MassACDA of Quincy, Mass., to support a performance on July 22, 2014 of James Whitbourn's oratorio Annelies at the MassACDA Summer Conference in Northampton, Massachusetts, with singers from Coro Allegro and Chorus pro Musica;
• The Master Singers of Lexington of Lexington, Mass., for commissions of six new works by composers Benjamin Cohen, Sara Doncaster, Allen Feinstein, Adam Grossman, Grant Hicks, and Rodney Lister, to be performed during the four concerts of the 2014–2015 season;
• Music Worcester/The Worcester Chorus of Worcester, Mass., to support the 2014–15 Festival Singers program, a joint effort with the Worcester Public Schools that enables talented students of Worcester’s South High School to learn, rehearse, and perform Handel’s Messiah in Mechanics Hall as part of the Worcester Chorus;
• New Haven Oratorio Choir of Hamden, Conn., for a performance and recording in May 2015 of a selection of important but neglected works by historical and contemporary women composers;
• RPM Voices of Rhode Island of Providence, RI, in support of the RPM Youth Voices choral program, an intensive 14-day workshop followed by performances of music from black American culture (particularly spirituals and gospel songs), held during the month of July in Providence city parks and at the RPM summer concert in Newport on July 20, 2014.

Admission to the awards ceremony is by invitation. Full details of the awards and further information about Choral Arts New England may be obtained on the Internet at http://www.choralarts-newengland.org or by calling 781-721-7464.