Posted: 1/27/05
PHS choir selected for honor of performing at state music event
By Joel Stottrup
Princeton High School choir director Mark Potvin will have his turn this year to be one of the proud music educators attending the annual Minnesota Music Educators Association convention next month in Minneapolis.
The reason is because the PHS concert choir he directs has been chosen one of three public high school choirs in Minnesota to perform at the convention on Feb. 17 at 3:30 p.m. at Central Lutheran Church in Minneapolis.
"This is an enormous honor for the choir, our school and the community at large," Potvin said last week.
The MMEA is the primary professional organization of music teachers in the state is also the local branch of the Music Educators National Conference.
Last May music educators from across the state submitted ensemble recordings to the MMEA board of directors for consideration to perform at the 2005 annual MMEA convention.
As a result the PHS concert choir was one of three chosen.
The concert choir is a curricular ensemble consisting of 44 students in grades 10 through 12 who are selected by auditions. The choir meets daily for 65 minutes.
Programs for the concert choir are primarily a cappella (unaccompanied) music encompassing a wide variety of works by Carl Mueller, Norman Luboff, Josquin des Pres, Johannes Pachelbel, and Andre Thomas, among others.
The cornerstone of the concert program is a Gaelic dance entitled "Bionn Siulach Schelach."
The piece was commissioned by director Potvin and written specifically for the choir by composer Matthew Erpelding of Rockford, Ill.
Viva Voce to sing with area chorale
Viva Voce, the upper class women's chorus at Princeton High School, has been asked to sing in concert with the East Central Minnesota Chorale under the direction of David Clarke.
The concert will be Sunday, Feb. 13 at 7:30 p.m. at Cambridge-Isanti High School and will be a benefit for the chorale's scholarship fund. A freewill offering will be taken that evening and placed in the fund's endowment.
The choirs will perform "Mass of the Children," a 45-minute work written by world-renowned composer and conductor, John Rutter.
Viva Voce will join the Cambridge-Isanti Treble Choir in singing the part of the children's chorus, with the chorale providing the voices for the adult chorus and featured baritone and soprano soloists.
A chamber orchestra comprised of musicians from around the area will accompany the massed choirs. Viva Voce and the treble choir will also perform a set of their other concert literature.
The chorale plans to award a scholarship to a student from one of the high schools in the area who has excelled in musical achievement. The student may be currently enrolled in high school or has recently graduated.
PHS graduate and chorale alumnus, Charlie Moe, a first-year student at Luther College in Decorah, Iowa, will be a recipient of a $500 chorale scholarship on Feb. 13, according to Potvin.
Princeton Union-Eagle
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Princeton, MN 55371
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