1NEW CLASSIC RADIO HOUR

Lee R. Kesselman, Music DirectorWilliam Buhr, Accompanist

30th Concert Season

2011-2012

9/11: Ten Years & BeyondSunday, Sep. 11, 3 pm at Harris Theater for Music & Dance, Chicago

Psalms & SpiritualsSaturday, Nov. 5, 8 pm at St. Petronille Church, Glen Ellyn

Sunday, Nov. 13, 3 pm at St Francis Xavier Catholic Church, La Grange

World CarolSunday, Dec. 11, 4 pm, McAninch Arts Center, Glen Ellyn

KADOSH: A(nother) Celebration of Jewish MusicSaturday, March 3, 8 pm at Christ the King Catholic Church, Lombard

The New Classics Radio HourSaturday, May 5, 8 pm

McAninch Arts Center, Glen Ellyn

New Classic Singers425 Bonnie Brae Rd.Hinsdale, IL 60521

www.newclassicsingers.org630.654.9717

Ticket office for McAninch Arts Center concerts:(630) 942-4000

www.AtTheMac.org New Classic Singers celebrates its 30th season in residence at College of DuPage.

Members include conductors, educators, and soloists from throughout the Chicago metropolitan area. The Singers have been praised for their imaginative

programs and performing excellence. New Classic Singers has performed three times for conventions of the American Choral Directors Association and frequently commissions and performs new works. NCS has performed with the Kronos Quartet, Fulcrum Point New Music Ensemble & Nexus Percussion

Ensemble and has recorded new issues for Boosey & Hawkes Music Publishers.

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MUSIC D IRECTOR B IOGR APHY

ACCOMPANIST B IOGR APHY

Founder and Music Director Lee R. Kesselman has been Director of Choral Activities at College of DuPage since 1981. Conductor, pianist, teacher and award-winning composer, in New Classic Singers he has created an ensemble from his love for the vocal art and interest in a wide variety of literature. A member of the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers and recipient of 18 consecutive ASCAP awards. Mr.

Kesselman’s compositions have been published by Boosey & Hawkes, Roger Dean Music Co., Colla Voce and Kesselman Press. He co-founded the Choral Music Experience Institute for Choral Teacher Education with Doreen Rao and has served on its faculty since 1986. He is in frequent demand as a guest conductor, lecturer and clinician and as a composer-in-residence throughout the United States and abroad.

Kesselman is well-known as a composer of vocal works, including opera, music for chorus, and solo songs. Large works include the operas THE BREMEN TOWN MUSICIANS and THE EMPEROR’S NEW CLOTHES, LOVE PHASES for baritone voice and piano, NIGHTS IN ARMOR for mixed chorus, SHONA MASS for voices and African percussion, and INFINITY IN THE PALM OF YOUR HAND, a symphony for treble chorus and orchestra. His works for children’s choirs have brought him national attention and he has been commissioned to write for children’s choirs, middle school, junior school, high school, college, community, church, and professional ensembles.

Enjoying a national reputation as an accompanist, chamber musician, adjudicator and clinician, William Buhr’s work as a collaborative pianist has taken him to performing engagements in over thirty countries on six continents. Buhr has served on the accompanying staff of the Chicago Symphony Chorus at the invitation of founder/director Margaret Hillis, and has accompa-nied James Levine, Michael Tilson Thomas, Yo-Yo Ma, June

Anderson, Berndt Weikl and others at the Ravinia Festival. He has also worked with Stephen Sondheim, Patti LuPone, Audra McDonald and Michael Cerveris in the Ravinia Festival productions of Sunday In The Park With George and Anyone Can Whistle.

Holding degrees from the University of Illinois and DePaul University, Mr. Buhr has appeared in many international festivals as well as numerous national and regional conventions of major musical and educational organizations. Mr. Buhr has served on the faculty of the Choral Music Experience Institute for Choral Teacher Education with Doreen Rao since its inception in 1986, and has played for the national touring companies of numerous Broadway musicals including Showboat, Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, and The Phantom of the Opera. He has served as the Associate Director and accompanist of the New Classic Singers since 1986, and has enjoyed an association with Anima - Young Singers of Greater Chicago (formerly the Glen Ellyn Children’s Chorus) since 1984.

3NEW CLASSIC RADIO HOUR

FROM THE MUSIC D IRECTOR

The New Classics Radio Hour is the last concert of our 30th concert season. Live radio! Well, not really, but our vision of a live radio show on the campus of a mythical Midwestern community college. Appropriate, since we were founded in the spirit of the College of DuPage which existed in 1982.

When the college administrators asked me to start NCS, it was to provide a model chorus for Chicago’s western suburbs, one which served as a model for COD music students, which brought high quality and entertaining choral music to the western suburbs, which gave highly skilled singers and teachers a place to continue their love of singing. And for 30 years, we’ve done that.

Live radio! With sound effects, microphones, music, skits, ……who isn’t fascinated by the way in which a show magically happens? It’s somehow a more innocent medium than television. And it magically creates an invisible world of the imagination for the listener. Seeing it produced live makes everyone feel like they’re privy to some great secret.

*CHANGE. Inevitable. RESISTANCE TO CHANGE. Even more inevitable. Like Death and Taxes. NCS is taking some time off. After 30 years and over 120 concerts of great choral music, it’s time for a break. The McAninch Arts Center is being renovated and we’re taking some time off. Call it a sabbatical, a hiatus. How and when we’ll come back is still unknown. All we know is that after tonight, it’ll be different. Maybe some special projects, some different things, some new creations. But different. CHANGE.

It’s been great . I can’t tell you how much fun it has been to make music with this glorious bunch of singers. The repertoire, the rehearsals, the performances. What a wonderful group of singers, of people! Generations of them, in fact. And working with Bill Buhr every week is more than a treat. It’s a party, an education, a blast. The Best.

Thank you to our Board, our donors, our audiences, our guests, our many friends. Who knows when or how we’ll see you again. But it’s been the Best.

Thanks for being a part of our audience. From the beginning, we have sung for you.

Thanks,

Lee R. KesselmanFounder and Music DirectorNew Classic Singers

Preliminaries$40.00 per person

Dinner, Tax & Service Charge included, $10.00 Tax Deductible

Mar. 4 & Mar. 11 – 5:30

Semi-Finals$50.00 per person

Dinner, Wine, Tax & Service Charge included, $10.00 Tax Deductible

Mar. 18 – 5:30 & Apr. 14 – 6:30

Grand Prize Evening$75.00 per person

Hors d'oeuvres, Dinner, Wine, Tax & Service Charge included, $20.00 Tax Deductible

Sat. Apr. 21 – 6:30

Bravo Awards$60.00 per person

Dinner, Wine, Tax & Service Charge Included, $10.00 Tax Deductible

Sun. May 20 – 5:30

For Reservations call 773-588-2515

Monastero’s Ristorante & Banquets

3935 W. Devon AvenueChicago, IL 60659

39th Opera Contest Season

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PROGR A M

NEW CLASSIC SINGERSLee R. Kesselman, Music Director

William Buhr, piano Chris Miller, host

Michael Moon & Galen Ramsey, sound effects

The New Classics Radio HourSaturday, May 5, 8 p.m.McAninch Arts Center, College of DuPage, Glen Ellyn, IL

A live radio show on the campus of a mythical Midwestern community college. After this last show, the studio is being refurbished – or maybe renovated – or maybe torn down. In any case, it’s the last show, or maybe the last show in this studio, or maybe the last show in this format, or maybe the last show for a long time. So as for our live studio audience, just sit back and relax, clap when the *Applause* sign is lit, enjoy the behind-the-scenes making of the show. Because it’s The New Classics Radio Show!

[Selections will include the following, though not necessarily in this order.]

Hark, I Hear the Harps Eternal Arr. Alice Parker

As the Sunflower Turns on Her God Timothy C. Takach

National Weather Forecast Henry Mollicone

The Best of All Possible Worlds (from Candide) Leonard Bernstein

Geographical Fugue Ernst Toch

Sure on This Shining Night Morten Lauridsen

Blow Ye The Trumpet Kirke Mechem

Precious Lord Thomas A. Dorsey Arr. Arnold Sevier

Cells Planets Erika Lloyd Arr. Vince Peterson

Life is Like a Mountain Railway Charles David Tillman Arr. Nick Page

The Road Home Stephen Paulus

Grateful John Bucchino

Make Our Garden Grow (from Candide) Leonard Bernstein

5NEW CLASSIC RADIO HOUR

GUEST ARTISTS

Michael W. Moon (Foley Artist) is the Technical Director and resident Scenic Designer for the MAC. His many scenic design credits for College of DuPage include Plaza Suite, All My Sons and Rapunzel’s Journey/Sleeping Beauty. He is also the resident scenic designer for Buffalo Theatre Ensemble, his latest designs have included On Golden Pond, Mystery of Irma Vep, and Private Lives.

Galen Ramsey (Foley Artist) has had a hand in countless productions at the McAninch Arts Center at College of DuPage. As property master at the College of DuPage, Ramsey designs and builds properties, furniture, hand props, and set dressing for Buffalo Theatre Ensemble, DuPage Opera Theatre, and College of DuPage student theatre productions. In addition to properties, he also designs scenery, sound or music, and video for various productions. His work was most recently seen in BTE’s production of Moon Over Buffalo, for which he designed the sound and properties.

Chris Miller (Host) and his journey to College of DuPage is an interesting one. A mere six months after graduating high school from Rocky Mountain High School in Fort Collins, CO., Chris found himself attending Solano Community College in Suisun City, CA. It was at Solano that Chris started a mini-career in theater where he met his future wife, Johanna McKenzie Miller (who is now playing Dyanne in Million Dollar Quartet...check it out!). A few years later, he and Johanna moved to the midwest where they both attained degrees from Northern Illinois University. While at NIU, Chris competed for the speech and debate team where he fell in love with the forensics activity and decided being a part of this community is what he wanted to do for his career. Currently, Chris is in his tenth year as a full-time tenured professor in Speech Communication and the Assistant Director of Forensics for the nationally-

acclaimed COD forensics team and he couldn’t be more happy with his decision. This year, Chris was selected as the Outstanding Faculty of the Year for the Liberal Arts department, an achievement that Chris states, “is the coolest moment of my professional career.” Chris has always enjoyed performing, therefore, two years ago, he and Director of Student Life, Chuck Steele created a show entitled, That Beepin’ Show. This web-isode airs monthly and has a focus of informing the college community of activities and events on-campus with a humorous approach. If you would like to know more about this show, check out the COD homepage, search That Beepin’ Show, and become a fan. Chris would like to thank Lee for this unique opportunity, his wife, Johanna, for her encouragement, and his son, Wyatt, for a perspective on life that only a 4-year old can bring. Have fun everyone!

Laura Kuhlman, director

630.240.3489

Concerts, Educational Programs,Corporate Events, Festivals,

Receptions and more

laura@thekuhlmans.com

6 New Classic Singers

NCS 2010 -2011

NCS 2011-2012Lee R. Kesselman, Director

Bill Buhr, Accompanist

SopranoJennifer Berman . . . . . . . . . . . . . . WestchesterElise B. Calhoon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . NapervilleBeth Majerszky. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .New LenoxMadeline Morris . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . DeerfieldKaren Owen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . WarrenvilleSusan Van Ordstrand . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .ElginSadie Wynne . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Bolingbrook

AltoMarcia Ecker . . . . . . . . . . . . . .South BarringtonPam Eiten . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .WheatonJean Follett . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . HinsdaleMaureen Lyons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . DarienArlayne Pekofske . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . DarienPaula Rada . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Oak Brook TerraceDottie Williames . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Sugar Grove

TenorSean Doty . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Burr RidgeAndrew Johnson . . . . . . . . . . . Downers GroveDennis Schafer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . JolietLarry Stephens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . PlainfieldJohn Whittington . . . . . . . . . . Downers GroveJim Yarbrough . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Elmhurst

BassBen Adair . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . WoodridgeJack Dare . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Downers GrovePaul Drennan . . . . . . . . . . . . .Glendale HeightsSteven Krage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . AddisonDaniel Saathoff . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . WarrenvilleDave Saunders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . WoodridgeDavid Scott . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . NapervilleDoug Thompson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Hinsdale

OUR THANKS TO THE FOLLOWING SUPPORTERS

McAninch Arts Center, College of DuPageWFMT-FM 98.7

It’s always the perfect time of year to buy NCS’ FAMILY CHRISTMAS ALBUM CD. Our CD is available at the Arts Center Ticket Office, at all of

our concerts, and on our web-site.

Ameriprise Financial Services, Inc. Member FINRA and SIPC. Ameriprise Financial cannot guarantee future financial results. © 2011 Ameriprise Financial, Inc. All rights reserved.

The first step in reaching your goals is reaching the person who can help you achieve them.Putting the needs of my clients first is the approach I believe in, and it starts by listening to you and understanding your dreams. I’ll work with you to find the right financial solutions to help you plan for your unique goals.

Our Advisors. Your Dreams. MORE WITHIN REACH®

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Call me today at (630) 396.8534

7NEW CLASSIC RADIO HOUR

DONORS

AnonymousMcAninch Arts CenterBen AdairMichael AikinsRobert & Sharon Scanlon

BartonJennifer BermanBMO/Harris Private BankMr. & Mrs. Dean BrandtJohn D. BreenMary BurkhardtAllan & Gina CarterNiall CasserlyGeorgia ContiRabbi Andrea

CosnowskyRobert F. DaileyJack & Laura DareRobert & Jaclyn DotyPaul DrennenMarcia EckerBarbara & John EkholmPamela & Keith EitenRobert & Nancy FollettFollett CorporationFranciscan Friars of JolietBarbara GeisJoanna & Jack Goral

Georgia K. HamiltonJeanette A. HilsabeckMele HowlandMona Jethmalani Cynthia & Andrew

JohnsonLeah & Andrew KammSusan KempferLee KesselmanJames & Lynn KessenDurema & Robert KohlRichard & Laura Sanborn

KuhlmanMaureen LyonsBeth MajerszkyMark MaternaMarilyn McCormickLinda MotzDrs. Donald & Mary Ellen

NewsomPhillip O’DonnellKaren Webb OwenPat & Allen PedersenArlayne & Robert

PekofskeJean Pratt

Sigma Alpha Iota, LaGrange Alumni Chapter

David & Janice SaundersSusan SchroederDavid H. ShaftmanPaul SirvatkaFlorence SlavickJames & Linda

SmedinghoffMary K. SmithAlice & Jim SnelgroveLarry StephensLorraine H. TaylorDoug Thompson &

Jean FollettRichard TrautJames TuckerSusan Van Ordstrand &

James KempferPearl WeiDonald G. & Helen

WestlakeJohn & Laura

WhittingtonDottie WilliamesAnn Field WilliamsJames & Jean Yarbrough

8 New Classic Singers

9NEW CLASSIC RADIO HOUR

10 New Classic Singers

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