Singing Beautiful Music Together!
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Artistic Director, Christina Lynn-Craig will be holding auditions throughout the Summer. No sight-reading involved, but an ability to learn music quickly and a willingness to memorize music. Experienced choral singers ages eighteen through seventy-something are encouraged to audition.
Aster Women’s Chamber Choir
Appropriate for ages 10 and older.
Tuesday July 28, 2015 7:00 PM
Broomfield Auditorium, 3 Community Park Road, 80020
Free and Open to the Public
Suggested Donations $10 Adults and $5 for Students & Seniors
With a millennia of music to choose from, selecting songs to sing for an audience can be fairly overwhelming. The solution ASTER Women’s Chamber Choir came up with was picking songs from several eras, providing a little something for everyone.
“From Baroque to Boogie and Beyond” will offer music lovers a variety of tunes ranging from the great masters, such as Mozart and Bach, to jazz legend Dave Brubeck and American Songbook composer George Gershwin.
ASTER Women’s Chamber Choir joins forces with the Apollo Chamber Brass Quintet to present From Baroque to Boogie and Beyond — a concert celebrating ASTER’s fifteen seasons. Two performances will be held on Saturday, April 25 at 2 pm and 7:30 pm at the Broomfield Auditorium. The program will feature music by Bach, Mozart, Dave Brubeck, Gershwin and others which will put a smile on your face and a song in your heart. The contrast between women’s choir and handsome men playing brass has proven to be a winning combination! ASTER is eager to bring in new audience members for this lively concert, so please invite a friend or two to come with you to the performance! For the younger music lover in your life, this show is appropriate for ages 10 and older. Admission for this event is $12 for adults and $8 for seniors and students. Tickets will be available at the Audi Box Office on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays from 1-5 pm; through brownpapertickets.com or at the door. Be sure that you purchase tickets for the correct performance time. For the 2 pm show you may purchase your tickets online at www.brownpapertickets.com/event/1157982. For the 7:30 pm show, you may purchase your tickets online at www.brownpapertickets.com/event/1157984.
Apollo Chamber Brass
Corrie and Ayla
ASTER Chamber Choir
Dorothy Fields
Saturday, October 18th at 7:30pm
Broomfield Auditorium, 3 Community Park Rd
Admission: $12/adults, $8 students/seniors
Tickets at brownpapertickets.com or at the Audi box office
Spring in Scandinavia, Original Artwork by Corrie Frank
ASTER Women’s Chamber Choir is delighted to be presenting a program of pieces which celebrate the return of Spring in Scandinavia. Many of the pieces we will sing are choral arrangements of folk songs. Folk songs, folk dances and folk arts and crafts offer people an insight into the distinctive ‘personalities’ of the countries where they originated. Percy Scholes said in his article on Folk Song in The Oxford Companion to Music that folks songs are “….seen as the authentic expression of a way of life now past ….” Most traditional folk songs are very old and have been passed down from one generation to another by oral tradition. They were sung by the plain folk. People who are of Scandinavian ancestry will want to make a special effort to attend this concert to hear the music that their great-grandparents might have heard or sung.
In order to learn these pieces, ASTER is collaborating with guest artist Dr. Riikka Pietaläinen-Caffrey on our “Springtime in Scandinavia” concerts. Riikka is from Finland and has made arrangements of several Finnish folk songs for the choir to perform. She is an amazing and enthusiastic diction coach, which is very good, because most people in the choir do not speak Swedish, Finnish or Norwegian!
In addition to the folk music, you will hear pieces by Sibelius, Grieg, Anders Edenroth (from the contemporary Swedish a cappella group The Real Group) AND a set of pieces composed for the choir by Broomfield resident Alex Craig called “Astersongs” and an original composition by Dr. Riikka Pietaläinen-Caffrey based on a poem written by her grandmother.
with guest artists
Margot Krimmel, Celtic Harp, Beth Gadbaw vocals and Bodhran,
Jean Ballhorn, Fiddle and Natalie Bixler, Irish Step Dancer.
Gadbaw & Krimmel
The always delightful Gadbaw and Krimmel have been crowd pleasers on several previous ASTER concerts. Beth Gadbaw came of age traveling from pub to folk club in the West of Ireland and the South of England. Harpist Margot Krimmel is the winner of first place medals in the Pop and Harp Jazzfest and the Colorado Scottish Highlands Games. Their original carol, The Donkey and the Doves, was voted in as one of Colorado Public Radio’s Top Fifty Carols.
This family friendly program is appropriate for children ages 7 and older.
Friday, November 8th at 7:30 PM at Trinity Lutheran Church in Boulder
2200 Broadway, Boulder, CO 80302 (NE corner of Pine and Broadway)
Saturday, November 9th at 2 PM at the Episcopal Church of the Holy Comforter
1700 W 10th Ave, Broomfield, CO 80020 (SW corner of 10th Avenue and Highway 287)
Admission: $12 adults, $8 students and seniors, $5 children 12 and under.
Tickets available at brownpapertickets.com or at the door. (Advance purchase is advised.)
ASTER is holding auditions for the upcoming concert season. The choir rehearses on Tuesday evenings in Broomfield beginning on September 3rd.
Our Fall concert will be a Celtic Celebration with guests Margot Krimmel and Beth Leachman. Performances will be on Friday, November 8th and Saturday, November 9th.
Please call Christina Lynn-Craig at 303-466-2879 to schedule an audition. The Spring concerts will be “Spring in Scandinavia” with guest conductor Dr. Riikka Pietilainen-Caffrey on Saturday, May 17th and another date TBA.
Saturday April 27, 2013, 7:30PM
Broomfield Auditorium
3 Community Park Rd
Broomfield, Colorado
A tribute to the wonderful close harmonies of the Boswell Sisters and the Andrews Sisters and the jazzy melodies of Fats Waller, Duke Ellington, Jeanine Tesori and other composers whose music makes us want to “Misbehave!”
Admission: $15/adults, $10 students/seniors
Advanced purchase highly recommended. Tickets will be availble at the door.
Tickets available at www.brownpapertickets.com/event/312804
The joint will be jumpin’!!
A family concert (for ages 6 and above)
Come hear stories and beautiful music from Finland, Norway, Denmark and Sweden!
Featuring Special Guest Riikka Pietiläinen-Caffrey
Admission $10 adults
$5 seniors/students
with canned food donation for FISH
Dr. Riikka Pietiläinen-Caffrey was born in Kemi, Finland, one hundred kilometers below the Arctic Circle. Riikka moved to Helsinki at the age of sixteen to attend the prestigious Sibelius High School. In high school, Riikka sang in choirs with one of the leading figures of the Finnish choral tradition, Marjukka Riihimäki. After high school, Riikka toured the world with Marjukka’s world-renowned female choir Philomela.
In the fall of 2001 Riikka moved to New York to study saxophone at the City College of New York. While in college Riikka drifted back to her first love, choral music, and founded her own female choir Las Sirenas. In the spring of 2005 Las Sirenas performed Riikka’s composition Viel valkee aamu, which was based on the war-time pomes of her grandmother. The nine-movement composition was composed for female choir and percussion, and choreographed by Riikka’s high school friend Hanna Kivioja.
After her bachelor’s degree Riikka moved to Boulder to continue graduate studies in choral conducting at the University of Colorado. During her doctoral studies she was the conductor of the University Women’s Chorus. Riikka has also been working as the Coordinator of Traditional Worship at Broomfield United Methodist Church since 2008. Riikka holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the City College of the City University of New York, and Master of Music and Doctor of Musical Arts in Choral Conducting from the University of Colorado.
About this concert:
I first sung these carols with Marjukka Riihimäki at Sibelius High School in Helsinki. While quite a few years have passed since those days, when I sing any of these songs, I can still picture my fellow singers and my wonderful mentor. I wish that with this traditional repertoire, I can share my love for Finnish choral music and female choirs with both the singers and audience
