Our Upcoming Performances
Forty and FABULOUS!!!
Yes, the Arundel Vocal Arts Society IS!
Next season 2023-2024 promises to be one of the best EVER! We will be more involved in the community as we collaborate with the Calvary United Methodist Church Choir (Calvary UMC Annapolis), continue our AVAS Ambassadors outreach program, and, in the Spring, join with the Anne Arundel Community College (AACC) Chamber Choir on a timely and moving piece.
Our Fall concert will take place at 3pm on November 19th at Gloria Dei Lutheran Church in Arnold. We will open with Paul Manz’s stirring Advent work, E’en So Lord Jesus Quickly Come, followed by several Baroque gems. Vivaldi’s GLORIA is the central work of the first half, performed with full orchestra, jointly with the Calvary UMC choir. The second half opens with a rousing Nigerian heralding, Oba Ti De, announcing the coming of the Savior, followed by Twas the Night Before Christmas and continues with other works celebrating the Christmas season. We will reprise part of the program for the residents of Ginger Cove and Bay Woods in December and join the Calvary UMC Choir for their presentation of the Vivaldi at their Sunday morning service on December 3rd.
Spring of 2024 brings Considering Matthew Shepard, an affecting choral work honoring the life journey and ultimately heinous torture and death of Matthew, simply because he was gay. He had just completed his first year at the University of Wyoming when he was tied to a fence, brutally beaten and left to die. He was 21 years old. Dubbed ‘a modern three-part oratorio, the story is told through poetry, projections, staging, narration, solo and choral sections and instrumental presentations. AVAS will collaborate with the AACC Chamber Singers and director, Douglas Byerly who will stage two productions in the Kauffman Theatre in May 2024. AVAS director JoAnn Kulesza will conduct. Precise dates TBD. Watch this website for further details.
If you are interested in joining AVAS this season, we’d love to have you. Please use the Contact Us link/tab and someone will follow up with you. Membership dues are $125 for the year plus the cost of music. The Draft Program for our Fall Concert is listed below.
We also appreciate enthusiastic audience members. If singing is not your ‘thing’, being an audience member simply involves an interest in listening and experiencing these wonderful works of art and allowing yourself to be moved by the performances. We’d love to have you contribute to filling our venues! Here’s to the incomparable experience of choral singing! Long may it continue!
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E’en So Lord Jesus Quickly Come |
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Psallite, unigenito – Praetorius |
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Alma Redemptoris Mater – Palestrina |
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Hodie, Christus Natus Est – Sweelinck |
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Gloria – Vivaldi |
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INTERMISSION |
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Oba Ti De, with percussion |
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Five Christmas Carols, arr. David Willcocks |
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Twas the Night Before Christmas |
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Two Irish Carols – Ferko 1..Ye Sons of Men, With Me Rejoice |
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2. Good People All, This Christmastime |
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The Work of Christmas – Dan Forest |
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Auld Lang Syne, arr. Gossler |
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Encore: All God’s Children Got A Place in the Choir |
Our Past Concerts
AVAS: Forty & Flourishing
A varied program of selections from three Directors of AVAS:
Ava Shields, JoAnn Kulesza and Glennette Rohner Schumacher (pictured below) .
For a person, 40 years is a short life span. But for a musical organization to survive and thrive through four decades of changes in leadership, membership, tastes, styles, economics and social trends is truly a cause for celebration! In that spirit, Anne Arundel County’s own Arundel Vocal Arts Society is proud to announce its 40th anniversary concert to be held at 3 pm on Sunday, November 20 at Gloria Dei! Lutheran Church, 461 College Parkway, Arnold, MD. True to its mission of providing audiences with the finest choral music representing a diverse set of eras and styles, AVAS will perform works by Handel, Mozart and Brahms, as well as contemporary fare by the likes of John Rutter, Morten Lauridsen, and Ola Gjeilo, selections from the musical stage, songs from around the world, and carols anticipating the joys of the Christmas season. The repertoire has been selected to honor past concerts led by the group’s three musical leaders; the late Ava Shields who founded the Arundel Vocal Arts Society in 1983 and established a community of devoted singers and listeners during the ensemble’s formative years; the late Glenette Rohner Schumacher whose excellence in a variety of styles including music of the Broadway stage made her concerts a delight; and JoAnn Kulesza, the recently retired director of the Peabody Institute’s Opera Theater now in her 17th season with Arundel Vocal Arts.
Street Requiem
The Arundel Vocal Arts Society, in support of The Light House of Annapolis and Arundel House of Hope, performed Street Requiem in Spring 2022. This program offered a multimedia experience that feature vocal and instrumental music, art, poetry, video, and personal stories.
The central focus of Street Requiem is to honor and remember those who lost their lives on the streets. Those who attended these concert events left with a deeper understanding of those who are or have been homeless-without a safe place to sleep, without food to eat, without a coat to keep warm, without a helping hand.
A portion of ticket sales went to supporting The Light House of Annapolis and Arundel House of Hope.
Please click the link below to view the program.
http://arundelvocalarts.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/Program-Street-Requiem-2022-2.pdf
You can listen to excerpts of our 2019 performance using this link https://vimeo.com/692063353
To produce innovative, artistic programs that address the well-being of our community, AVAS is seeking donations and sponsors from our local businesses and services.
To Donate, please use the donate button on the AVAS Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/avaschorus/
You can also Contact Us or send your contribution directly to us at
The Arundel Vocal Arts Society, Inc., PO Box 712, Arnold, MD 21012
Thank you for your interest and contribution.
We will continually post information about our events on our Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/avaschorus/ and on Instagram @avaschorus and on Twitter #firstpostoninstagram#thingstodoinannapolis#annapolismd#annapolisarts#community-choir
Light & Love
The link below opens a zip file of sample sound bites from our December 2019 Concert entitle “Light & Love”. Included are “Love Came Down at Christmas”, “Lux Arumque” and “Standing in the Light of Love”. Each are 30 seconds long.
AVAS Sound Bites from Love & Light, December 2019-20200728T130400Z-001
On March 7, 2020 at 7:30 p.m., we performed John Rutter’s “Mass of the Children” and Beethoven’s “Choral Fantasy” in collaboration with the Londontowne Symphony, Woods Memorial Presbyterian Church Choir and the All Children’s Chorus of Annapolis.
Street Requiem
The Street Requiem by Kathleen McGuire, Andy Payne, and Jonathan Welch was performed by The Arundel Vocal Arts Society and The Community Chorus of Peabody at St. Vincent de Paul Catholic Church, Baltimore, MD on April 28, 2019. This can be viewed at https://vimeo.com/336035459