2007-2008

The 2007-08 community outreach is entitled “Project Sing,” an initiative of the Bach Society of Dayton to nurture future choral singers. It is partially supported by a Learning and Partnership Grant from the Ohio Arts Council. Eight students from Xenia High School will rehearse and perform with the Bach Society chorus, soloists, and instrumentalists for the March 16, 2008 concert. Their choir director will direct one segment of the program. OAC funds help support transportation costs, the Xenia choir director’s time, workshops on German diction, music purchase, and a portion of performance costs. The project will enable students to demonstrate their musical skills and gain experience with literature not normally performed by church or school groups. To increase the outreach, the Bach Society chorus will travel to Xenia for one of the rehearsals with the Xenia High School students. As a result of this experience, the participating students will not only deepen their knowledge and understanding of great choral music, but also learn about the possibilities and rewards of continuing to make music and perform beyond high school.

The decision to work with Xenia High School students and their choir director was based on the desire to expand our reach beyond Montgomery County to a large, diverse neighboring school district in order to reach more diverse audiences. Xenia is noted for its racial and economic diversity. The Xenia High School choirs have been honored to sing in Washington, DC as well as in New York City. They annually sing at The Brick Presbyterian Church and St. John the Divine Cathedral in New York. They have consistently received superior ratings at both district and state contests sponsored by the Ohio Music Educators Association.

2006-2007

Each season, the Bach Society of Dayton attempts to expand its audience within the greater Dayton area through a community youth-oriented project in conjunction with a planned concert. During the 2006-2007 season, to meet both artistic and outreach goals, we specifically programmed works that were vocally stunning as well as those that were to provide young voices the opportunity to sing with an organization dedicated to high standards of musical performance.

For the May, 2007 concert we had a two-part program that featured works from Brahms’ Opus 52 Liebeslieder Waltzes, a collection of many relatively short, but delightful pieces, and the two-piano accompanied version of his famous German Requiem. This concert featured student chamber choirs from Wayne High School, Centerville High School, and Sinclair Community College in performance with the Bach Society chorus.

To realize the project’s outreach goals, we invited each of the student choirs to prepare one of the Liebeslieder Waltzes which they performed on their own during the concert. In addition, all of the choirs joined with the Bach Society Chorus in singing both the first and the last of the waltzes on the program. Each of the student choirs prepared separately, and joined the Bach Society to rehearse on the Monday and Saturday prior to the concert. This approach gave these students an invaluable learning experience through public performance of serious choral music, in a foreign language, in a professional environment, and gave the participating schools an opportunity to showcase their music programs.

The concert took place on May 13, 2007 at 7:30 PM in the Kettering Seventh-day Adventist Church, 3939 Stonebridge Rd., Kettering OH, the Bach Society's normal performing venue. The project was made possible through a grant from the Montgomery County Arts and Cultural District (MCACD).

2005-2006
Concert Season Community Outreach and Education:
Commissioned Work Project

In the 2005-2006 concert season, the Bach Society of Dayton Chorus undertook our first commissioning project as a part of our continuing program of expanding choral horizons within the Dayton community, and because we believe it is incumbent upon local performing arts organizations to support the creation of new music. We especially believe it is important to focus on the richness of talent within our state, so this new choral work was composed by an Ohio artist for performance by an Ohio Chorus accompanied by Ohio guest artists for a largely Ohio audience. The composer is Dr. Donald Busarow, well-known and widely respected Wittenberg professor, composer, and performer. Our musical partners were the Carillon Brass, five of the most talented Dayton-area musicians, who share the Bach Society's mutual goals of high performance standards and community/educational outreach. Our percussionist was Ms. Jane Varella, former Principal Percussionist of the Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra. Dr. R. Alan Kimbrough, Bach Society of Dayton accompanist is our organist. The concert took place October 23, 2005 at 4:00 PM in the Kettering Seventh-day Adventist Church, 3939 Stonebridge Rd., Kettering OH.

The specific work commissioned in this project was "A Psalm Triptych" based upon Psalm 100 with three contrasting movements with a total length of about 15 minutes. We chose the text for its strong emotional content, and the other complementary musical forces to demonstrate the interplay between brass and voices as the centerpiece of a program of diverse musical styles.

The commission also gave us a unique opportunity to satisfy another of the Bach Society's continuing goals: to reach out to young musicians and help them understand and appreciate serious choral music. For this project, we coordinated our goals with the faculty of the Stivers School for the Arts, with whom we had worked on an education outreach project during our 2003-2004 season. By offering selected Stivers students face-to-face contact with the composer, and by providing them an opportunity for a "mini-master class" in composition, we gave them an appreciation of the process of composition and increased their understanding of the talent and the effort behind the music.

Several aspects of this project provided a unique educational opportunity for Stivers students - they were able to interact closely with a renowned composer to better understand the major factors that contribute to a successful new work. Significantly, the focus was broader than just choral - it applied to four categories of musicians: vocal, brass instruments, percussion, and keyboard (organ). Dr. Busarow is personally committed to music education, and he brought a powerful talent to bear on enhancing the student's educational experience, discussing both early sketches and notes as well as the final score to enhance their appreciation of the process. In addition, each student received a copy of the final score.

2003-2004
Concert Season Community Outreach and Education:
J. S. Bach “St John Passion” Project

This March concert focused on expanding our current audience by performing the Bach Society of Dayton’s first major choral work. An added outreach objective was to work with Muse Machine to identify and encourage participation of potential future performers of choral music. During this concert, students from Muse Machine member organizations participated in certain aspects of the performance and were introduced to baroque performance practices through workshops and singing with the Bach Society of Dayton during selected chorales of J. S. Bach’s “St. John Passion.” The students also were given a copy of the score as a memento of the experience.

The Bach Society of Dayton chorus, along with prominent regional soloists and university faculty members, presented J. S. Bach’s powerful “St. John Passion” on March 20, 2005 at 4:00 PM in the Kettering Seventh-day Adventist Church, Kettering, OH. Soloists included Elizabeth Wiley (soprano; former Dayton resident), Mary Henderson-Stucky (mezzo-soprano, University of Cincinnati), John Wesley Wright (tenor; University of Dayton), and William Henry Caldwell (bass; Central State University). The orchestra was comprised of 25 Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra players and other regional instrumentalists selected by Ms. Jane Varella.

The “St. John Passion” concert met the overall project goal of strengthening the foundation for future performers of and audiences for choral music in the Dayton area by attracting new audience members and re-attracting former audience members through performance of a major orchestra-accompanied baroque work using local musicians and modern instruments. The overall community outreach goal was met by involving students from Muse Machine member schools in workshops and rehearsals, and in actual concert participation by joining the Bach Society in singing of selected chorales during the performance. The outreach goal was enhanced by a pre-concert lecture on the “St. John Passion” by former Dayton Bach Society music director, Dr. Richard Benedum.

The involvement of Muse Machine member schools, helped increase our contribution to the Dayton arts community as a whole while expanding our audiences. This commitment to the Dayton area extends to the musicians who provide instrumental accompaniment as well those who perform solo roles in our concerts. The Bach Society draws instrumentalists from the local area and is committed to local vocal soloists and those with Dayton-area roots. In addition, there is ample evidence from our audience surveys that we have significantly expanded our Dayton-area audience, encompassing individuals in Zip Codes from 45040 to 45502.

Education was also a key element of this project. By partnering with Muse Machine member schools we targeted students who like to sing but may not have the opportunity to broaden their horizons by appearing in a concert featuring choral music with high performance standards. Through workshops and selected rehearsals with the Bach Society, the students learned the elements of preparing for and performing a major baroque choral work.

2003-2004
Concert Season Community Outreach and Education:
“Sing, My Soul” Project

As part of our 2003-2004 concert season, the Bach Society of Dayton, under the direction of John Neely, enlisted the services of prominent African-American regional soloists and university faculty members Eleanor McClellan (soprano; University of Dayton), Mary Henderson-Stucky (mezzo-soprano; University of Cincinnati), John Wesley Wright (tenor; University of Dayton), and William Henry Caldwell (bass; Central State University), plus a chamber orchestra of Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra players and other regional instrumentalists to present a program of distinctly different but complementary sacred music. The primary goals for this project were to: expand the appreciation of classical choral music within the African-American community in the Miami Valley through attendance at a Bach Society of Dayton concert that includes both traditional repertory (a Bach cantata) and targeted music (collection of spirituals); introduce Montgomery County minority youth to the positive role models of successful African-American artists; encourage these same young people to attend the March concert, with the hope we will increase attendance and interest on the part of the adults who will accompany them; and expand the potential audience of the Bach Society of Dayton.

The first half of the program explored the African-American spiritual repertory through a performance of African-American composer Michael Tippett’s five spirituals from his full-length oratorio A Child of Our Time, arranged for a cappella chorus and soloists: “Steal Away”, “Nobody Knows”, “Go Down Moses”, “By and By”, and “Deep River”. These were supplemented by solo spirituals chosen by each of our four vocal soloists. The second half of the program presented Bach’s Cantata 78, “Jesu, der du meine Seele” (“Jesus, who my soul has rescued) for chorus, featuring the four African-American soloists.

The March 14th program was specifically designed to include a component that combines educational aims with efforts for audience expansion. We added educational value to Stivers’ music program by working with faculty to establish relevant educational goals, participate in developing classroom materials that reinforce the demonstration visits by our guest artists, and provide an opportunity to support existing Stivers educational programs.

The Bach Society director, the group’s accompanist, the four soloists, and members of the Bach Society Chorus went to Stivers High School on Friday afternoon, March 12th, to meet with Director Mary Beth Brewer’s choral/vocal students. This visit was designed to (a) make sure the students know the five spirituals Tippett has arranged (playing recordings, having them sing standard arrangements of the melodies, etc.); (b) introduce the students to varied vocal performance practices for solo spirituals by letting them hear the soloists sing; (c) give the students an overview of Bach’s Cantata 78 (through excerpts from recordings and performance of selected movements with piano reduction accompaniment, etc.); and (d) encourage the students to engage the soloists in open conversation, particularly about how very successful African-American vocalists reflect on their own career paths and about what advice they would have for aspiring young African-American vocalists. The Bach Society also provided these students, and their director, complimentary tickets for the 4:00 Sunday afternoon concert, which took place at the Kettering Seventh-day Adventist Church.