Pinedale’s 40-Voice Festival Choir Goes Virtual
by Pinedale Festival Choir
Original post April 28, 2020, Updated May 9, 2020
Pinedale Festival Choir (PFC) takes its music to the internet for Wyoming’s first-ever virtual choral festival streaming online May 16 & 17, 2020. Pinedale singers join half a dozen vocal ensembles from Teton, Lincoln and Sublette Counties: Cathedral Voices, Pinedale Festival Choir, Petrichoral, Salt River Chamber Chorus, Treble Voices and Voices 8. What was going to be an extraordinary three days of music for the 3rd biennial Spring Festival conceived and directed by Cathedral Voices Artistic Director, Laura Huckin, will now be presented in a purely digital format, streaming online from Jackson’s Center for the Arts.
PFC Manager, Kim Buchanan, has auditioned and performed in 3 national virtual choirs including Eric Whitacre’s virtual choir in LA and says "it’s not the same as singing with everyone but still so much fun! I am so grateful to Cathedral Voices Artistic Director, Laura Huckin, for creating this wonderful opportunity for all of us instead of cancelling completely."
Pinedale choirs under the direction of Conductor, Greg Allen, have singers from age 11 to 76 and include many family groups which make singing together for rehearsals on Sunday afternoons especially meaningful. Members include 14 students from Pinedale and Big Piney school choirs as well as the student ensemble Petrichoral. Local pianists JJ Huntley and HS Junior Landon Preece worked tirelessly as rehearsal accompanists as well as learning their choral parts.
Singers are watching virtual rehearsals and participating in Zoom sessions to prepare their individual parts. Laura Huckin alongside guest conductor Dr. Geoffrey Boers from the University of Washington has crafted technique videos and direct online master classes. Dr. Boers adds "the heroic efforts by these choirs to come together to share their music, will be an inspiration to the community". Seventy videos will be combined by Jackson’s Center for the Arts to create the online virtual performance for all to hear and see.
Pinedale Festival Choir Artistic Director, Valerie Lee says, "Don’t miss the LIVE STREAM featuring Wyoming’s first-ever virtual choral festival on Saturday, May 16 at 6PM and Sunday, May 17 at 4PM." The links and schedule can be found online at cathedralvoices.org.
Nearly 70 singers from Pinedale, Jackson Hole and Star Valley have rehearsed, recorded and submitted their videos. The Festival choir will be joined by acclaimed conductors and musicians from California, Minnesota, South Carolina, Washington and Wyoming for roundtable discussions and interviews before and after the virtual choir premiere.
Support for the Spring Festival includes Jackson’s Center for the Arts, the Wyoming Cultural Trust Fund, a grant from the Wyoming Arts Council, the National Endowment for the Arts, Center of Wonder/Town and County Arts for All, Cathedral Voices’ Business Partners and Season Sponsors and Sublette County School District #1.
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