 |
The Queens College Choral Society (QCCS), founded in 1941, only four years after the college itself, began as a way of involving the wider community in the activities of the college. Organized by John Castellini of the Music Department, the Choral Society held its first performance, Handel's Messiah, in the Jamaica High School auditorium on December 19, 1941. Born in World War II, the Choral Society gave significant support to community morale, and its concerts were well-attended. The premiere performance, just twelve days after the attack on Pearl Harbor, was to a full house.
Professor Castellini, Chairman of the Music Department until his retirement in 1973, continued to lead the Choral Society through December 1969. Within the first ten years of its existence, the Choral Society performed Haydn’s Creation, Mendelssohn’s Elijah, Mozart’s Requiem, and several Bach cantatas. In May 1949, it performed the American premiere of Vivaldi’s Gloria.
Following Professor Castellini as conductor, Dr. Carl Eberl of the college Music Department took the Society in a new direction with works by such composers as Poulenc, Kodaly and Honegger. In the fall of 1978, Dr. Lawrence Eisman, also of the Music Department, became director of the Society, a position he held until June 2001. Under "Larry," as he was affectionately called, the Society reached new levels of member enthusiasm and community support. Dr. James John has led the Society since 2002, and has carried on this tradition with performances of such masterpieces as Verdi's Requiem and Britten's War Requiem.
Besides familiar masterworks, the Choral Society premieres compositions by the School of Music faculty and choral works representing other cultures, such as Misa Criolla by Argentina’s Ariel Ramirez.
Since its founding, the Choral Society has been sponsored by Queens College, a four-year college in the City University of New York. The college provides the Choral Society with a director and rehearsal space. Concerts are given twice yearly, in December and May. Membership is open to all those with some experience in choral singing, including the community as well as staff and students of the college. The opportunity to perform major choral works with orchestra draws community members of all ages, a cross-generational membership, along with undergraduate and graduate music majors in the college’s Aaron Copland School of Music, who perform in the chorus and the orchestra.
|
Excerpted from Cindy L. Bell’s paper presented August 5-9, 2002 Hogeschool voor Muziek en Dans, Rotterdam, The Netherlands published in 2002 ISMA Conference Proceedings and The Queens College Choral Society, An Historical Narrative for the years 1941-1981 by Elise Zazula. |
|
