Students from St. Mary’s Academy and Hoosick Falls Central School will make their debut appearance with the Battenkill Chorale on Saturday, May 17, at 8 pm and Sunday, May 18, at 4 pm at the Immaculate Conception Church in Hoosick Falls. The Battenkill Chorale will conclude its nineteenth season with these performances entitled “Freedom!” a choral tribute to Nelson Mandela, plus music of Argentina. Tickets cost $15 and can be reserved by calling 518-692-7458 or emailing jen.braucher@gmail.com.
The program includes South African and Civil Rights Movement freedom songs, the South African National Anthem, music of peace and justice from the traditional choral repertoire and featured work Misa Criolla by Argentinian composer Ariel Ramirez, with an Andean folk ensemble and soloists Gene Marie Callahan and Susan Hermance Fedak. Additional performers include vocalist Leah Carroll and bagpiper Allyson Crowley-Duncan. Both Callahan and Fedak are award winning singers with extensive experience singing opera, oratorio and recital work throughout the Capital District and Northeast.
The Hoosick Falls Junior/Senior High School Mixed Choir will be directed by Ambigay Yudkoff, who is South African. Students from St. Mary’s Academy, performing May 18 only, will be directed by Jill Chadwick, Director of Music and Art. In addition to singing songs from the Civil Rights movement, the students will join the Battenkill Chorale for the grand finale, “Hope for Resolution,” written for Nelson Mandela and F.W. de Klerk.
Photographic work by Bob Burgess will be for sale at both concerts with all proceeds going to the HAYC3 Youth Center in Hoosick Falls.