Opening Concert - Bruce Vantine's Cornerstone Chorale and Brass

(Co-Sponsored by Thiel College Guest Lecturer and Artist Series)

Friday, October 7, 2011 - 7:00 p.m.


Dr, Bruce Vantine, Conductor

               

Cornerstone Chorale and Brass, a professional touring ensemble will present a dramatic and inspirational program with the theme
"I Make All Things new." Cornerstone presents a wide variety of choral and instrumental music along with narration and musical interludes woven together to focus on faith and Christ's call to serve others. Cornerstone includes 21 singers, a brass quintet, narrators, and a pianist, who have performed in 388 venues in the U.S. and Canada including two programs at Holy Trinity in the past. Thiel College's Organist and adjunct professor Kathryn Gray will perform several hymns along with Cornerstone on the Casavant pipe organ.

Each year, composer and conductor Bruce Vantine chooses a specific theme to develop, often from scripture. He chooses a variety of choral and instrumental pieces of music, collects quotations from both sacred and secular sources, and composes musical interludes. Vantine then carefully weaves all the elements together to create a seamless texture of music and the spoken word. The presentations have been described as "a wonderful musical creations with a powerful and essential message."

 
The program features a unique combination of traditional choral and instrumental music with narration – woven together with newly composed musical themes. New York music critic Ken Smith wrote of Cornerstone's Lincoln Center performance: 
"The Cornerstone Chorale & Brass is a top-notch ensemble with a high level of musicianship.   Vantine's 22 singers are superb, worthy of any studio.  The choir demonstrates a fine blend of vocal quality with dead-center pitch and a rhythmic precision most vocal ensembles would kill for. The brass quintet is crisp, carefully balanced both within itself and with the chorus.  The evening provided a message of great importance."

 
New York critic Barrett Cobb wrote of Cornerstone's Carnegie Hall performance:

"Part church service, part Passion play, part concert, this program assumes a unique form . . . diction was exemplary . . . beautiful sound, excellent intonation and sincerity . . . the audience loved it!"

 
Santa Fe, NM music critic Norma Lynn writes of Cornerstone "a beautiful tone quality and superb musicality and musicianship.  This ensemble is drawn nationally from the crème de la crème.  What a pleasure to hear such a wonderful sound produced with such freedom and yet with such control.... [and their] very rich, in-depth music making. Don't miss them!"

 
Cornerstone is the creation of its conductor, Dr. Bruce Vantine, and consists of 31 professional vocalists, instrumentalists, narrators and staff currently on a three week tour including 18 performances in the central and eastern U.S.  Members of the ensemble include experienced professional performers from all over the United States.

 
The group is marking its 24th year presenting uplifting programs which sometimes serve to help raise funds for charities in the local sponsoring community. This engaging and uplifting program is designed to encourage people to live their faith at a higher level of commitment - especially in reaching out to those in need.

 
Each year, composer and conductor Bruce Vantine chooses a specific theme to develop, often from scripture.  He chooses a variety of choral and instrumental pieces of music, collects quotations from both sacred and secular sources and composes musical interludes which develop thematically, somewhat like motion picture music. Vantine then carefully weaves all the elements together to create a seamless texture of music and the spoken word.  The result is a kind of concert drama that encourages individuals to respond to the needs of others.  Touching on religious, family and thanksgiving themes, the programs speak to relevant issues in our contemporary society such as poverty, homelessness, children's issues, racial or religious tolerance and spiritual development. The presentations have been described as "wonderful musical creations with a powerful and essential message."  These festive and meaningful concerts are sometimes sponsored by clusters of churches, ecumenical organizations, the arts community and business leaders to benefit a local charity and to re-energize cooperation in addressing human need.  In this way Cornerstone, helps to build community. "ornerstone offers a message encouraging unity and hope in a time when many Americans are often discouraged by the difficulties we face as a nation," says Vantine. "It helps us see that it is within our power as individuals to make a difference, and that we have many opportunities to work together and to respond to human need." Bruce Vantine is founder and conductor of The Cornerstone Chorale & Brass.  He was associate professor of music at the University of Missouri-St. Louis from 1980 to 1993 when he left to concentrate his work on developing Cornerstone.  A native of Bismarck, North Dakota, Vantine holds degrees from Concordia College, Moorhead, Minnesota, where he studied under Paul J. Christiansen; Michigan State University at East Lansing, where he worked with composers H. Owen Reed and Jere Hutcheson; and a doctor of musical arts degree in choral performance from the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana, where he studied with Harold A. Decker. Vantine's original compositions and arrangements are performed nationwide.