Harmonium, Neighborhood House chorus team up for workshop and concert

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Sometimes, it pays to make a bid.  

The founder and artistic director of the Young People’s Chorus of New York, Francisco J. Núñez, will lead a workshop Sunday featuring the Harmonium Choral Society’s year-old children’s chorus from the Neighborhood House in Morristown as his demonstration group.  

“He’s a really famous and dynamic conductor of urban choirs,” said Anne Matlack, Harmonium artistic director and director of the children’s chorus. They won his visit thanks to a winning bid in a Chorus America silent auction.   

The workshop, Working with the Children’s Chorus, runs from 2 to 5 p.m. at the Neighborhood House.  Núñez will work from 3:30-4:30 with the children, who will perform his Three Dominican Folksongs: a children’s game Brinca La Tablita (Jump the Blocks), a lullaby Duermete Mi Nino (Sleep My Baby) and the humorous Arroz Con Leche (Rice Pudding). Cost is $30, but free for parents of the young singers.   

The Neighborhood House children's chorus joins members of Harmonium in singing at the Morristown United Methodist Church in March 2010. Paula Roper photo

  

The youngsters also will sing the pieces at a free Harmonium concert at the Morristown United Methodist Church at 2 p.m. April 9. They will join the 80-member Harmonium adult chorus for some pieces, including Harry Bellafonte’s “Rurn the World Around.” Harmonium also will perform some music alone. And students from the Neighborhood House’s newest musical initiative, a violin class taught by Terrence Thornhill and sponsored by the Morris County chapter of Links, will perform three pieces.  

A reception will follow.   

Matlack started the Neighborhood House choral program in January 2010, and the children performed their first concert with Harmonium two months later. The goal was to offer something different than the choral programs already available for the children of suburban families.   

“Morris County doesn’t really need another tuitioned music chorus,” Matlack said. “There’s opportunities to have a wonderful children’s choir of a certain model. For these kids, there’s not a lot of opportunity for enrichment, especially if there’s anything you need to drive them to.”   

“I want them to know that choral singing is fun, that it’s kind of global – to give them that experience of singing in different languages and different styles – and that you do it at all ages, which is part of the reason for putting them with Harmonium,” Matlack said. “I want their families and their community in Morristown to know that a concert presented by somebody like [Harmonium] is accessible and enjoyable to them.”   

This year’s concert is free and located in downtown Morristown to make it as accessible as possible to the choristers’ families, she said. “The free concert’s going to be very family-friendly.”   

The choral program is high energy but low pressure. Instead of calling the final rehearsal a dress rehearsal, for example, “I told the kids it’s a pizza party.” The youngsters will meet at the Neighborhood House, then walk to the church for the rehearsal.   

The children's chorus, seen here in last year's debut concert, will perform with Harmonium again on April 9. Paula Roper photo

  

The chorus has involved about 30 children in first through fifth grades throughout the year, with about 20 expected to perform at Sunday’s workshop and the April 9 concert. The students also sang during Black History Month and at a fall school fundraiser.   

Notices for parents are printed in English and Spanish. Earlier in the year, Harmonium volunteer Leslie Adler helped the first-graders get up to speed. The Thursday after-school rehearsal time often competes with homework time for the older students using the Neighborhood House’s computers for their projects, so Matlack is considering rehearsing them separately for a shorter time.   

“It’s actually kind of chaotic, but worth it,” she said. “Next year we’ll work out even more kinks to make it the best experience for the kids possible.”

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