Chorale preparing for landmark concert

ROME >> The Oneida Area Civic Chorale will present its 50th Anniversary Spring Concert on Sunday, June 4 at 4 p.m. at the First Presbyterian Church of Rome, 108 W. Court St.

The concert by the 105-voice non-auditioned community chorus is the final event in a special 50th Anniversary Season weekend featuring world renowned composer, pianist and conductor Mark Hayes. The concert will be under the direction of Kimberly Nethaway of Rome, with piano accompaniment by Bernadette Van Valkenburg of Sherrill, and Colleen Pellman and Samuel Pellman of Clinton.

In addition to performing in the concert, Hayes will conduct a 55-voice ecumenical community choir during the Sunday 10 a.m. worship service at the church. Pastor Sam Pendergrast of the First Presbyterian Church of Rome will conduct the service, which will be open to the public.

Hayes, of Kansas City, Mo., is an award-winning concert pianist, composer, arranger and conductor. His personal catalog, totaling more than 1,000 published works, includes work for solo voice, solo piano, multiple pianos, orchestra, jazz combo, small instrumental ensembles, and choruses of all kinds. Hayes received a bachelor of music degree in piano performance from Baylor University in 1975. In 2010, Baylor University Center for Christian Music Studies honored him with the Award for Exemplary Leadership in Christian Music. He arranged and orchestrated the music for Civil War Voices, which won six awards including “Best Musical” in the 2010 Midtown International Theatre Festival in New York. Hayes conducted the world premiere of his work for chorus, orchestra and narrator, The American Spirit, at Lincoln Center in May 2011 and the world premiere of his Requiem in Lincoln Center in May 2013. In 2010 he released his first CD of original songs titled “All Is Well.”

At the Sunday worship service, Hayes will conduct the choir on four numbers, including “Spirit, Come Down” and “Namaste,” words and music by Mark Hayes, “And the Father Will Dance,” music and arrangement by Mark Hayes, and “On Eagle’s Wings,” words and music by Michael Joncas, arrangement by Mark Hayes.

The program for the 50th Anniversary Spring Concert will include a variety of numbers that have been performed by the chorale at some point in its 50 year

history. Hayes will conduct six of his pieces, including his arrangement of Gershwin’s “I Got Rhythm,” a rock version of the traditional “This Little Light of Mine,” his arrangement of “Hark, I Hear the Harps Eternal,” a traditional American hymn featuring a four-hand piano accompaniment played by Colleen and Samuel Pellman, and an original sacred piece, “Cantate Domino.” He will also conduct his arrangement of “The Erie Canal,” a swing version of the American folk song, and “Music Makes Me Feel Alive,” an energetic original composition. Hayes will also accompany the chorale on his arrangement of traditional spirituals, “Swingin’ With the Saints,” and perform piano solos of two original compositions.

The concert will begin with “Sing We and Chant It,” performed by TheMad- rigal Ensemble of the chorale. Other pieces in the concert will include two chorale- commissioned works, “Give MeMusic,” by Amy F. Bernon, which was written in 2012, and “How Can I Keep from Singing” composed by Samuel Pellman in 2015. The latter includes a four-hand piano accompaniment which will be played by the Pellmans.

The group will also perform Handel’s “Hallelujah, Amen,” conducted by special guest Daryl Wonderly, founding director of the OACC, who conducted the group on this number at its first spring concert in 1968. Wonderly, who retired as chorale director in 1995, now lives in Tucson, Ariz.

Tickets for the concert are $10, available fromchorale members, at W.J. Hinman Jewelers in Oneida, by calling Beth at 315-6553007, and the Rome Presbyterian Church office at 315-336-1380. The church is handicapped-accessible. For more information, call 315-761-9701 or visit www. oneidachorale.org.

Hayes