July 15, 2022
CONTACT: CALEB BAILEY, 860-443-2876, [email protected]
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
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ECSO and Chorus seeking Chorus Director – Job Announcement
Eastern Connecticut Symphony Orchestra (ECSO) and Chorus announces a vacancy for the contractual position of Music Director/Conductor of the Eastern Connecticut Symphony Chorus (ECSC). The start date for this position will be Fall 2022.
Highly qualified, experienced, choral conductors may apply. Interested candidates must submit a cover letter, curriculum vitae, rehearsal and concert videos, three letters of recommendations, and a sample choral program for a holiday concert with a chamber orchestra, and a regular season choral program with a chamber orchestra.
All application materials should be submitted via email, with the subject line “ECSC Director Search” to ECSO Executive Director, Caleb Bailey, [email protected]. All applications for this position must be submitted no later than Friday, September 9, 2022.
A search committee will evaluate the application materials, and the semifinalists will be notified and interviewed remotely after the application deadline. Finalists may be invited to audition with the ECSC in rehearsal format in person. The repertoire will be provided prior to the audition. The search committee will also interview the finalists. Compensation is commensurate with experience, with a salary range of $8,000 to $10,000 for this position. For any additional questions or information, please visit ectsymphony.com or email [email protected].
Job responsibilities and structure:
The ECSC Director is responsible for the artistic leadership and supervision of the Chorus, and shall perform the artistic planning, conducting, promotional and administrative duties described below.
a. prepare, rehearse and conduct all Eastern Connecticut Symphony Chorus
concerts and community appearances as well as prepare the Chorus for any
performances supporting the ECSO, on dates which shall be established by
Board in consultation with the ECSC Director;
b. maintain good, professional relations with the Board, Chorus members,
Executive Director, and all external ECSO constituents;
c. be the primary artistic spokesperson for ECSC, coordinating public statements
with the Executive Director;
d. participate in development, social, and other fundraising activities; and
e. attend Chorus Board meetings as an ex-officio member of the Board and report
activities and recommendations to the Board or its designated
Additionally, attend ECSO regular and annual Board meetings when schedule
allows.
About the ECSC and ECSO
The Eastern Connecticut Symphony Chorus (ECSC) was founded as a subsidiary of the Eastern Connecticut Symphony Orchestra in 1967 with Connecticut College Choral Director James F. Armstrong directing. The ECSC is comprised of volunteer, auditioned singers of all ages. They perform with the ECSO annually in a subscription concert as well as independently in two choral repertoire concerts, a December holiday concert, and Palm Sunday concerts in Norwich. In June 2009, members of the Chorus sang in concerts in Venice and other European cities. Members of the Chorus were invited to sing with the Yale Symphony under the baton of ECSO Music Director and Conductor, Toshiyuki Shimada in May 2013 and again in 2015. The Chorus rehearses weekly in southeastern Connecticut on Wednesday evenings, 7pm – 9pm, from October through April.
In 1946, Victor Norman founded the Eastern Connecticut Symphony Orchestra (ECSO), which he conducted and guided for the next 35 years. In May 2008, a search committee selected 6 finalists from a field of 220 applicants from 5 continents, each of whom conducted a concert during the 2008-2009 season. Toshiyuki Shimada emerged as the winner and the fifth music director in the history of the Eastern Connecticut Symphony Orchestra. Toshi celebrated his 10th anniversary with the ECSO in 2019.
Annually from early fall to late spring, the 75-plus member professional Symphony Orchestra presents six subscription concerts, most of which feature guest soloists. Most subscription concerts are performed at the historic Garde Arts Center on State Street in New London. The mission of the Eastern Connecticut Symphony Orchestra is to “inspire, educate, and connect our communities through live orchestral music.”
The ECSO is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization serving the eastern Connecticut region, including New London, Norwich, Waterford, Groton, Mystic, Old Lyme and East Lyme. Recent concerts in Norwich, Willimantic and Stonington reflect our renewed dedication to serving a broader area.
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Thursday, February 3, 2022
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: CALEB BAILEY, 860-443-2876, [email protected]
Click here for downloadable .pdf version
New ECSO Executive Coordinator Announced
The ECSO is pleased to announce the appointment of Cara Cheung to the full-time position of Executive Coordinator. Reporting to the Executive Director, this role is a crucial part of the ECSO team through patron relations, marketing and design, office management, and event coordination.
Upon notice of her appointment, Cara had the following statement: ”I am very excited to be joining ECSO as the Executive Coordinator. I have admired the work Caleb, Toshi and everyone at ECSO did over the last couple of years but especially during the pandemic: completing a new website and presenting content that reminds us why it’s important to have quality live music in our little corner of the world. I look forward to meeting more of the ECSO community in the not too distant future.”
Caleb Bailey, ECSO’s Executive Director, will work closely with Cara to execute the ECSO’s mission to “inspire, educate, and connect our communities through live orchestral music.”
“Getting to know Cara Cheung through the interview process has been a great experience. She has the skills, personality, and passion for music, all of which are necessary to accomplish what we are working towards with our organization,” Bailey remarked.
Cara Cheung bio:
Known for the fluidity and spontaneity in her playing, Cara Cheung is a Canadian cellist born in Hong Kong. She has shared her passion for music on stage all across the world.
It was during her years as a performer that Cara discovered her interest in working behind the scenes: to facilitate the art form she loves in a different capacity. She was the 20/20 ensemble program coordinator at Hartt School of Music at the University of Hartford and has held different administrative positions at collegiate music schools. Through working in a wide range of community outreach and educational concerts, from correctional facilities to rehabilitation centers, from elementary schools to the senior living centers, Cara has had the chance to meet people from all walks of life and is convinced that music can make our lives better, no matter our circumstances. She is committed to bringing quality music to all people and helping surrounding communities to see music as a necessity for a life full of deep satisfaction.
Cara began her training at the Hong Kong Academy of Performing Arts under the tutelage of renowned pedagogy Ray Wang. While there, she was awarded a full-tuition scholarship and stipend for all years of her undergraduate studies. She then furthered her study at the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University with Brinton Smith where she received her Master’s degree. Cara also holds an Artist Diploma from the Hartt School of Music.
Cara resides in East Lyme with her husband, daughter, and a very cute 25-pound dog. She can be heard playing with Hartford Symphony Orchestra and New Haven Symphony Orchestra. In her spare time, she enjoys watching videos on Twitch and YouTube and listening to K-pop.
Friday, October 1, 2021
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: CALEB BAILEY, 860-443-2876, [email protected]
Click here for downloadable .pdf version
Check out our full 75th Anniversary Season Brochure
Single tickets and subscriptions on sale
for the ECSO’s 2021-22 75th Anniversary Season
The Eastern Connecticut Symphony Orchestra announces its 75th anniversary season since its founding in 1946 by Emeritus Music Director, Victor Norman. Join us for this landmark, celebratory season as the ECSO returns to the Garde Arts Center stage in New London on six Saturdays at 7:30 p.m.: October 23, November 20, January 22, February 19, March 19, and May 7.
Subscriptions and single tickets are currently on sale. Single tickets to events can be purchased by visiting the Garde Arts Center website at gardearts.org or by calling the Garde Arts Center Box Office at 860-444-7373 x 1 or the ECSO office at 860-443-2876. Subscription packages provide a significant discount versus purchasing individual tickets and are available by calling the ECSO office.
Attendees will enjoy a season of symphonic masterpieces by Haydn, Beethoven, and Sibelius; thrilling works by Russian composers Tchaikovsky, Prokofiev, and Shostakovich; rediscovered treasures by Black composers Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, Florence Price, and George Walker; and stimulating new pieces by contemporary composers—all memorably interpreted by Music Director & Conductor Toshiyuki Shimada and the full contingent of talented ECSO musicians.
ECSO Principal Trumpet Thomas Brown will be the featured soloist on October 23, playing Haydn’s Trumpet Concerto. Guest artists later in the season will include violinist Igor Pikayzen, saxophonist Joshua Thomas, and guitarist Jason Vieaux, who will perform Joaquín Rodrigo’s evocative Concierto de Aranjuez.
Opening night: Beethoven’s 5th
October 23, 7:30pm, Garde Arts Center, New London, CT
To kick off the Eastern Connecticut Symphony Orchestra’s 75th anniversary season and celebrate the return to the Garde Arts Center, Music Director & Conductor Toshiyuki Shimada leads the full orchestra in a performance of Polina Nazaykinskaya’s moving symphonic poem Fenix. This world premiere of Nazaykinskaya’s revised version references the mythological bird said to rise from its own ashes and signals the evening’s theme of endurance and rebirth. The concert’s first half then goes out with a flourish: Franz Joseph Haydn’s Trumpet Concerto, featuring U.S. Coast Guard Band member and ECSO Principal Trumpeter Thomas Brown. Following intermission, the orchestra pays tribute to Beethoven, whose 250th anniversary celebration in 2020 was postponed worldwide, with Symphony No. 5. This extraordinarily powerful work is built around the most famous four-note phrase in Western classical music.
Single tickets can be purchased by visiting the Garde Arts Center website at gardearts.org or by calling the Garde Arts Center Box Office at 860-444-7373 x 1 or the ECSO office at 860-443-2876.
COVID-19 protocols:
In order to safely celebrate our 75th anniversary season, we are implementing new concert attendance guidelines. All audience members will need to provide proof of a full course of vaccination for COVID-19 or a negative COVID-19 PCR test taken within 72 hours from the start of the concert. Items you should bring for admission to the hall includes a photo ID, photo or copy of your vaccination card, OR a photo, text, or email of a negative test result, where applicable. Masks will be required indoors at all times unless actively eating or drinking. Anyone unable or unwilling to comply with these guidelines may be asked to leave the concert, however refunds will be available in such cases.
Additionally, there will be no pre-concert chats in the hall or post-concert receptions in the upper lobby as there have been in the past until it is deemed safe to resume these once more. These guidelines are subject to change as the circumstances require and if government and venue recommendations evolve.
ECSO general copy:
We are thrilled to announce our 75th Anniversary Season’s lineup, curated by Music Director and Conductor Toshiyuki Shimada. This season marks the 12th year under the musical leadership of Music Director and Conductor Toshiyuki Shimada.
Visit www.ectsymphony.com for more information and follow us on social media (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube) @ectsymphony
The ECSO offers a range of affordable seating options from $65 to as low as $12 for attendance to one concert. The ECSO will continue to offer those under 40 years of age and active or retired military members $12 tickets in premium sections.
Founded in 1946, the mission of the Eastern Connecticut Symphony Orchestra is to inspire, educate, and connect our communities through live orchestral music.
Thursday, May 27, 2021
CONTACT: CALEB BAILEY, 860-443-2876, [email protected]
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Click here for downloadable .pdf version
ECSO will hold a summer concert Gala at Stonington Vineyards – Friday, June 25th, 2021
The Eastern Connecticut Symphony Orchestra will be holding a summer concert fundraiser at the Stonington Vineyards on Friday, June 25th from 6:00pm to 8:00pm. The concert will feature over 40 ECSO musicians, led by Music Director & Conductor, Toshiyuki Shimada. The orchestra will perform works by Leonard Bernstein, John Williams, Edward Elgar, and more, in addition to special selections performed by soprano, Sarah Yanovitch Vitale.
Tickets are available to purchase at stoningtonvineyards.com and cost $75 per person.
“Stonington Vineyards became one of the ECSO’s new partners as we found ways to perform music in smaller ensembles as part of the Soundscape Concert Series last summer and fall,” said Executive Director, Caleb Bailey.
Woodfellas Pizza & Wings will be on site offering food for purchase and attendees may also bring their own food. It is recommended to bring a blanket, lawn chairs, and a light jacket as it may get cooler towards the end of the evening. Stonington Vineyards wine will be available for purchase inside the winery and accordingly, no outside alcohol may be brought to the event. Masks must be worn inside to purchase wine, but no masks will be required when sitting outside.
In addition to the funds raised from the concert tickets, everyone will have the opportunity to bid on silent auction items on the ECSO’s GiveSmart page at ecso.givesmart.com. Items range from international trips to local experiences, with a wide variety of price points of donated items. All funds raised from the event and silent auction will support the ECSO’s mission “to inspire, educate, and connect our communities through live orchestral music.” Support now is especially important as the ECSO makes plans for its 75th anniversary concert season and returns to presenting indoor performances in the fall.
The Gala is generously sponsored by Chelsea Groton Bank, Dominion Energy, Norwich Ophthalmology Group, PC, Waller, Smith & Palmer, PC, and WhaleRock Point Partners, LLC.
Sarah Yanovitch Vitale info:
Consistently recognized for her rich sound and musical sensitivity, Boston-based soprano Sarah Yanovitch is in demand as a concert soloist and ensemble musician. Ms. Yanovitch has been a frequent soloist with Boston’s Handel and Haydn Society under the artistic direction of Harry Christophers, singing the role of Belinda in Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas, and soprano solos in Bach’s B minor and G major masses, as well as in cantatas 10, 36, 61, 140, and 179. She made her solo debut at Tanglewood in the summer of 2017 with H+H in Purcell’s Fairy Queen.
Other notable solo credits include the roles of Cupid and Venus in King Arthur with the Henry Purcell Society of Boston, Mozart’s Mass in C minor and Handel’s Judas Maccabaeus and Dixit Dominus at Boston University Marsh Chapel, Handel’s Messiah and the Mozart Requiem with Arcadia Players, Bach’s Mass in B Minor with Masaaki Suzuki and Juilliard 415, the Fauré Requiem and Beethoven Symphony No. 9 with the Eastern Connecticut Symphony, and the Brahms Requiem, Carmina Burana, and Vaughan Williams’ Dona nobis pacem with Yale Glee Club. Outside of Boston, Sarah has sung with such leading choral ensembles as Bach Collegium San Diego, The Thirteen, Yale Choral Artists, and GRAMMY® nominated Seraphic Fire.
Ms. Yanovitch is a graduate of the Yale School of Music and holds a master’s degree in Early Music Voice through the Institute of Sacred Music. During her time at Yale, Ms. Yanovitch worked closely with esteemed conductors Masaaki Suzuki, David Hill, and Simon Carrington, touring as a soloist throughout the United States, Italy, France, The Baltics, India, and the UK.
General organizational information:
The ECSO’s mission is to inspire, educate, and connect our communities through live orchestral music.
The ECSO is now in its 74th season. It is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization serving the eastern Connecticut region, including New London, Norwich, Waterford, Groton, Mystic, Old Lyme and East Lyme. Recent concerts in Norwich and Willimantic reflect our renewed dedication to serving a broader area.
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Wednesday, March 24, 2021
CONTACT: CALEB BAILEY, 860-443-2876, [email protected]
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Click here for downloadable .pdf version
ECSO unveils new website and signs to roll-out updated branding
The Eastern Connecticut Symphony Orchestra announces a new website and new storefront signs at their New London office location.
Designed by Miranda Creative, the new website (www.ectsymphony.com) updates functionality to be responsive to multiple devices and incorporates the new logo also designed by Miranda Creative. ECSO’s Board has been working behind the scenes during the pandemic to update the ECSO brand.
“Our new logo with the four bar design is fully inclusive of all of our partners that make up the ECSO: The Friends of the Symphony, the Eastern Connecticut Symphony Chorus, the Youth Orchestra and String Ensemble, and of course, the Symphony itself as the overarching artistic entity,” said Executive Director, Caleb Bailey. The update of the website was identified as a strategic priority at the last Board retreat and thanks to a donor gift, the process could begin while the orchestra was unable to perform on the traditional concert stage.
“This was an exciting and interesting project for us to take on,” said Tomasz Kazmierczak, art director at Miranda Creative. “It is our hope that the new logo and refreshed branding will increase the orchestra’s visibility and update the look and feel of the ECSO brand.”
“This fresh look and the new website will help ECSO continue to entrench itself as a valuable community and cultural asset to this region,” said Brian Pearson, who leads Miranda Creative’s web team. “The team at ECSO are great partners, and it was a pleasure to be part of such a fantastic project.”
ECSO worked with Critical Signs to update the storefront signs for the office location at 289 State St. Additionally, a new external sign will be added to the corner of State and Meridian Street, along with “ECSO” lettering in its windows on Meridian. The overall effect will be to better brand the ECSO office and to increase visibility to those visiting the office for routine business, meetings, or ticket information.
General organizational information:
The ECSO’s mission is to inspire, educate, and connect our communities through live orchestral music.
The ECSO is now in its 74th season. It is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization serving the eastern Connecticut region, including New London, Norwich, Waterford, Groton, Mystic, Old Lyme and East Lyme. Recent concerts in Norwich and Willimantic reflect our renewed dedication to serving a broader area.
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