United Cultural Fund grants total $228,000 for 2013

By Barb Van Atta

Broome County Arts Council Board Chairman Fred Xlander and Executive Director Sharon Ball today (March 13) announced the awarding of more than $228,000 in United Cultural Fund (UCF) grants for 2013. Seven arts and cultural organizations will share in $210,428 in UCF general operating support grants. Project grants totaling another $18,298 will be shared by 14 organizations and individual artists.

BAMirror team moves into the spotlight

BAMirror contributors will be walking the walk as well as talking the talk over the next couple of weekends. Three of our regular reviewers (Lee Shepherd, Julian Shepherd and Tony Villecco) and Broome County Arts Council Executive Director Sharon Ball are all donning their performance hats.

Villecco, a tenor, will be featured in Nov. 17 in “Basically Baroque,” billed as “an evening of rare and not so rare vocal and musical selections from the 17^th and 18^thcenturies. Also performing will be Jeffrey Wahl, recorder; Madeleine Iannone, harpsichord, and Emily Creo, bass continuo.

The concert will begin at 8 p.m. at the Unitarian Church 183 Riverside Drive, Binghamton.

Cost at the door: $10 (senior citizens and students, $8). Information: (607) 727-3894.

Conductors comment on collaboration

Sunday’s presentation of Karl Jenkins’ “The Armed Man: A Mass for Peace” will mark the culmination of a season of collaborations for the Binghamton Community Orchestra and perhaps the most complex pairing of the year for The Madrigal Choir of Binghamton.

A singer’s perspective on ‘The Armed Man: A Mass for Peace’

EDITOR’S NOTE: Dave Schriber, a member of the The Madrigal Choir of Binghamton, wrote a participant’s perspective of the Choir’s upcoming concert with the Binghamton Community Orchestra. BAMirror also features an interview with the two organizations’ musical directors.

The Madrigal Choir of Binghamton and the Binghamton Community Orchestra will join forces Sunday (April 25) to perform contemporary Welsh composer Karl Jenkins’ “The Armed Man: A Mass for Peace.” It is a powerful and poignant piece in the tradition of other United Kingdom works such as Benjamin Britten’s “War Requiem” and Ralph Vaughn Williams’ “Dona Nobis Pacem” (the latter to be performed June 5 by the Downtown Singers).