(Featured photo is from a recent Augusta Choral Society rehearsal. Courtesy the group’s Facebook page.)
It’s a year of transition for the Augusta Choral Society.
At the end of the 2022-2023 season, longtime conductor Porter Stokes retired. This year, the group’s board is bringing in three guest conductors with different styles to challenge and inspire choral society’s singers, according to Carolyn Dolen, the organization’s executive director.
“Each of our guest conductors is going to be totally different,” said Dolen. “It’s going to be good for our members.”
The conductors will bring their own styles and techniques.
The Augusta Choral Society will kick off its season at 7:30 p.m. Dec. 9 with A Holiday Celebration at Saint Paul’s Church with guest conductor Marcel Ramalho, Director of Choral Activities and Professor of Voice in the Department of Music at Augusta University.
The chorus will be performing portions of Handel’s The Messiah as well as Margaret Bond’s The Ballad of the Brown King.
“This is brand new for us,” said Dolen of Bond’s piece.
It highlights one of the three wise men who according to tradition was a king from Ethiopia named Balthazar.
The Christmas concert is always a favorite among the concert goers, according to Dolen.
Tickets are available online at the choral society’s website.
While the dates have been scheduled for the next two concerts in the season, not a lot of additional information is available yet, according to Dolen. The next concert will be March 23, 2024, and the season will end on June 1, 2024.
Unlike previous seasons, however, Dolen said there will not be a patriotic-themed concert in May around Memorial Day and Armed Forces Day to allow the conductor to create a program.
Dolen said the board hasn’t made a decision on the new director and likely won’t until the season ends. The guest conductors may be potential candidates for the position, but they aren’t the only ones. Dolen stressed they weren’t auditioning for the role simply providing a variety of styles for this season.
Charmain Z. Brackett, the publisher of Augusta Good News and Inspiring: Women of Augusta, has covered Augusta’s news for 35 years. Reach her at charmain@augustagoodnews.com. Sign up for the newsletter here.
Support local journalism: Local stories on local people, organizations and events. That’s the focus of Augusta Good News, a member of the Georgia Press Association. And you don’t have to go through a paywall to find these stories. An independent voice in Augusta, Ga., Augusta Good News is not funded by a billionaire or a large corporation; it doesn’t have celebrity reporters who have agents. It’s local people who are invested in the community and want to tell its stories. You can support local journalism and help us expand our coverage by becoming a supporter. Through Ko-Fi, you can give once or set up a monthly gift. Click here to learn more. Thank you!
