Easton Choral Arts Society celebrates the holiday season with Daniel Pinkham’s Christmas Cantata on Thursday, December 5 at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, December 8 at 4:00 p.m. at Christ Church Easton. Composer and teacher Daniel Pinkham is the winner of numerous awards, including a Fulbright Fellowship and a Ford Foundation Fellowship.

Maestro Wes Lockfaw has chosen Daniel Pinkham’s popular Christmas Cantata to celebrate the Christmas season. He comments, “The brilliance of the brass and organ accompaniment coupled with the complexity of the vocal texture makes this a seasonal treasure too good to be missed.”

Pinkham’s Christmas Cantata (1957) is one of his most popular works, and it reflects his love of early as well as contemporary music. Pinkham manages to be modern, and at the same time imbues his music with a timeless quality through hints of Gregorian chant, and Gabrieli’s polychoral style.

Set for chorus, brass quintet, and organ, the work’s Latin text comes from traditional responses to the Christmas Mass. It is in three parts. The first, “Quem vidistis, pastores?” is adapted from the second chapter of the Gospel of St. Luke. The second movement features an arched melody which is passed antiphonally between the two instrumental choirs, accompanied by a choral line set mostly for women’s voices. The final movement is an extended crescendo of continually shifting tonalities, with verses taken from Psalm 100, alternating with the chorus the angels sang to the shepherds, “Glory to God in the highest, and peace on earth to men of goodwill.”

The chorus will also sing a lovely collection of songs celebrating the birth of Christ. Included will be “This Little Babe” and Deo Grazias” by Benjamin Britten, “In the Bleak Midwinter” by Harold Darke, and the Revels version of “God Rest You Merry, Gentlemen,” arranged by Jeremy Epstein. The songs will be accompanied by harp, flute and classical guitar.

Easton Choral Arts Society, Inc. is a nonprofit 501 (c) (3) organization funded in part by the Maryland State Arts Council, the Talbot County Arts Council and the Mid-Shore Community Foundation. Tickets will be $30 at the door and are available online in advance at $25 at www.eastonchoralarts.org or at Ticket Hotline 410-200-0498.  Students will be admitted free (reservation required). Seating is limited, so advance ticket purchases are recommended.

ECAS was founded in 1977 by organist Florence Ruley of Trinity Episcopal Cathedral, a group of caring singers was organized to commemorate the installation of a new bishop. The experience was so rewarding that they continued with the idea of singing two to three concerts a year. As public appreciation and awareness of the Easton Choral Arts Society was growing within the community, its presence was marked by a new and thoughtful broadening of the repertoire, featuring guest soloists, and professional instrumentalists.

In 2010, Wes Lockfaw became Easton Choral Arts Society’s fifth Artistic Director. A very talented and accomplished organist, pianist, and choral director, Wes has led music ministries in seven states as well as having served as a choral adjudicator, clinician, and piano instructor in a college environment. In January of 2009, he accepted the position of Organist and Music Director at Christ Church Episcopal in Easton, Maryland where he directs ensembles ranging from children to adults.

Thanks to community support, Easton Choral Arts is keeping the spirit of its mission alive — to promote appreciation of fine choral singing, encourage excellence in vocal performance, further musical education and provide personal opportunities for artistic expression.

Prepare to be entertained. As the seasons change, Easton Choral Arts Society will present its fall concert, “A Singable Feast,” on Thursday, October 17 at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, October 20 at 4 p.m. at Christ Church in Easton.  From appetizers and ale to cakes and coffee, this concert will leave patrons hungry, with songs about food from the classics, Broadway and jazz. Featured will be the hilarious PDQ Bach work, The Seasonings, written by Peter Schickele.

According to Penny Hall of Easton Choral Arts Society, The Seasonings, a satirical rendition of Haydn’s oratorio The Seasons is an audience favorite. The four seasons of Haydn’s work are now replaced by seasonings such as tarragon, leeks, sesame, and curry and incorporated into a story about the search for the perfect ingredients for a recipe. The result is a tasty smorgasbord!

In The Seasonings, the chorus is accompanied by an orchestra. Schickele is internationally recognized as one of the most versatile artists in the field of music creating four feature films. The additions of Jacque Offenbach’s, The Recipe may entice patrons to bake a cake, while Coffee in a Cardboard Cup, by the composers of Cabaret, will tickle the funny bone. The concert’s repertoire also includes works by Paul Carey, John Rutter, Allen R. Petker, Greg Gilpin, Kirby Shaw, and Sigmund Romberg.

Easton Choral Arts Society, Inc. is a nonprofit 501 (c) (3) organization funded in part by the Maryland State Arts Council, the Talbot County Arts Council and the Mid-Shore Community Foundation. Tickets will be $30 at the door and are available online in advance at $25 at www.eastonchoralarts.org or at Ticket Hotline 410-200-0498 or by emailing [email protected].  Students will be admitted free (reservation required). Seating is limited, so advance ticket purchases are recommended. Auditions for Easton Choral Arts Society are ongoing and people can get more information on the website eastonchoralarts.org.

ECAS was founded in 1977 by organist Florence Ruley of Trinity Episcopal Cathedral, a group of caring singers was organized to commemorate the installation of a new bishop. The experience was so rewarding that they continued with the idea of singing two to three concerts a year. As public appreciation and awareness of the Easton Choral Arts Society was growing within the community, its presence was marked by a new and thoughtful broadening of the repertoire, featuring guest soloists, and professional instrumentalists.

In 2010, Wes Lockfaw became Easton Choral Arts Society’s fifth Artistic Director. A very talented and accomplished organist, pianist, and choral director, Wes has led music ministries in seven states as well as having served as a choral adjudicator, clinician, and piano instructor in a college environment. In January of 2009, he accepted the position of Organist and Music Director at Christ Church Episcopal in Easton, Maryland where he directs ensembles ranging from children to adults.

Thanks to community support, Easton Choral Arts is keeping the spirit of its mission alive — to promote appreciation of fine choral singing, encourage excellence in vocal performance, further musical education and provide personal opportunities for artistic expression.

If you have a great desire: to sing… to improve your singing quality… to learn new techniques and compositions…  to share your voice with others… and to enjoy the thrill of entertaining…consider becoming a member of Easton Choral Arts Society!

Comprised of members throughout the region, the choral society performs a variety of music ranging from classical compositions to works by living composers. Auditions are scheduled by appointment, and interested singers may contact ECAS through the website EastonChoralArts.org or by email at [email protected]. Rehearsals are held Tuesday evenings 7:00 to 9:00, at Christ Church in Easton.

Inaugurating the new season, Easton Choral Arts will present “A Singable Feast”. From appetizers and ale to cakes and coffee, this concert will leave you hungry, with songs about food from the classics, Broadway and jazz.

For the Christmas season, the chorus will perform “Christmas by Candlelight”. The beautiful music of Christmas and winter presented in a candlelit setting will jump-start the holiday season for you.

Tracing the footsteps of Vienna’s world renown musical heritage, the spring concert will feature the chorus performing music from “The Four Gems of Vienna”, composers Beethoven, Mozart, Haydn and Schubert, all of whom did the bulk of their composing in Vienna.

The Easton Choral Arts Society is supported by grants from the Mid-Shore Community Foundation, the Talbot County Arts Council, and the Maryland State Arts Council.

Easton Choral Arts Society is holding auditions for its upcoming season.

If you have a great desire: to sing… to improve your singing quality… to learn new techniques and compositions…  to share your voice with others… and to enjoy the thrill of entertaining…consider becoming a member of Easton Choral Arts Society!

Comprised of members throughout the Delmarva region, the choral society performs a variety of music ranging from classical compositions to works by living composers. Auditions are scheduled by appointment, and interested singers may contact ECAS through the website EastonChoralArts.org or by email at [email protected]. Rehearsals are held Tuesday evenings 7:00 to 9:00, at Christ Church in Easton beginning late August.

The Easton Choral Arts Society, under the baton of Wes Lockfaw, announces its offerings for the upcoming 2019-2020 season.

Look for a surprising and thrilling concert season as the Society presents a wide span of choral works from a rich array of music, spanning several hundred years up to present times. Inaugurating the new season, Easton Choral Arts will present “A Singable Feast”. From appetizers and ale to cakes and coffee, this concert will leave you hungry, with songs about food from the classics, Broadway and jazz. Featured will be the hilarious PDQ Bach work, “The Seasonings,” written by Peter Schickele and accompanied by an unusual group of instruments. It’s a tongue-in-cheek take-off on Haydn’s oratorio “The Seasons”. Jacque Offenbach’s, “The Recipe” may entice you to bake a cake, while “Coffee in a Cardboard Cup” by the composers of Cabaret will tickle your funny bone.

For the Christmas season, the chorus will perform “A Candlelight Christmas”. The beautiful music of Christmas and winter presented in a candlelit setting will jump-start the holiday season for you. A brass quintet will join Easton Choral Arts for Daniel Pinkham’s exciting Christmas Cantata. An arrangement of “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen” as performed by Boston’s Christmas Revels and more favorites of the season will fill out the program.

Tracing the footsteps of Vienna’s world renown musical heritage, the spring concert will feature the chorus performing music from “The Four Gems of Vienna”, composers Beethoven, Mozart, Haydn and Schubert, all of whom did the bulk of their composing in Vienna. The concert will feature vibrant solos, piano and orchestral numbers and of course stirring choruses from such works as Mozart’s Solemn Vespers, Haydn’s The Creation, Beethoven’s The Mount of Olives, Schubert’s The Omnipotence and more.

Easton Choral Arts is under the direction of Wes Lockfaw, who is also music director at Christ Church in Easton. Mr. Lockfaw, whose choirs were featured in 2014 at Bruton Parish Church in Williamsburg, Va., is also director of the Christ Church Concert Series and the Dean of the Mid-Shore Maryland Chapter of the American Guild of Organists.

The Easton Choral Arts Society is supported by grants from the Mid-Shore Community Foundation, the Talbot County Arts Council, and the Maryland State Arts Council.

On Friday, April 26 at 7:30 p.m. and on Sunday, April 28 at 4:00 p.m. at Christ Church Easton. The spring program, “Songs from the Heart,” will include the 21st-century choral piece, “For A Breath of Ecstasy” by Michael John Trotta, as well as an array of popular love songs. “For A Breath of Ecstasy” is a seven-movement work for chorus, strings, and oboe that is based on poetry by Pulitzer Prize-winning American poet Sara Teasdale. Her poems reflect a woman grateful for the affection she has received. The work, using lyrics from poet Sara Teasdale’s anthology Love Songs, was commissioned in 2017 by Northwestern State University to celebrate the centennial of Teasdale winning the Pulitzer Prize in Poetry in 1918. Accompanied by piano, oboe, and strings, Trotta’s music represents, in his words, “moments of yearning, love, joy, and peace in the contemplation of love and nature.” Fueled by a passion to share new music that engages conductors, ensembles, and audiences alike, Michael John Trotta (b.1978) is fast becoming one of the most “exciting and prominent new composers of choral music.”

To complete the program, Easton Choral Arts Society will sing beautiful and clever arrangements of songs about the different aspects of love. Come hear music from Broadway musicals, movies, jazz and popular music, such as “Till There Was You” from The Music Man, “Unchained Melody” featured in the movie Ghost, Leroy Anderson’s “Blue Tango” and more.

Maestro Wes Lockfaw, who directs the chorus, states, “This concert, featuring a choral work by the extraordinary composer Michael John Trotta, is sure to please audiences. His musical interpretations give breadth and depth to the written word. The lyrical verses of Teasdale’s poetry prompted him to create equally lyrical musical responses. The rest of our concert builds on these beguiling love songs.”

Christ Church Easton is located at 111 South Harrison Street in Easton, MD. Easton Choral Arts Society, Inc. is a nonprofit 501 (c) (3) organization funded in part by the Maryland State Arts Council, the Talbot County Arts Council and the Mid-Shore Community Foundation. Tickets will be $30 at the door and are available online in advance at $25 at www.eastonchoralarts.org or at Ticket Hotline 410-200-0498.  Students will be admitted free (reservation required). Seating is limited, so advance ticket purchases are recommended.

ECAS was founded in 1977 by organist Florence Ruley of Trinity Episcopal Cathedral, a group of caring singers was organized to commemorate the installation of a new bishop. The experience was so rewarding that they continued with the idea of singing two to three concerts a year. As public appreciation and awareness of the Easton Choral Arts Society were growing within the community. Its presence was marked by a new and thoughtful broadening of the repertoire, featuring guest soloists, and professional instrumentalists.

In 2010, Wes Lockfaw became Easton Choral Arts Society’s fifth Artistic Director. A very talented and accomplished organist, pianist, and choral director, Wes has led music ministries in seven states as well as having served as a choral adjudicator, clinician, and piano instructor in a college environment. In January of 2009, he accepted the position of Organist and Music Director at Christ Church Episcopal in Easton, Maryland where he directs ensembles ranging from children to adults.

Thanks to community support, Easton Choral Arts is keeping the spirit of its mission alive — to bring great choral masterworks programs to audiences of all ages on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. 

Eight high school choral ensembles took the stage on Saturday, March 2 to compete for a total of $5000 in prize monies at the Second Annual Easton Choral Arts Society (ECAS) High School Choral Competition at Easton High School in Easton, MD. The Competition was designed by ECAS to be an outreach to the youth of the region to instill the life-long pursuit of choral music – both as performers and as consumers.

This year’s First Place Winner ($2500) was Reservoir High School Chamber Choir; Second Place Winner ($1500) was Bel Air High School Counterpoints; and Third Place Winner ($1000) was Liberty High School Chorale. The prize monies are designated to benefit the choral music program in each recipient’s school. The winners also received trophy plaques, funded by Dr. Robert and Mrs. Cris Doughty, who were underwriters of both years of the Competition. The permanent trophy plaque and plaques given to the winners were designed in collaboration with Awards Engraving in Denton and crafted by McMartin & Beggins, Furniture Craftsmen in Wittman.

The ensembles were judged by three judges, including Dr. Richard J. Giarusso of the Peabody Conservatory, the Johns Hopkins University, Chair of the Department of Musicology, Music Director – Georgetown Chorale, and Artistic Director – Voce Chamber Singers; Stephen Holmes, Towson University Lecturer and Interim Director of Choirs at Towson University and Artistic Director, Maryland State Boychoir; and Mrs. Phyllis Oldham, retired high school director, frequent adjudicator of the Eastern Shore Choral Festival, director of Salisbury Chamber Singers and Choir Director at Trinity UMC in Salisbury. The judges noted that the winning choral ensemble, Reservoir High School Chamber Choir, performed “Brilliant work!! This is collegiate repertoire with a collegiate sound!”

The Mission of the Easton Choral Arts Society is to bring great choral masterworks programs to audiences on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. The organization’s vision is to contribute to the cultural life of the community by providing a volunteer organization to local singers who are committed to the challenge of choral music repertoire study and quality public performance. Easton Choral Arts Society believes in the power of music and its ability to meaningfully contribute to a rich and satisfying life experience for mature and young people alike. Learn more about ECAS at eastonchoralarts.com.

Eight high school choral ensembles will take the stage on Saturday, March 2, 2019 from 1 to 5 p.m. to compete for a total of $5000 in prize monies at the Second Annual Easton Choral Arts Society (ECAS) High School Choral Competition at Easton High School in Easton, MD. The Competition was designed by ECAS to be an outreach to the youth of the region to instill the life-long pursuit of choral music – both as performers and as consumers. The eight finalists at this year’s Competition are Arundel High School, Bel Air High School, Edgewood High School, Kent Island High School, Liberty High School, Severn School, Queen Anne’s County High School, and Reservoir High School.

Eight high school choral ensembles will take the stage on Saturday, March 2, 2019 from 1 to 5 p.m. to compete for a total of $5000 in prize monies at the Second Annual Easton Choral Arts Society (ECAS) High School Choral Competition at Easton High School in Easton, MD. The Competition was designed by ECAS to be an outreach to the youth of the region to instill the life-long pursuit of choral music – both as performers and as consumers.

According to Carolyn Harrison, this year’s ECAS Competition Administrator, “We reach out to the youth of today hoping that they will continue to perform and enjoy listening to quality choral works as they move through life.”

The Competition is open to public and private high school ensembles, comprised of a minimum of 12 singers, within an approximate 150-mile radius of Easton. The eight choral ensembles were selected through a blind audition process by a screening committee of ECAS. Each ensemble will perform three selections from different major musical periods, such as the Renaissance, Baroque, Classical, or 20th Century periods, to demonstrate the group’s versatility.  The eight finalists at this year’s Competition are Arundel High School, Bel Air High School, Edgewood High School, Kent Island High School, Liberty High School, Severn School, Queen Anne’s County High School, and Reservoir High School.

According to Wes Lockfaw, Artistic Director of the Easton Choral Arts Society, “This year’s Competition will feature in one location eight accomplished high school choirs who will exhibit some of the finest choral work among high schools in the Mid-Atlantic region.  We are very pleased to be able to present such a complement of young choral and vocal talent to Talbot County, and we are extremely proud to be able to showcase and invest in both their work and the work of their directors.”

The Competition will begin at 1 p.m. with the performance of the first choral group. The final chorus will perform at 3:40 p.m. The ensembles will be judged by three judges. Results of the Competition will be announced at approximately 5 p.m. and checks will be issued at that time. The prize monies are designated to benefit the choral music program in each recipient’s school.  The ensemble that is judged the best based on their performance that day will receive a check for $2,500.00. The second place ensemble will take home $1,500.00 and the third place ensemble will be awarded $1,000.00. Donations from generous supporters of the Easton Choral Arts Society are making the Competition possible.

Last year’s Competition winners: Arundel High School – Anne Arundel County, MD (First Prize Winner), Tower Hill School – New Castle County, DE (Second Place Winner), and Liberty High School – Carroll County, MD (Third Place Winner) each used their winnings to help their school’s choral arts programs. Purchases included building up a school’s choral library, new music folders, new sight singing books, new file cabinets, and new risers to benefit their choral arts programs.

Andi Brumbach, Director of Choral Music at Arundel High School, commented, “ECAS is a true choral competition where choirs from virtually anywhere can come together to share their music, which also gives my choir students a chance to hear other choirs as well.  I like also that ECAS focuses on the traditional music time periods, Renaissance, Baroque, Classic Era, Romantic Era, 20th Century, and Contemporary.  ECAS also encourages singing in foreign languages which is central to choral traditions and performance practice.”

Dick Doughty, President of ECAS, added, “This is a fun day for all. Audience members enjoy staying through the entire process to see who wins. You get attached to the ensembles and root for them as the Competition proceeds. We were thrilled with the quality of the performances last year and look forward to this year’s group.”

Audience tickets for the Competition may be purchased for $10 on the ECAS website eastonchoralarts.org or at the door. Students are admitted free of charge. Easton High School is located at 723 Mecklenburg Avenue, Easton, MD 21601. For further information regarding the Choral Competition, please contact the ECAS Choral Competition Administrator, Carolyn Harrison, at:  [email protected]

The Mission of the Easton Choral Arts Society is to bring great choral masterworks programs to audiences of all ages on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. The organization’s vision is to contribute to the cultural life of the community by providing a volunteer organization to local singers of all ages who are committed to the challenge of choral music repertoire study and quality public performance. Easton Choral Arts Society believes in the power of music and its ability to meaningfully contribute to a rich and satisfying life experience for mature and young people alike. Learn more about ECAS at eastonchoralarts.com.