Local Spotlight - The Genesee Chorale

Our featured artistic group for the fall 2014 issue is Batavia's most renowned adult choir: The Genesee Chorale. We are also pleased to announce and promote The Chorale's upcoming season. They will be performing this December in Albion, NY, once again, as they invited feature performers for the highly anticipated Eastman at Albion Series: The concert, is set for Sunday, December 7 at 3 PM, and will take place at The First Presbyterian Church of Albion on East Avenue. The theme for the interactive concert is LIGHT. The Genesee Chorale will wrap up their winter season on Friday December 12 at 7 PM at their home venue, St James Episcopal Church on Main St in Batavia.

The Chorale was organized in the fall of 1971 under the direction of Dr. Theodore Ashizawa. Dr. Ashizawa led the Chorale for 20 years. Dawn Mark conducted the group for four seasons, followed by Ron Bordinaro, Marcia Housel (for dinner dances), Mark Hoerbelt from January 2000 to 2005 and then Charles Bradley for two seasons. Ric Jones, (also the the webmaster of Oak Orchard Review), has been the director since January of 2008.

The Chorale is currently comprised of approximately seventy individuals from all walks of life and draws membership from Genesee County and seven additional counties. The repertory of the Genesee Chorale encompasses a wide variety of music in various styles from motets and madrigals of the Renaissance, to folk, musicals, and jazz. Over the years, the Chorale has championed contemporary works for choir, as well as larger liturgical settings including Bach's St. Matthew's Passion, Charpentier's Midnight Mass for Christmas, the Mozart and Brahm's Requiems, and several masses by composers such as Schubert and Mozart. More recently, the Chorale has performed Die Flaudermaus, Mendelssohn's Elijah, Handel's Solomon, Haydn's Creation, Vivaldi's Magnificat, VaughanWilliam's Hodie, and, in the spring of 2014, Dvorak's Requiem Mass.

The Genesee Chorale proudly encourages artists and musicians throughout the Western New York region. In addition to their traditional full ensemble performances, they offer membership recital opportunities. They have also partnered with many recognized musicians and organizations, including The Rochester Philharmonic orchestra, The Genesee Symphony Orchestra, The Sampler Trio, Jim Kimball and the Geneseo String Band, Emily Helenbrook, Doug Hanson, Charles Smith, The McMahon School of Dance, The Middleport Community Choir, Christopher Brewley, the Elba Music Department, and The Festival Choir. Over forty instrumentalists from Buffalo to Rochester have performed as part of their Chorale Orchestra, which was formed in the Spring of 2011.

In the last four years alone, the Chorale has performed in Batavia, Leroy, Perry, Medina, Elba, Childs, Lockport, Lyndonville, Gasport, and Albion, New York. Additionally, over the past six years, the Genesee Chorale has doubled its membership.

The editors of the magazine are delighted to announce The Genesee Chorale as their featured artist of the issue.