ENSEMBLES 2008
Amabile Young Men's Choirs
Amabile Boys & Men's Choirs
The Amabile Boys & Men's Choirs, directed by Dr Carol Beynon and Ken Fleet, were founded in 1990 to provide musical experiences of the highest level for male singers in Southwestern Ontario. The organization focuses on character development through singing and artistic excellence.
More than 100 young men are involved in the five choirs within this organization: The Treble Training Choir (TTC), the Treble Concert Choir TCC), the Amabile Young Men's Choir (YM), Primus Men's Choir and the Amabile Young Men's Ensemble (AYME). Trebles whose voices change have immediate access to the tenor-bass youth choir and opportunities to continue their vocal and musical education. The choirs are committed to leadership development among young men in our society, performing traditional masterpieces of the male choral literature as well as encouraging the development of Canadian repertoire for male voices. The choirs have released three CD's with two new releases in this season.
Amabile Young Men
The Young Men (YM) is made up of boys with changing voices who range in age from 12 to 19 years of age. This choir focuses on healthy vocal development and provides an introduction to challenging male voice repertoire. They perform regularly in the Amabile concert series and often combine with the Primus Ensemble for performances - becoming the Amabile Young Men's Ensemble.
Carol Beynon
Conductor
Dr Carol Beynon is Associate Dean, Faculty of Graduate Studies and Associate Professor in Music Education at the Faculty of Education at the University of Western Ontario. She is the founding co-artistic director of the renowned and award-winning Amabile Boys and Men's' Choirs of London, Canada. Dr Beynon is a specialist in vocal and choral development specializing in unchanged and changed male voices and serves as a clinician and adjudicator for music festivals in Canada and around the world. With Amabile, she has been involved in invited and reviewed performances and recordings for the World Choral Symposium, the American Choral Directors' Association, Association of Canadian Choral Conductors and the International Society for Music Education with ensuing broadcasts on CBC, BBC, Bravo TV and Czech National TV. Dr Beynon is the author of the book Learning to Teach published by Pearson Canada, 2001 and has a second edited publication to be released in 2008 entitled, Music Education in Canada: What is the State of the Art? She also has numerous scholarly articles about music education, choral music, teacher development and teacher identity in several peer reviewed journals. Dr Beynon has received several awards for outstanding teaching from the University Student Council and in 2007 was named the Woman of Excellence in Arts, Culture and Heritage 2007 for London, Ontario and community.
Ken Fleet
Conductor
Ken Fleet is a graduate of The University of Western Ontario and Westminster Choir College, Princeton, NJ. He has taught at Medway Secondary School since 1976. From 1984 to 1995, as part-time faculty at UWO, he taught education, conducting and choirs including Concert Choir, Chorale and the UWO Singers. Since 1988 he has been conductor of Pro Musica. He has been a frequent guest conductor of Orchestra London and has presented numerous clinics, workshops and adjudications across Canada and North America. Since 1982 he has been a teacher/administrator at the Ontario Educational Leadership Centre. He was the 1999 conductor of the Ontario Youth Choir. He also is a choral editor for the Neil A. Kjos Music Company, San Diego, California.
Bonnie Shewan Burroughs
Conductor
For the past 14 years, Bonnie Shewan Burroughs has performed, toured and recorded with the Amabile Boys Choirs, and currently plays for AYME and Primus. After graduating in Piano Performance, her teacher, Dr. Damjana Bratuz, advised further study in Europe where she studied and attended master classes in Salzburg, Vienna, Siena and London, England over a period of three years. She has performed as a chamber musician with leading instrumentalists from such orchestras as the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Israel Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic and the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. With the Ardeleana Trio, she also premiered many newly commissioned works and recorded a CD of contemporary trios. Most recently, she performed in the prestigious Aeolian Concert Series at Wolf performance hall with members of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra.
Celebration Program
J. Leavitt: "Festival Sanctus"
S. Glick: "Psalm 23"
E. Whitacre: "Lux Aurumque"
S. Sametz: "Ne Sedi Djemo"
M. Sirett: "The Cloths of Heaven"
arr. T. Worthington: "Soldiers Cry"