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VCS Is Looking For A Few Good Interns (for the 2020-21 Season)

March 1, 2020

Like the headline says! We’re looking for a few good interns for the 2020-21 season. If you’ve come to our rehearsals or our concerts in the last few seasons, you know that our interns learn a lot, and are in the thick of things from front-of-house to plying our AD with props, mid-song. It’s a great learning experience, and we’re a fun group to hang out with! So if you’re looking to learn more about arts management in real time, read on, and apply!


ARTS MANAGEMENT INTERNSHIP WITH VIENNA CHORAL SOCIETY

Vienna Choral Society (VCS) is Northern Virginia’s premiere teaching choir. We are in our 32nd year and come from all walks of life. We welcome singers of all skill levels, and have a great time singing an ambitious and eclectic repertoire that ranges from classical large works to acapella and pop – sometimes in the same concert. We sing not only for the joy of it, but to lift voices and spirits, be a good community partner, and offer our choir and audience an uplifting and enriching experience.

VCS is looking for ARTS MANAGEMENT INTERNS for the 2020-21 season.

DESCRIPTION: The VCS Arts Management internship is a dynamic, hands-on experience for self-starters who want to get their feet wet in the fast-paced world of the performing arts. Intern will report directly to the Executive Director of VCS.

During the course of the internship, the intern will:

  • Learn and assist with creating, planning, and implementing marketing strategies for a concert or season
  • Learn and assist with market research, media outreach, fundraising, and business development
  • Help conduct research to identify grants and other funding opportunities
  • Assist Executive Director during regular and dress rehearsals
  • Help set-up and strike-down on concert night, learning the ins and outs from backstage as well as front-of-the-house
  • Assist the board, Artistic Director, and Accompanist as needed with administrative duties

DURATION: Mid-August to day after December concert and/or early January to mid-June (exact start/end dates are negotiable).

BENEFITS TO INTERN: The internship position is unpaid. The intern will obtain the following benefits:

  • Learn to manage, market, and produce a live arts event from beginning to end
  • Receive school/college credit if applicable
  • Receive service hours if applicable
  • Receive a certificate of completion
  • Be eligible for a recommendation

DESIRED ATTRIBUTES:

  • Knowledge of Microsoft Office Suite (Word/Excel/Powerpoint)
  • Utilization of professional telephone etiquette
  • Excellent written and oral communication skills
  • Comprehension of Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and other social media tools
  • Ability to be flexible, multitask, be self-directed and meet deadlines
  • Passion and joy for activities that improve the lives of others
  • Junior or senior in high school, currently enrolled college students and post-grads

TIME COMMITMENT:

  • Ability to commit to at least one hour a week during regular rehearsal periods (September – May).
  • Ability to attend rehearsals through the season highly desirable.
  • Ability to attend the first two rehearsals of each concert, plus dress rehearsal and show night. During other rehearsals, if interns are unable to attend in person they must do a phone check-in at least once a week.

HOW TO APPLY:

Please send a cover letter and resume by March 31, 2020 to info@viennachoralsociety.org indicating “internship inquiry” in the subject line.

Please indicate which internship period(s) is/are of interest (Fall, Spring, or whole season) and whether you are available during the orientation session.

Save The Date for MUSIC, SHE WROTE

January 18, 2020

Hope 2020 is off to a good start for you. The choir restarted rehearsals this week for our next concert. And we are SO excited! We sing MUSIC, SHE WROTE, Saturday, March 14, 2020 at Providence Presbyterian Church (9019 Little River Turnpike, Fairfax, VA). 

We’re looking forward to this concert for a couple of reasons.

We frequently include pieces and large works by female composers, but this is our first time programming an entire concert with music by female composers. We are doing this because we realized there is a wealth of rich history and legacy of women composers from Hildegard Von Bingen to her modern contemporaries. We want to highlight them more often, and showcase them the way we effortlessly showcase retrospectives on their male counterparts.

There are several contemporary women composers whose names should be as familiar as Glass or Whitacre or Forrest. And yet, as we’ll hear, from Alice Parker to Gwyneth Walker women composers are prolific – with an output that is marked by humor and approachability, daring to see the collective power of singing to create change. It’s a sentiment reflected in a composition from Joan Szymko, inspired by Mother Teresa’s famous words: “If we have no peace/it is because we have forgotten that/we belong to each other.” A sentiment we need now, more than ever.

As VCS artistic director Mike Horanski demonstrated last season – when both large works we performed were by contemporary women composers, one not yet 40 – it’s just a matter of finding out that “amazing” has been there all along.

It’s only fitting that we share our stage for this concert with Up All Night, a women’s barbershop quartet. Yes, women sing barbershop, too. Short version: The boys got organized in the 1930s and wouldn’t let the girls in. When they finally did, in 2018, the girls had long since built their own club and been singing barbershop the entire time. Female barbershop is just not what many people think of as the norm. But music belongs to everyone. And at VCS, we’re happy to change that level of visibility in our own way and sing outside the lines.

It’s going to be an amazing show. Please join us!

Tickets are $25/adults, $20/students (15 – 18) or seniors (65+). Youth age 14 and younger attend for free.

Tickets are on sale online at https://vcsmusicshewrote.eventbrite.com until Friday, March 13, 2020. More will be available at the door on concert night start 6:45 pm. Doors open at 7:15 pm, we sing at 7:30 pm.

Come sing with us! A personal message from Mike Horanski.

August 19, 2019

Looking for a place to sing? Come check us out. We kick off August 27, 2019, and we are looking for all voices. Great community, wonderful music, and our awesome artistic director. Drop us a line at info@viennachoralsociety.org for more info!

We’re Taking Internship Applications for 2019-20

April 1, 2019

VCS is accepting applications for our 2019-20 internships. If you’ve come to our concerts this season, you’ve seen our interns in action – learning, doing, running our social media, having fun! Sometimes enabling our artistic director in goofiness. (December 2018 – you had to be there.) Join the select club. Apply, and let’s talk!

ARTS MANAGEMENT INTERNSHIP WITH VIENNA CHORAL SOCIETY

Vienna Choral Society (VCS) is Northern Virginia’s premiere teaching choir. We are in our 31st year and come from all walks of life. We welcome singers of all skill levels, and have a great time singing an ambitious and eclectic repertoire that ranges from Dolly Parton to Dan Forrest – sometimes in the same concert. We sing not only for the joy of it, but to lift voices and spirits, be a good community partner, and offer our choir and audience an uplifting and enriching experience.

VCS is looking for an ARTS MANAGEMENT INTERN. [Read more…]

Conversations: Cecilia McDowall On Composition, Cultural Influences, and Commissions

February 28, 2019

Cecilia McDowall, the composer of Everyday Wonders: The Girl From Aleppo – the centerpiece of our upcoming concert, Us, Together – was kind enough to answer questions from Mike Horanski, artistic director of the Vienna Choral Society. The interview (lightly edited for clarity) is a revealing look into McDowall’s creative process, exploring new music, and what it takes to tell someone’s story in music. 

MIKE HORANSKI: What was your first experience with choral music and when did you know you wanted to become a composer?
CECILIA MCDOWALL:
I was born in London, England, a great place in which to grow up with its rich and exciting cultural life, always so much going on. My mother was a linguist, teaching French and Russian. She loved the theatre so my brother and I went often to concerts and saw many new productions of operas, plays, and ballets. My father was a professional flautist and was principal flute at the Royal Opera House in London in the 1950s. As a soloist he performed with most of the leading UK orchestras and also ran two chamber music ensembles; our house was always full of the sound of rehearsing musicians. He employed many performers who then went on to become very well known in the UK.

The school I was at had a close alliance with Westminster Abbey, which was just round the corner, and so although I was not a chorister as such, our school took part in many services and big choral events with David Willcocks who was Director of Music at King’s, Cambridge. It was a wonderful building in which to sing, with its gloomy cloisters and dark shadowy corners, and meant we worked our way through many of the liturgical standards, singing in the organ loft there.

Composing was always my first love, my first real interest. I studied music at university which reinforced the direction I wanted to pursue. I had plans to write music early on but at that stage being a composer didn’t seem a realistic way of earning a living. I put these ideas on hold and after university I taught at the Yehudi Menuhin School (a specialist school for highly talented young performers) and at Trinity College of Music, London, up until my son was born. Singing in choirs, amateur and professional, has been a way of life, too, and I’m sure has informed the way in which I write for the voice.

I’ve always had a special feeling about the voice and about singing whether as a listener or doing it myself. It’s such a personal instrument, the voice, and I feel that it should be treated carefully. It’s not like writing for other instruments – I think – and I feel it’s important to think of the writing in a linear way as well as vertically and by not giving awkward leaps, difficult to pitch.

I’m never sure if I achieve this, but I’d like to feel I’m writing from a singer’s perspective so that when I write I’m writing from the inside, thinking about how the vocal line lies on the voice. I often place notes in the texture for singers to find theirs.

So I came late to composing. My children were well into their teens and I was in my forties when I realized I couldn’t leave things much later if I wanted to pursue a career in composing otherwise that would be it! With hindsight it would probably have been more sensible to start earlier . . . However, at this late stage I returned to university to take a Master’s degree in composition and soon after I began receiving commissions. One commission seems to have led to another.

MH: How did you juxtapose western elements of the music with Arabic motifs?
CM:
Very often the boundaries that are given by the commissioner can give a real sense of freedom, which may sound a bit of an odd thing to say but it does mean that some of the decision making has already been made. The National Children’s Choir of Great Britain asked me to write a work about “children in conflict” and the writer and poet Kevin Crossley-Holland met Nujeen and Christina Lamb at a literary festival and was thoroughly inspired by Nujeen’s remarkable, perilous journey. He fashioned a narrative around her trajectory. So I felt I must find a way to connect with Nujeen’s cultural background, even if it was from a Western perspective. I immersed myself in an Arab sound-world, listening to what I could find, to explore a sense of that tonality; I knew a wonderful violinist who is both a classical violinist and one who understands the Middle Eastern idiom. She brought an extra, authentic dimension to work.

MH: What is the one thing you would like the audience (and performers) to take away from Everyday Wonders?
CM: I hope, by drawing attention to the struggle, the terror, the hardship of Nujeen and her sister’s extraordinary and harrowing journey, that this cantata will bring the listener closer to what migrants endure in their desperate search for peace and stability, wherever in the world that might be.

MH: Can you tell us about your interactions with Nujeen and what her reaction was to the music?
CM: I have not been lucky enough to meet Nujeen and her sister yet. The NCCGB did try to bring them over for the premiere last August in the UK but ultimately it proved to be too complicated, alas. The pianist, Claire Dunham, of the first performance did, however, manage to make contact after the performance and received a most positive and poignant response from Nujeen.

MH: What is your next big project?
CM: My next full scale work commemorates the 500th anniversary of Leonardo. It is called the Da Vinci Requiem. It lasts 35 minutes and is for mixed chorus, baritone and soprano soloists and orchestra. It receives its premiere on May 7, 2019 in the Royal Festival Hall, London (5 days after Leonardo’s actual death date, 2 May).

VCS sings Everyday Wonders at its next concert, Us, Together. Online tickets are on sale until 11:55 pm, Friday, March 8, 2019. At the door, 6:45 pm, Saturday, March 9, 2019. $25/adults, $20/seniors (65+) and students (15 – 18). Youth aged 14 and younger attend for free when accompanied by a paying ticket holder. 

Q & A With Caley Koch – Cello Soloist

December 14, 2018

It is always a pleasure to have additional musicians at concerts. Every now and then we get to talk to them amid the hubbub of rehearsal and note-polishing. This concert we talked with Caley Koch, cello soloist, who was kind enough to take the time to answer a couple of questions as we prepped for SOUNDS OF THE SEASON 2018: SNOW ANGEL: 

Caley Koch, cello soloist

Caley Koch, cello soloist

VCS: Why cello? 
CK: Cello was never my original plan. I actually wanted to play violin. One day in third grade, as musicians for parents, they sat me down and told me that I couldn’t play violin and that I had to choose between cello and viola. I will always be grateful for that, because I couldn’t imagine myself playing anything more beautiful.

VCS: What’s it like playing again with Mr. H and a Robinson crew? 
CK: At Robinson, there was such a strong sense of community and never ending support that made me fall in love with music even more. My teachers and my peers, among them my talented brother, inspire me with their musical passion and continue to remind me of the reason I chose to pursue music.  Working with Mr. Horanski is always a pleasure, because he has special ability to bring friends and family together and make any day a little more special through music. I am delighted to play with Mr. Horanksi and the Robinson family again, because they hold such value and sentiment in my musical life.

VCS: You heard VCS at a regular rehearsal and you thought _____ (fill in the blank)?
CK: I thought that VCS sounded wonderful! What a fantastic way to celebrate the season. I had so much fun playing with such a talented choir and I am beyond excited to perform with them on Saturday!

Caley will accompany us during several pieces, including solo during Snow Angel – a large work.

About Caley: She is an aspiring cellist currently attending DePaul University for her undergraduate performance degree. Under the tutelage of Chicago Symphony cellist, Stephen Balderston, she continues her studies as a sophomore in Chicago. She has studied privately since age 7, and was mentored by National Symphony cellist, Mark Evans. Enrolling in the rigorous chamber program at DePaul, her ensemble was coached privately by Maestro Cliff Colnot, and pianist, George Vatchnadze. Caley has also performed with Anna María Martínez with the Depaul Concert Orchestra through DePaul`s “Unveiled” Series this past year. Originally from the Washington D.C. area, she has performed at prominent venues such as the Kennedy Center, Corcoran Gallery of Art, the National Gallery of Art, the Strathmore Music Center, and the Italian Embassy. As well as committing herself to her Secondary School`s advanced orchestra, the Robinson Secondary School Philharmonic, she was a member of the American Youth Philharmonic Orchestra and the American Youth Philharmonic Chamber Ensemble Program. Caley has performed with the Capital Symphony Youth Orchestra, the George Washington University Chamber Institute, the Ithaca Summer Music Academy and Quadrica Celtica. This past year, Caley played with the Al Kamandjati Orchestra in Palestinian Territories, The City Lights Orchestra of Chicago, and Orchestra Nova. As well as devoting herself to her music, Caley is double majoring in Creative Writing and minoring in Spanish.

Tickets for SOUNDS OF THE SEASON 2018: WONDER will be available online until 11:55 pm, Friday, December 14, 2018. Tickets on concert night will be available at the door starting 6:45 pm. 

Tagged With: arts education, music education, sounds of the season 2018

The Red Carpet Awaits You

April 30, 2018

We look forward to every concert. But nothing beats the May concert for pure delight. Because we’re going to have a blast singing fun music from famous movies!

THE RED CARPET awaits you, Saturday, May 19, 2018, 7:30 pm, at Vienna Baptist Church (541 Marshall Road SW, Vienna, VA 22180). Tickets are now available online, and through choir members.

From the classic Singin’ In The Rain to contemporary La La Land, cinematic soundtracks can convey so much. They’re all-encompassing sensory experiences that stay with you long after the lights come back up. They bring to life and sharpen cultural touchstones through stories like The Prince of Egypt or Chicago. And done well, they expand our cultural and musical horizons in movies like Slumdog Millionaire and The Greatest Showman.

As a teaching choir with a mission to support and nurture arts education in all our concerts, we’re also looking forward to welcoming back our youngest partners of the season – the Louise Archer Elementary School choir, directed by Sean Cator. If you saw them sing with us last season, you know how they lit the place up, and we can’t wait to share the stage with them again.

It’s going to be a lovely evening, with music you’ll know and music you’ll want to get the moment the show’s over. Please do join us!

Tickets for THE RED CARPET are available online at vcsredcarpet.eventbrite.com 
until 11:30 pm, Friday, May 18, 2018.
They will be available at the door on concert night.
The box office opens at 6:30 pm on Saturday, May 19, 2018. 

Tickets are $25 (adults), $20 (Students 15 – 18 and Seniors 60+).
Youth age 14 and younger attend FREE (must be accompanied by a paying ticket holder.)

Tagged With: film music, louise archer elementary school, sean actor

Reflections On A VCS Internship

February 28, 2018

Emma Mehigan - VCS Intern 2017-18 - at work

Emma Mehigan – VCS Intern 2017-18 – at work

As a teaching choir determined to support and nurture the next generation of arts and artists, VCS is proud to host an arts management internship. But what does the intern actually do? A lot of really important things to help make the show happen. Amid helping to run rehearsals and prepare for a concert, Emma Mehigan, VCS intern for the 2017-18 season was kind enough to share what she learned on the job.

My internship with Vienna Choral Society began last summer. Since then, I have been exposed to much more of the choral world than before. I have been in choirs for the last nine years of my life, but I have never been so greatly involved in the management of a choir. One of the major things I have been exposed to is the people that management has the privilege to work with. It is overwhelming to me how much everyone has welcomed me into their choir life. Every week I’m asked how school is going, how colleges are looking, and how life is in general. It has struck me how much of a community resides within this choir and it will be difficult for me to leave at the end of this year. [Read more…]

Tagged With: arts management internship, teaching choir, vienna choral society

Internship 2018-19

February 17, 2018

It’s that time of year, when high school and college students look for internships for the coming fall. If you’re looking for an opportunity in the arts, Vienna Choral Society is looking for a couple of good interns. Take a look!

ARTS MANAGEMENT INTERNSHIP WITH VIENNA CHORAL SOCIETY

Vienna Choral Society (VCS) is Northern Virginia’s premiere teaching choir. We are in our 30th year and come from all walks of life. We welcome singers of all skill levels, and have a great time singing an ambitious and eclectic repertoire that ranges from Dolly Parton to Dan Forrest – sometimes in the same concert. We sing not only for the joy of it, but to lift voices and spirits, be a good community partner, and offer our choir and audience an uplifting and enriching experience.

VCS is looking for an ARTS MANAGEMENT INTERN.

DESCRIPTION: The VCS Arts Management internship is a dynamic, hands-on experience for a self-starter who wants to get their feet wet in the fast-paced world of the performing arts. Intern will report directly to the Executive Director of VCS.

During the course of the internship, the intern will:

  • Learn about and assist with creating, planning, and implementing marketing strategies for a concert or season
  • Learn about and assist with market research, media outreach, fundraising, and business development
  • Conduct research to identify and prioritize grants and other funding opportunities
  • Assist the Executive Director during regular and dress rehearsals
  • Help with set-up and strike-down during show night, learn the ins and outs of the “show” from backstage as well as front-of-the-house
  • Assist with board meeting prep
  • Assist the board, Artistic Director, and Accompanist as needed with administrative duties

DURATION: Mid-August – day after December concert and/or early January – mid-June (exact start/end dates are negotiable). [Read more…]

Tagged With: arts education, internship, teaching chior

The Universe, In Surround Sound

October 10, 2017

VCS October 2017 graphicWe sing SURROUND SOUND, SATURDAY, OCTOBER 21, 2017 – 7:30 PM at Vienna Baptist Church (541 Marshall Rd SW, Vienna VA 22180).

Tickets are available now through your friends in the choir, or online.

And what a repertoire we have in store for you!

The name of our concert may suggest the modern movie soundtrack, but no – we’re saving that for later in the season. Rather, this concert is about the music that surrounds us. Every day. You don’t have to be Julie Andrews on a mountain top, but the world around us is alive with music and art.

How do you find it amid the din of the Metro or the clatter of the cafeteria? Where and when do you look up at the sky and hear the sounds the universe holds in its ancient rhythms?

It helps to have a harmony of voices to hear the immensity of a vast eternal sky, or the clarity of an unclouded day. It definitely helps to have the right voices to hear the loud silences of deserts or capture our fragility against Mother Nature’s great unknown. Which is why we are delighted to sing this concert alongside our guests from James Madison High School – the Madison Chorus directed by Claire Rowan, and the Madison Chamber Orchestra directed by Erin Eberly.

In fact, thanks to your generosity in the 2017-18 Friends of VCS campaign, every concert this season will feature guests – youth and emerging musicians. It is in keeping with our place in this community as a teaching choir, where the next generation of music lovers and music professionals will find their place and polish their craft.

Help us to give them a stage, and let us surround you with great music, evocative of a world much bigger than the concert stage.

Do join us!

TICKETS ARE ON SALE NOW
Get them through friends in the choir or online.
$25 for adults, $20 for seniors (60+) and students (15 – 18).
Youth 14 and younger attend for FREE when accompanied by a paying ticket holder.

Online sales end 11:30 pm, Friday, October 20, 2017.
Tickets will be available at the door starting 6:45pm

Tagged With: Claire Rowan, Erin Eberly, james madison high school, Madison Chamber Orchestra, Madison Chorus, mike horanski, surround sound, vienna choral society

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About

Welcome to VCS! We are a teaching, non-audition choir where all voices and skill levels are welcome. We invite you to learn more about who we are, what we do, and if there's a place for you in our choir.

More questions? Drop us a line at

Click here for our terms and conditions

For Singers

Active choir members, find what you need here for rehearsal tracks, registration and dues, any membership updates, section leader information, Friends of VCS info, and more.

Contact

703-349-7150

PO Box 310, Vienna, VA 22183

Sponsorship

Would you like to sponsor us? We have a loyal, growing, diverse, educated, and discerning audience that considers it worth supporting the arts. Be part of this community! Email us with the word 'sponsorship' in the subject line at

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