Chorus America Conference 2012

The Bach Choir of Bethlehem – Greg Funfgeld, Artistic Director and Conductor

INTEGRATING MISSION-BASED EDUCATIONAL OUTREACH PROGRAMS

Mission Statement

The Mission of The Bach Choir of Bethlehem is to perform the works of Johann Sebastian Bach, to promote and encourage appreciation of the aesthetic and spiritual value of Bach’s music through education and performance, including performances of works by composers who influenced Bach or were influenced by him, and to strive for the highest standards of musical excellence.

OVERVIEW:

In 2012-13, The Bach Choir will continue and further strengthen a multi-faceted educational outreach program that gives access to and experience with choral and orchestral music by Bach and other composers for adults, children, and inter-generational groups. The program has evolved to reach diverse new audiences through community partnerships and interdisciplinary collaborations. Interconnected facets of the program include Bach to School, Family Concerts, Bach at Noon, a Young Composers Competition, a Choral Scholars program, and a Bach Vocal Competition for Young American Singers.

BACH TO SCHOOL: This innovative educational outreach program was launched in 1993 and has now been presented for more than 90,000 children. Each year Bach to School presents eight school assembly programs (each lasting approximately one hour), provided for no fee to school districts throughout the Lehigh Valley and the surrounding region. The programs involve lively interaction with conductor Greg Funfgeld and an ensemble of approximately 30 singers and 15 instrumentalists. Repertoire includes excerpts from J.S. Bach’s motet Singet dem Herrn, Mass in B Minor, Orchestral Suite in B Minor, Cantatas 147 & 129, Flute Sonatas, Sinfonia from Cantata 156 and a Swingle arrangement of a chorale from Cantata 140. The heart of the program is the section where The “Gloria” from the Mass in B Minor is taken apart voice by voice and instrument by instrument, then put back together again to demonstrate the genius of Bach’s fugal writing. Mr. Funfgeld helps children to see the parallels between music, academics, sports and their own personal lives by talking about the emotions and creativity of the music, the fruits of practice, and the joy of working together on something that you love.

In-school Preparation: Students are prepared for the assembly programs through classroom lessons taught with enthusiastic involvement of school music teachers who have been given in-service training sessions and resource materials by members of The Choir. The Bethlehem School District (3rd grade) and Allentown School District (5th grade) are involved every year and have built this program into the curriculum. Other schools districts are rotated and confirmed each August. Lesson plans for Elementary, Middle and High School can be found on our website www.bach.org. Resource materials also include a DVD of Mr. Bach Comes to Call, a film produced by The Bach Choir in partnership with Classical Kids, Touchstone Theatre and GreenTreks Network. The film was aired nationwide on PBS in 2007-08 and is distributed by The Children’s Group.

Follow-up includes two free tickets for our Family Concert or another Bach Choir concert offered to each student participating in Bach to School. Special features in recent years have included lecture demonstrations in the schools by the resident guest artists at our annual Bethlehem Bach Festival in May. These have included Eliot Fisk, guitar, performing solo and with the Bach Festival Orchestra, the Taylor 2 Dance Company, and in 2013 will include the Rioult Dance Company in an all-Bach program with the Bach Festival orchestra. Interdisciplinary follow-up projects have included student poetry and visual art projects inspired by listening to the music of Bach and later featured in our Family Concerts.

FAMILY CONCERTS: Initiated in 2000, the purpose of this program was to nurture the enthusiasm of students participating in Bach to School by providing an annual concert where students could participate and/or attend with family and friends. The interdisciplinary concerts include engaging educational elements. Greg Funfgeld conducts the full Bach Choir and Bach Festival Orchestra and collaborates with professional and student guest artists including singers, instrumentalists, dancers, choreographers, actors, visual artists and poets. The most recent Family Concert in February 2012 was Dancing with Bach – Baroque, Blue, & Brilliant featuring the Muhlenberg College dancers and the dance program of the Lehigh Valley Charter High School for the Performing Arts. In 2012-13 The Bach Choir will hold its second Young Composers Competition. The winning choral compositions created by Lehigh Valley composers in grades 3-12 and college, will be featured in our February 2013 Family Concert as was done very successfully in 2010. “The talented youthful musicians were definitely the highlight at the Bach Choir’s engaging Family Concert --despite the illustrious company of Bach and Mozart, the local composers still shone.” – The Morning Call.

BACH AT NOON is a free concert series in Central Moravian Church, where The Bach Choir gave the first complete performance of Bach’s Mass in B Minor in America in 1900. It was designed as a community development initiative inspired by the enthusiastic response of people attending the Family Concerts when they experienced Greg Funfgeld not only as a conductor but as a teacher. Initiated in 2005, the series now includes seven concerts a year. Each concert features members of The Bach Choir and Bach Festival Orchestra and guest soloists performing one Bach cantata and one of Bach’s instrumental works, sometimes augmented with works by other composers. Mr. Funfgeld introduces each program with an informal talk about the music. An ensemble of 30-50 Bach Choir members participates and orchestra members and soloists travel from Philadelphia, New York, Washington and beyond because the quality of the music making and response from the community are so uplifting. The success of the series has continued to be phenomenal with crowds of close to 1,000 people at each concert --an overwhelming affirmation of what The Bach Choir means to our community. The diverse audience includes Bethlehem residents and downtown business people, out-of-town visitors, and college, elementary, middle and high school students and teachers.

CHORAL SCHOLARS: Each year four talented young singers in their senior year of high school, chosen by audition, sing with The Bach Choir for a complete season. This includes all the major concerts (Christmas Concerts, Family Concert, Spring Concert and the Bethlehem Bach Festival over two weekends in May). Choral scholars are also given an opportunity to participate in our Bach to School and Bach at Noon programs To make sure these young singers get the most they can out of their time with The Choir, each choral scholar is assigned an experienced Bach Choir member as a mentor. In addition to rehearsals, Choral Scholars are invited to The Choir’s master-class sessions featuring vocal training with distinguished soloists.

BACH VOCAL COMPETITION FOR YOUNG AMERICAN SINGERS: This biennial competition, for American singers 30 years or younger, is sponsored by the American Bach Society and The Bach Choir of Bethlehem. Applicants nation-wide submit demo tapes that are screened by David Gordon, education director, vocal coordinator and master class director of the Carmel Bach Festival in California. Finalists perform in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, each singing two Bach arias for a panel of five judges. The winner receives a career development grant in the amount of $3,000 and an opportunity to be featured as a soloist with the Bach Choir of Bethlehem in the following concert season.

EDUCATIONAL OUTREACH GOALS: The outcomes of the Educational Outreach Programs are measured through attendance/participation, written feedback from audiences, students, participating artists, and teachers, critical reviews, and video documentation (See links to program excerpts at www.bach.org.) Goals include:

·  Bringing the joy and genius of Bach’s choral and instrumental music to a diverse K-12 student population including many students who have never been to a classical concert.

·  Using the spark of a live encounter with volunteer choir and professional orchestra members to inspire children with the love of learning and the arts in general.

·  Enhancing school curriculum by offering specialized instruction not provided by the schools and creating an interest in Bach through an imaginative exploration of his life, times, personality, and influence in musical history.

·  Cultivating a new generation of classical music audiences and artists, including composers, and building new audiences for the Bethlehem Bach Festival and other Bach Choir concerts by providing a free, friendly way to encounter Bach’s music for the first time.

·  Expanding community partnerships and enhancing learning about Bach and classical music through innovative interdisciplinary programs.

·  Acting as a catalyst for community and economic development in downtown Bethlehem by partnering with historic Central Moravian Church as the venue for the monthly Bach at Noon concerts and contributing to the year-round cultural vitality of the downtown.

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EDUCATIONAL OUTREACH FUNDING: Out of an annual budget of a little over $1 million, The Bach Choir expended more than $170,000 for all of its educational outreach programs in 2011-12, including Bach to School, the Family Concert, Bach at Noon, the Choral Scholars program, and the Bach Vocal Competition for Young American Singers. Bach to School is offered free to schools and in some cases, since many schools have recently seen drastic cuts in money for field trip busing, The Choir is also subsidizing the busing. The seven Bach at Noon concerts also have free admission but a free-will offering is taken at each concert and this has doubled during the recession years when corporate funding has been reduced. Tickets prices for the Family Concerts are kept very reasonable - $17 for adults and $6 for students with subsidized tickets available for underserved populations. The breakdown of funding for our total educational outreach programs in 2011-12 was Foundations 32%, Corporations 22% (including Pennsylvania Education Improvement Tax Credit funds), Individual contributions 17%, Government 13% (National Endowment for the Arts and Pennsylvania Council on the Arts), Endowment 12% (interest from designated funds), and Family Concert ticket revenue 4%. The total number of people impacted by the programs was more than 13,500.

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