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SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. » The 17th annual Saratoga Choral Festival is featuring music for dance in a collaborative program at the National Museum of Dance.
A local tradition since 2001, this year’s festival will take place at 3 p.m. on Sunday in the dance studio of the museum, located at 99 S. Broadway in Saratoga Springs. The concert is free of charge for all attendees.
The event will celebrate the exuberance of dance, with a program including excerpts from Brahms Gypsy Songs, a ballet by Monteverdi, the Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy, classical and graceful waltzes to AfroCuban cadences and jazzy modern standards, along with choral arrangements of popular favorites from the movies and theater such as “Singing in the Rain” and more.
New this year will be a choir of 10 all professional singers in the ensemble, accompanied by a new professional chamber ensemble under the direction of pianist and conductor Noah Palmer.
Another new aspect of the festival this year is the venue. This summer perfor- mance is a collaborative proj- ect between the museum and the choir to bring in new audiences for both organizations. The event is organized by the festival in cooperation with the National Museum of Dance.
To honor this new partnership, the 2017 festival is celebrating music written to accompany dance.
Since founded by director Andrea Goodman in 2001, the chorus has performed with the Philadelphia Orchestra in Mahler’s 3rd Symphony with the Harlem Boys Choir at Saratoga Performing Arts Center, with Charles Dutoit conducting.
Previous seasons have featured music ranging from Bach’s Magnificat with members of the Philadelphia Orchestra and Gretchaninov’s Liturgia Domestica to performances of the music of Karl Jenkins, Dave Brubeck, Leonard Bernstein, Aaron Copland and a 2016 special anniversary concert for children in the Spa Little Theater, the summer home of Opera Saratoga and the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center in the Saratoga Spa State Park.
What Goodman is most looking forward to about this weekend’s upcoming festival is the diverse program. “The music is wonderful, and there are some nice surprises in there,” she said. “It’s greatest hits and some Cuban music as well as movie music, it’s not just classical.”
In addition to serving as the artistic director for the Saratoga Choral Festival Goodman is currently the Director of the Cantilena Chamber Choir in Western Massachusetts, and former director of choruses at Skidmore College.
Sunday’s concert is sponsored by the Cohoes Savings Foundation, Adirondack Trust, Stewarts, and the Rotary Club of Saratoga Springs.
More information about the Saratoga Choral Festival is available at www.saratogachoralfest.org.