New director leads Albany Chorale
Staff Photo: Jim Hendricks
Staff Photo: Jim Hendricks
By Jim Hendricks
Staff Correspondent
ALBANY — The Albany Chorale has begun rehearsing for its 2019-20 season with new direction.
Artistic Director Travis Kern, of Moultrie, was wielding the baton for the first time as 32 singers gathered for their first rehearsal Monday evening at Porterfield Memorial United Methodist Church.
In his eighth year as choir director for Colquitt County High School, Kern assumed the directorship of the Albany Chorale a few weeks ago. He’s still working out the programming for the 2019-20 season, which opens Oct. 24.
As vocalists signed up at Porterfield before the rehearsal began, Kern said it’s been a hectic few weeks with school resuming.
“I just signed about a month ago, so I’m working on it (music programming),” he said. “I do five or six choirs at school and I also do a church choir, so it’s been kind of busy.”
Kern is taking over the position that Marc Boensel held for the past four seasons. Boensel, artistic assistant with the Albany Symphony Orchestra, commuted to direct the chorale after taking the position of director of music ministries at St. Luke Methodist Church in Columbus in 2017. He left the Albany Chorale after the spring finale last season.
“I’ve got pretty much half of it,” Kern said. “I know we’re going to start with an Americana theme — American music. Then ‘Home for Christmas’ at Christmastime.
“I know they’ve got Beethoven planned for the spring with the Albany Symphony, so that’s part of the spring offerings. But I’ll work on the spring concerts over the next couple of weeks.”
The schedule, meanwhile, has been set for the season. As usual, the chorale performances — with a single exception — are scheduled for Thursday evenings. Pianist Meri Beth Hillard will accompany the chorale for the 11th season.
The 2019-20 season starts Oct. 24 with “America the Beautiful.” The chorale opened its last two seasons at St. Teresa’s Catholic Church, but a venue has not been determined for this season’s opener.
The “Home for Christmas” concert will follow on Dec. 12 at its traditional location, First United Methodist Church of Albany at 307 Flint Ave. The holiday concert will have an encore presentation on Dec. 16 — a Monday — at Leesburg United Methodist Church, 117 Starksville Ave. in Leesburg. This is the second year that the holiday concert has had twin performances at the two churches.
The second half of the season opens Feb. 13 at Porterfield Church, which has become the chorale “home field” with its rehearsals there at 6:30 p.m. on Mondays. While that concert has not been titled, it will have a love theme given its proximity to Valentine’s Day.
The chorale will end its season with an untitled finale performance on April 30 at Avalon United Methodist Church, 3018 Gillionville Road.
Before its final concert, the Albany Chorale will join the chorus backing the Albany Symphony at the orchestra’s season finale on April 4: the Beethoven Birthday Bash. That concert is part of the ASO’s performance season.
Kern brings with him 28 years of experience as a music and choir director.
“I’ve been at Colquitt County High School for eight years now,” he said. “I just resigned from the Colquitt County Men’s Community Choir so I could take this position because they met on Monday nights as well, and,” he quipped, “my wife would want me to come home occasionally.”
During Boensel’s tenure, the chorale increased its membership from 17 vocalists to more than 40. The organization has set goals to reach 50 active vocalists and to be recognized as the region’s premier choral group.
The initial rehearsal Monday saw a good turnout. Kern says he hopes to continue that growth trend and suggested a higher number is attainable.
“I know the more that you have and the more sound you create, the more fun it is because you don’t feel like you have to carry it all by yourself,” he said. “You’re part of a team.
“I would love to have 60. This is Albany. You’re a good-sized town. We should be able to find 60 singers.”
Kern also said his connections in southwest Georgia should be helpful.
“One of my strengths is I have ties in Colquitt (County) and I have ties in Valdosta, so I know we could do, for example, a ‘Messiah’ and get singers,” he said.
A combined effort of the Albany Chorale with choruses in Moultrie “could have 120-130 singers easy, so that’s something to shoot for next year,” he said.
But one season at a time. Just before he had his vocalists begin their first rehearsal by tackling one of the most challenging pieces from the upcoming “America the Beautiful” performance, Kern said he was happy to be directing the chorus.
“I’m just excited to be in a new town, to meet new people and make music here,” he said. “Come join us.”
The chorale’s website is albanychorale.org.
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