August 2004

Dear Cantabile Singers and Parents,

Greetings from your new artistic director! I hope this letter finds you enjoying this beautiful summer with many fun things to do.

Let me start by thanking you for selecting me as the Cantabile’s new Artistic Director. I am honored and thrilled to assume this position. It has been a dream of mine to return to working with young voices. Cantabile has a rich choral music tradition amplified by impeccable curriculum, highly qualified and exceptionally capable administrative and artistic staff and a devoted board. I look forward to joining the team with Sonja, JoAnn, Shane, Mary, Judy, our board and, now, Kara and Keri. We all share a passion for music education the overall growth of your child. After hearing and seeing all Cantabile ensembles in concert and at rehearsals this past spring, I am very impressed by the singers’ enthusiasm, musicality and vocal skills and can’t wait to begin working with such fine musicians!

Summer for me (and most conductors) is the time to select repertoire, and this task is definitely one of the fun parts of a choral director’s job. Playing through dozens of scores, listening to CDs, digging into old concert programs...a great adventure and a quest to put together the most beautiful, exciting, challenging, and artistically fulfilling set of compositions that will allow singers to grow and evolve as artists and people. I could do this for hours.

Our 2004–2005 season is shaping up to be very exciting. For our Winter and Spring concerts I am planning a diverse and eclectic repertoire that will span over 400 years of choral music from Renaissance madrigals to Broadway selections and “new age” compositions with computer accompaniment. For the past few years I have been fascinated with the idea of multi media productions where singing, dancing, lighting and acting are intertwined and have been experimenting with such pieces with my SJSU choirs.

In addition to our regular season programs, we will feature several Saturday workshops with highly acclaimed guest clinicians as well as outreach performances. The Concert Choir and Chamber Ensemble will make guest appearances with the San Jose State University choirs: at the Annual Scholarship Concerts at the beautiful Mission Santa Clara Church (Nov 5 and 7) and in Orff’s Carmina Burana at the SJSU Spring Choral Concerts (May 6 and 7.) These will be great experiences for our young singers to perform with music students who are preparing for careers in vocal and instrumental performance, choral conducting and music education.

I hope you are getting excited about the upcoming season. It will be busy, intense, challenging and incredibly interesting in every way. I am looking forward to getting to know all the returning and new singers as well as meeting their devoted parents.

Have a fabulous rest of summer. Soak up the sun. Enjoy time with family as I am with my loving husband, Tony, and darling six-month-old son, Sasha. I look forward to seeing you in September!

—Elena Sharkova