Graveline to Conduct Salisbury Singers Concert

November, 2005 - Michelle Graveline, associate professor of Music at Assumption College, will conduct the opening concert of the 32nd season of the Salisbury Singers, an independent chorus of mixed voices, which is well known to audiences in Central Massachusetts. The concert is titled “Manifest Destiny: Tracing America’s Roots.”

The mixed chorus of about 80 singers will lead audience members on an aural journey across America through time with traditional folksongs such as Simple Gifts, Shenandoah, Home Sweet Home, and  The Yellow Rose of Texas. The concert well be held on Saturday, November 12 at 7:30 pm in the United Congregational Church (6 Institute Road, Worcester). Tickets are $20 for adults, $17 for seniors and students, and may be reserved by calling 508-799-3848 or visiting www.salisburysingers.org.

“The month of November brings with it Veterans Day and Thanksgiving, when we are reminded of the values and traditions that make this nation great,” said Dr. Graveline, now in her eighth season with the chorus. “This concert will feature traditional songs that embody America’s dreams, struggles and will to overcome as she moves forward to fulfill her manifest destiny.”

Love, war, work, and expansion are common themes expressed in the music, set for chorus by well-known composers such as Aaron Copland, Alice Parker and Bob Chilcott. Some selections re-enact the spirit and fortitude of our forbears during wartime, including the Civil War songs  Workin’ for the Dawn of Peace and Two Brothers. Others pay tribute to a city or region, such as Goin’ to Boston and Buffalo Gals. 

Under the direction of Dr. Graveline the chorus has more than doubled in size and performed to critical acclaim. Works presented with orchestra in the last few years include Mozart Coronation Mass, Handel Coronation Anthems, Mendelssohn Elijah, Bach Mass In B Minor, Verdi Requiem, Haydn Mass In Time Of War, Bernstein Chichester Psalms, Merryman Jonah, and Orff Carmina Burana.

With the Assumption College Chorale, a select, auditioned concert choir, Dr. Graveline has performed numerous works for chorus and orchestra, including Haydn Creation, Beethoven Mass in C and Choral Fantasy, Faure Requiem, Poulenc Gloria, Mozart Requiem, and Handel Messiah. She has led the Chorale on eight national and international concert tours, performing in Ireland, France, Germany, Austria, Italy, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Russia, and Greece.The Chorale has sung at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris and St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome, and has twice had the distinction of performing for Pope John Paul II. Dr. Graveline is also Music Director of the Polymnia Choral Society of Melrose.

Graveline has worked with such distinguished conductors as Robert Page, Harold Faberman, Vance George, Margaret Hillis, Gregg Smith and Dale Warland. She has been a conducting fellow at several prestigious conducting institutes affiliated with Chorus America, and at the Conductors Institute at Bard College. She has guest-conducted massed choirs at American Choral Directors Association collegiate festivals, community chorus festivals, the American Guild of Organists Region I Convention, the Central Mass. High School Choral Festival, and the Central Mass. Symphony Holiday Pops. She has served as an adjudicator and given vocal clinics for Mass. Instrumental and Choral Conductors state festivals and was adjudicator for the Harmony Sweepstakes A Cappella competition at Tufts University in March 2005.

She is currently State chair for community choruses for the Mass. American Choral Directors Association, and has organized vocal health workshops and written articles for that organization.