LINCOLN/ CORNWALL/ SALISBURY — The Vermont Symphony Orchestra’s “Ah! Cappella” Vocal Quartet will present performances for three Addison County schools on May 18. (See schedule below.) These performances, which are funded by an anonymous donor and Neat Repeats, will take place at Lincoln Community School at 9 a.m., Bingham Memorial School in Cornwall at 11 a.m., and Salisbury Community School 1:15 p.m.
Using nothing but the instruments they were born with, the four singers in “Ah! Cappella” have wowed schoolchildren across the state with a varied and amusing program since their debut in 1999. The quartet performs a wide selection of music in many styles, from an early madrigal and part of a mass to an African-American spiritual; and from an unusual arrangement of “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” to sing-and-clap-along songs. A question-and-answer period allows students to explore not only the group’s multicultural musical choices, but the lives of professional Vermont musicians as well. The show builds to the message that music as a universal language can bring the world closer together by singing together.
Ah! Cappella members are: soprano Claire Hungerford, of St. Albans; alto Melissa Chesnut-Tangerman of Middletown Springs; tenor Cameron Steinmetz of Montpelier; and baritone Kevin Quigley of Hartford.
These performances are part of the Vermont Symphony Orchestra’s statewide SymphonyKids education program, which reached over 22,000 schoolchildren last year with 257 presentations serving 139 schools in 111 different towns.