June 2002 Newsletter

June, 2002 Volume 14 Number 4

Letter from the President

Kaere Bach venner

Here we are again at the end of another season. The fact that it was very successful is thanks to many people, the first one to thank is J.S.Bach himself. He is the reason for it all.

The dedicated choristers who work weekly with Janet Youngdahl. Practices which are made all the more joyful with our intermission coffee/tea and SUPER goodies.Our 'houseband' with its leader Jeffrey Plotnick.

Janet who, at concert times, combines these two entities.

You, the members of the Society and the public at large who come to hear the results of our labour and, I have said it before, without whom we would not be where we are.

Our volunteers, including many choirmembers, who came to lend a hand when asked.

The board of the C.B.F.S.whose members put out a great deal of time and effort to enable the whole operation to run smoothly.

A mighty thank you to you all.

This past season also saw a significant increase in our attendance numbers as well as in our actual membership.

Come September we will be entering our 15th. season!!!!

It will start with the Marathon which this year will be held at Emmanuel Christian Reformed Church. 3020 51st Street S.W.

The reason is that this church is the proud owner of a two manual electro-pneumatic tracker action organ built by Adrian Koppejan. It was installed in 1980.

As near ideal as St. Matthew's United church is the organ there is not a Baroque type intrument and many of our participants in the Marathon prefer to play on a tracker action organ.

As we still have a board meeting this June and all the i’s are not quite dotted in regards to the upcoming season we ask you to be patient till the September newsletter when all will be revealed.

Till then when I hope to see you all again, stay well, go well and above all enjoy your "summer" time.

Profile - Christina Jahn and Paul Grinlay

by Anna Carnell

Christina Jahn and Paul Grindlay, soloists in the upcoming CBFS season, are one half of the two husband and wife teams that form the basis of Voicescapes, an unconducted, self-directed Calgary musical group. Julie Harris and Jerald Fast make up the other half. Entering its third year, the group performs everything from Madrigals and Lieder to Oratorio and contemporary music, inviting various members of the musical community to participate as the repertoire requires. On September 11, 2002 they will be performing a Memorial with music by William Jordan commissioned by the University of Calgary. In the same month, on September 21 they’ll be performing an English Madrigal program at Christ Church Elbow Park in Calgary, and at the University of Alberta in Edmonton on September 22.

Voicescapes has a growing audience and has recorded projects with the CBC, including the upcoming Stabat Mater by Pergolesi, featuring Jahn. They’d like to see Voicescapes expand their audience, continue collaborations with local and national musicians and introduce young musicians to these unique projects.

Christina is thrilled to be singing with her husband and excited to be singing in German with the Calgary Bach Festival Choir. She grew up speaking German, achieved her Masters in German Literature in Vancouver, and sang with a Chamber Choir in Germany. She has also sung with the Vancouver Cantata Singers and Tafelmusik in Toronto. As well as performer, she is the engine behind Voicescapes, overseeing creative, promotional and administrative functions. It’s not the first group she’s organized. Musica Intima was a similar initiative out of Vancouver as was Ad Libitum in Calgary. She likes to think of these projects as a musical cooperative and loves the process of working with other musicians. A recent inspiration was Ivars Taurins of Tafelmusik, a superb craftsman, who shapes every note and phrase achieving through painstaking effort a fluid, natural, seemingly effortless sound. Says Christina, “it’s like polishing a diamond.”

Paul came to classical music from an interest in rhythm and blues. Asked to supplement the tenor section in the Vancouver Anglican choir his brother was conducting, he quickly recognized first, that he was no tenor, and second, that he would pursue a career in music, after which he achieved his Bachelor of Music from the University of British Columbia. Recent inspiration includes the St. Matthew Passion with Tafelmusik, based on the Andrew Parrott?s controversial premise that the ‘Essential Bach Choir’ (see Parrott?s book) is, in fact, one voice per part. He worked recently at the Banff Centre with John Estacio on a new opera, Filomena and sang in Calgary Opera’s Marriage of Figaro. He’ll be touring Figaro with Opera Atelier in Toronto, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan this coming year. Paul is a regular at the Carmel Bach Festival where he first met David Gordon, a significant influence, who heightened Paul’s appreciation for the timelessness and richness of Bach’s music and the depth of dramatic and expressive levels in Bach’s texts.

These two musicians will be joining the Calgary Bach Festival Choir in March performing J. C. Bach’s Gloria. Like Bach, like many of you, they live for and love making music.

Profile - Greer Reinhart

by Anna Carnell

Greer Reinhart, soprano with the Calgary Bach Festival Choir for two years, joined at a time which was for her, and for the Society, a peak presentation, the St. Matthew Passion. She was thrilled to be a part of such an ambitious project and looks forward to doing more of the big works, including the B Minor Mass.

A music teacher with the Calgary Catholic Board at St. Peter’s Elementary, she wishes, above all, to make music more accessible to everyone, not just an educated elite. When her young students ‘find their singing voice’ and are asked to assist in coaching other students, there is no greater reward for them, or for Greer.

She teaches Kindergarten to Grade 6 in what is primarily a singing based program incorporating recorders and other instruments as well. Her students are hungry for performance groups, and the Broken Consort and the Boys Choir have fascinated and engaged the whole school. Her students are working currently on Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring, one of the first Bach melodies Greer remembers recognizing both the title and melody of as a young child.

Her mother sang in a French Choir and listened constantly to CBC stereo. It was natural for Greer to develop an interest in music and she began piano lessons at age 8, concurrently with ballet. She realized by junior high that she preferred music to movement. Theory, and harmony supplemented piano lessons through high school. Greer earned her B. Mus. and B. Ed. at the University of Calgary and supplemented her studies with a Diploma in Fine Arts, specializing in Kodaly. She appreciates the discipline and tools the Kodaly philosophy offers her as a teacher and performer. She stresses with parents, however, the importance of separating the tools (solfage and rhythm syllables) with the philosophy, to learn music through ‘your musical mother tongue’, our musical folk heritage and musical culture.

A mother of 5, with children currently between 7 and 17, she has taught piano lessons and organized a day home, but prefers teaching music in school. Three of her own children play strings and a fourth is interested in piano.

Greer has brought music into the lives of many students and feels amply rewarded just to be singing with the Calgary Bach Festival Society. “It’s exciting to be working with these amazing people who do music just for the love of it.” The caliber and the challenge is her inspiration, the music of Bach, the reward.

Editor's Website Picks

Interested in contacting other choral groups in Calgary? You will find the Calgary Region Arts Foundation client list at http://www.craf.org/clients4.htmlThe Academy of Ancient Music at http://www.aam.co.uk/ has program notes on works and shows pictures of artists, such as Bach. To find these, click on News and Features.A little embarrassed that you don’t know some musical term like appoggiatura? You won’t be if you check out the Glossary page of the Bach Choir of Bethlehem at http://www.bach.org/bach101/suites/glossary.htmlThe Denton Bach Socety revisits Bach’s first Leipzig Christmas at http://www.dentonbach.com/archive/magnificat9.htm where you can find program notes, commentaries, pictures and the full texts of the Magnificat in Latin and English.Don’t forget our own http://www.bachcalgary.org with newsletters back to September 2000, pictures of the choir and orchestra and profiles of our conductors.

Membership Information

The Calgary Bach Festival Society has a large library of cantatas which can be rented. If interested, please contact us at 282-8525 or e-mail Bill Zdep tcprint@cadvision.com.

Volunteers are welcome and needed for several positions and projects. If interested, please contact us at 282-8525 or e-mail Bill Zdep tcprint@cadvision.com.