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A Letter from Michael O'Neal
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Dear Friends,
One of my greatest creative joys as conductor of The Michael O'Neal Singers is deciding on concert themes and then selecting music to support those themes. Our next two concerts have been especially gratifying to me to put together. Sing Me a Story, performed by Kaleidoscope, and Blockbusters!, a joint concert by MOS and the Georgia Philharmonic, each provided the opportunity to program a wide variety of musical pieces which still fit into their overall concert themes.
I've always loved a good story, and sometimes a short story, as compared to a novel, can be enormously satisfying since it presents its characters, setting, plot, conflict and resolution in a relatively brief period of time. That is the case with many choral pieces, which may have an average length of between four and six minutes. It also explains why composers often choose to use poems as texts for their compositions. A poem can be similar to a short story with respect to its ability to contain most, if not all, the elements of characters, setting, plot, conflict and resolution. In Sing Me a Story, performed at Alpharetta Presbyterian Church on February 24, Kaleidoscope will share stories in song, including both familiar and less familiar tales. Still, you can count on each piece creating an image in your mind of some emotion: love, longing, joy, sadness, just to name a few.
Some of the most exhilarating moments in classical music are found for me in those pieces where chorus and orchestra are combined. MOS and Georgia Philharmonic will do exactly that when they perform Blockbusters! on March 23 at Lassiter Concert Hall. The title describes it all, as we will be performing some of the most recognizable and exciting pieces in the choral/orchestral repertoire. You'll hear selections such as Verdi's "Triumphal Scene" from A
i
da
; the "Finale" from Puccini's Turandot; Beethoven's "Ode to Joy" from the Ninth Symphony; and Handel's "Hallelujah Chorus"
from
Messiah
. This concert will be filled with one climactic musical moment after another and will be a fitting way for The Michael O'Neal Singers to celebrate its 30
th
Season and the Georgia Philharmonic to celebrate its 35th
Season.
I hope to see you at these performances!
In anticipation,
Michael
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True to its name, the 36-voice
Kaleidoscope vocal ensemble
performs a concert of songs spanning many musical styles and eras, each telling a different story of love, adventure, joy, or sadness. The program will include
such pieces as" "Skylark" (Mercer/Carmichael), "Crown of Roses"
(Tchaikovsky), "Lebenslust" (Schubert) , "Only In Sleep" (Eriks Esenvalds), "All of Us" from
Considering Matthew Shepard
(Craig Hella Johnson), and "Mother to Son" (Dwight Bigler), among others.
Visit
mosingers.com
for a full list of songs to be performed.
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($22/$27 at the door, if tickets remain)
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Sing With MOS This Summer!
Registration for the 15th annual Michael O'Neal Summer Singers program opens in just under two months. Historically, the Soprano and Alto sections fill to capacity in just a few days, so make plans now to be part of the music!
This year's program is entitled Mass Appeal, and consists of Haydn's Kleine Orgelmesse, Mozart's Missa brevis in d minor, and Schubert's
Mass No. 2 in G Major.
Accompaniment will be orchestral strings and organ.
Registration: April 1, 2019
First Rehearsal: Monday, June 17, 2019
Subsequent Rehearsals: June 24, July 8, 15, 29, and August 5 and 10
Concert: Sunday, August 11, 2019 at 3 p.m.
Register starting April 1st
online, by phone to 770.594.7974, or by
email.
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New! Our First Kaleidoscope CD Release
The Kaleidoscope ensemble has produced a CD of fifteen exquisite selections from its repertoire from the past five years, entitled Kaleidoscope: Colors of the Voice. The music includes love songs, poignant spirituals, and pieces from the realm of musical theatre, from composers and arrangers including Craig Hella Johnson, Robert Schumann, Eric Whitacre, and Roy Ringwald, among others. Click here to view the complete song list included in this collection. The CD is $10 and will be available at the Sing Me a Story concert, as well as online.
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Sponsor Spotlight
MOS appreciates the support it receives via corporate, private, and public funding. MOS has received funding this season from Georgia Council for the Arts, the
Fulton County Board of Commissioners and the Audience Building Roundtable, an initiative of The Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation.
We wish to highlight
the
the Audience Building Roundtable.
As a peer network of over 50 arts organizations, the Roundtable fosters learning across organizations and challenges arts groups to listen and respond to audience desires.
Thanks to the Roundtable, arts organizations get the chance to test ways to find and engage new and existing audiences. MOS is grateful to the Roundtable and to The Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation for its support and vision.
We thank all our private and individual donors for their generous support. Individual donations make up more than one-third of our annual income, and we are profoundly grateful for your trust in and support of our mission to reach our community through choral song.
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ENGAGE WITH MOS! See what's happening on our social sites.
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Mission Statement
The Michael O'Neal Singers organization seeks to engage, educate and enrich Atlanta-area singers and audiences with compelling choral experiences which are innovative, multicultural and multigenerational.
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Our Sponsors
Partial funding for these programs is provided by the Fulton County Commissioners under the guidance of the Fulton County Department of Arts and Culture, and by the Georgia Council for the Arts through the appropriations of the Georgia General Assembly. GCA also receives support from its partner agency, the National Endowment for the Arts. MOS receives support from the Audience Building Roundtable, which is an initiative of The Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation.
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