ASTER Women’s Chamber Choir

Jan
2008

ASTER Gala 2008, Saturday June 21st

ASTER Women's Chamber Choir Gala
Those who attended ASTER’s first Gala will want to be sure to get their tickets early for this elegant evening. In addition to enjoying the CD release concert, and being the first on your block to purchase an ASTER CD, you’ll find many treasures worth bidding on at the Silent Auction. The ASTER Women’s Chamber Choir Gala will take place on Saturday, June 21st at the Broomfield Auditorium, 3 Community Park Drive in Broomfield. Tickets will be $30 per person.

Please contact ASTER’s event coordinator, Melanie Nehls Burrow, at andrewmel@yahoo.com or at 303-817-2634 if you are interested in becoming an event sponsor for the Gala, if you would like to donate an item or service for the Silent Auction, or if you would like to advertise in one of our program booklets.

For tickets, please contact Tina Lynn-Craig at tinaregina@aol.com or at 303-466-2879.

Posted: ASTER Gala 2008, Past Concerts

Nov
2007

Psalms, Prayers and Alleluias

This concert will combine choral and solo settings of sacred music from chant to gospel hymns including music from 15th century Italy to 20th century United States. ASTER has drawn upon works which have been especially popular during our past seven seasons. Gustav Holst’s magnificent eight-part Ave Maria and contemporary composer James Primosch’s Three Sacred Songs will be highlights of this evening of inspirational music.

Saturday, April 19th , 2008, 7:30 PM
Church of the Holy Comforter
1700 West 10th Avenue
Broomfield, CO 80020
<Map>

Tickets: $12 Adults, $8 Students/Seniors

Posted: Past Concerts

Jul
2007

Legendary Ladies - Heroic Women

ASTER Women’s Chamber Choir presented a collaborative concert with guest artists from Legendary Ladies who presented costumed portrayals of historic women including the Colorado poet Katherine Lee Bates, cowgirl Prairie Rose Henderson, pioneer Helga Estby who walked across North America in 1896; deaf psychic Helen Gilman who told fortunes in Boulder; and leader of the prohibitionist movement Carrie Nation. Musical highlights of the evening include Sandi Peaslee’s setting of Soujourner Truth’s famous text “And Ain’t I a Woman” and a fifteen minute choral tribute to Sacagewea by Broomfield composer and photographer Pete Simpson. Mr. Simpson’s photographs will be displayed in the lobby of the Auditorium prior to each performance.

Dates:
Friday, November 9th, 2007
Saturday, November 10th, 2007
Time: 7:30 PM

Location:
Broomfield Auditorium
3 Community Park Road
Broomfield, CO 80020

Tickets are $12 for adults, $8 for seniors and students. Tickets are available at the door or from any choir member. To reserve tickets or for general information please contact Christina Lynn-Craig at (303) 466-2879 or tinalynncraig@aol.com.

Posted: Past Concerts

May
2007

The Old Maid and the Thief

(Sorry, this performance is sold out!)

Saturday, June 9th, 2007 at 2 PM
at the Broomfield Auditorium
3 Community Park Road, Broomfield

Admission $10

(A limited number of $20 tickets are available which include a delightful tea at 12:45 in the lobby of the auditorium prior to the performance. Perfect for “Red Hatters” or others who like to sip tea while they visit.)

Join select members from ASTER Women’s Chamber Choir as we perform Gian Carlo Menotti’s nostalgic comic operetta (in English!). The operetta includes the wonderful soprano aria “Steal Me, Sweet Thief”, the baritone aria “When the Air Sings of Summer, I Must Wander Again”, and a charming duet for the two old maids.

The performance is a fundraiser for ASTER Women’s Chamber Choir. The cast includes Robert Dickert, Christina Lynn-Craig, Karen Murphy and Mariena Richards.

For more information, please call Christina Lynn-Craig at (303) 466-2879 or contact her at TinaRegina@aol.com. ASTER is offering a “two for the price of one” special on tickets to The Old Maid and the Thief for tickets purchased before June 1st (performance tickets only - no discount available for Tea tickets!).

ASTER thanks Mayor Karen Stuart and the Broomfield City Council for their ongoing support of the arts, and for the many upgrades to the AUDI during the past five years!

Cast of The Old Maid of the Thief

Posted: Past Concerts

May
2006

The Poet Sings

Celebrate National Poetry Month with ASTER

The Poet Sings will present beautiful choral and solo vocal music, live and recorded poetry readings, portraits and dramatic excerpts to bring the poems of Dickinson and Cummings to the audience in a vivid and memorable way.

It will feature musical settings of poems by Emily Dickinson and E. E. Cummings by Broomfield’s own Alex Craig, along with Vincent Persichetti and other contemporary American composers. The audience will also hear recordings of Cummings reading his own poetry, and see scenes from The Belle of Amherst, a dramatization of the life of Emily Dickinson. Additionally, a self-portrait of E. E. Cummings will adorn the stage during the performance.

This concert will be a collaboration between ASTER and the Mamie Doud Eisenhower (MDE) Library as a part of National Poetry Month and is appropriate for ages twelve and older.

Saturday, April 14th - 7:30 PM
at the Broomfield Auditorium
3 Community Park Road in Broomfield

Saturday, April 21st - 7:30 PM
at Trinity Lutheran Church
2200 Broadway (at Pine Street) in Boulder

Both concerts are free and open to the public.
Donations are gratefully accepted!

Posted: Past Concerts

May
2006

Quilters

A Musical Play by Molly Newman & Barbara Damashek

Music & Lyrics by Barbara Damashek

Christina Lynn-Craig, Artistic Director

Lisa Baird, Stage Director

Featuring Mariena Richards in the role of Sarah

Quilt Blocks and Legacy Quilt made by Karen Edmonds

Friday, November 17,2006
Saturday, November 18, 2006
At the Broomfield Auditorium
3 Community Park Road
Broomfield, CO
7:00 PM
Doors open for Quilt Exhibit at 6:00 PM

Both performances are sold out.

Originally developed and produced at the Denver Center Theatre company, this joyous and moving celebration of American Womanhood became a record-setting regional theater success before its presentations on Broadway and at the Edinburgh Festival. Combining music, dance movement and scenes of vivid dramatic intensity, the play pays eloquent tribute to the courage and spirit of our nation’s pioneer woman.

“Who would have thought that quilts, quilting—quilters—had so much joy and pain, laughter and tears, so much life, beauty and drama in them?” ~ Drama-Logue.
“…an unqualified success, as bright as the colors used in the quilts themselves.”
~ Hollywood Reporter.
“QUILTERS is a show pieced together with love and stitched with pride…a thing of beauty, comfort and joy.”
~ NY Post.
“…a tender and moving theatre work, a human patchwork rippling in the breeze of memory.”
~ Newsweek.

QUILTERS celebrates the strength, humor, faith and creativity of the women who helped settle the prairies of the American West. ASTER’s production will feature folk instruments and a larger than usual cast, bringing greater warmth and depth to the musical numbers. Though many scenes are playful and light-hearted, because of the adult nature of some of the shadow blocks, ASTER is rating this production “PG-13″.

Posted: Past Concerts

Apr
2006

Women’s Wisdom, Women’s Words

22 April 2006, 7:30 pm

Broomfield Auditorium
3 Community Park Road
Broomfield CO 80020
Map & Directions

28 April 2006, 7:30 pm

Unitarian Universalist Church
5001 Pennsylvania Ave
Boulder, 80303
Map & Directions

A concert featuring settings of women�s poetry of Colorado composers Grace Asquith, Kathleen Fagre, Barbara Sable, Christina Lynn-Craig, and Althira Romas

Posted: Past Concerts

Nov
2005

Tell Me A Story, Sing Me A Song

Featuring songs and stories from Japanese and Latino traditions as well pieces about life in the American West.

Posted: Past Concerts

Apr
2005

Women in Praise of the Sacred

Presenting beautiful music and poetry from Buddhist, Hindu, Jewish and Christian traditions spanning 24 centuries. The program features Hildegard von Bingen�s “O Clarissima Mater”, Gustav Holst�s “Hymns from the Rig Veda” with harpist Nancy Brace, and the premiere of “Spring Night�s Moon” by Colorado composer Deborah Schmit-Lobis, and guest artists from Speaking of Dance.

Spring Night’s Moon

This piece takes its title from the first of a series of five short
poems written by the great tenth century Japenese poet, Izumi Shikibu.
Her poetry, suffused with Buddhist teaching and practice, and much of
it written at mountain monasteries and wooded retreats of feudal Japan,
returns again and again to the themes of impermanence and
enlightenment. As Jane Hirschfield states in her introduction to
Izumi’s poems, “To read her poems….it is helpful to know that in
Buddhist cultures the moon is often a symbol of awakened mind.”

The music is developed as a progression through three overall segments.
First, the theme of an opening awareness of nature, life and its
possibilities is presented. Then we enter a more conflicted state where
countering pressures and influences, like the distracting sounds and
tumult of the world outside the temple, struggle with the attempt to
maintain that opening awareness. Finally, we pass through to an
acceptance of the human predicament and struggle, but now infused with
a vision of hope and transcendence.
Deborah Schmit-Lobis

About Deborah Schmit-Lobis

Deborah Schmit-Lobis, pianist/composer, has performed in the Colorado
Symphony, with Central City Opera, the Colorado Chamber Players, the
Colorado Ballet Orchestra, and the Mercury Ensemble.
In a less classical setting she also tours with the 70’s Oldies band
Edison Litehouse and was a member of the legendary Mother Folkers.
She’s also been a member of several small folk and jazz ensembles
specializing in the performance of their original music. These include
Upsidasium, Consort Colorado and Windy Peak and Sarabande. Their CDs
are played on Public Radio stations all over the United States.

As a composer/arranger Deborah has worked with the David Taylor Dance
Theater, Colorado Ballet, Speaking of Dance, Central City Opera, the
Colorado Children’s Chorale, the Denver Gay Men’s Chorus and the Mostly
Strauss Orchestra. Deborah was also a composer in residence in the
Rocky Mountain National Park Program in 1992 and in 2000. She is also a
Sound Healer and is currently working on a CD in that genre.

Program

The Name is Changeless: Gwyneth Walker
O Clarissima Mater: Melanie Nehls Burow, soloist
Jeanine Ashley, Mary Bullock, Debbie Martin, Mariena Richards, Althira Romas
Hildegard von Bingen
Circle: Mary Bullock, soprano
Erica Tenant, alto
Joan Szymko
Reconstruction of Music from the Second Temple (536BCE - 70AD): Psalm 122
Psalm 150
Christina Lynn-Craig, soprano
Nancy Brace, harp
Ruth Harvey, gamba
Suzanne Haik-Vantoura
Teresa of Avila: Bobbi La Placa, reader
Saint Teresa’s Prayer (premiere performance): Christina Lynn-Craig
Mechtild von Magdeburg: Nancey Bookstein, reader
Dancing: Scott A Tucker
Buddhist Poet Isumi Shikibu: Deborah Reshotko, reader
The Spring Night’s Moon (premiere performance): Sarah Brennan-Green, soprano
Jane Schein, mezzo-soprano
Alex Craig, piano
Deborah Schmit-Lobis, synthesizer
Lara Hayes-Giles, dancer
Jennifer Thompson, dancer
Deborah Reshotko, choreographer
Deborah Schmit-Lobis

Ten Minute Intermission

Two Hindu Poets: Lal Ded and Mirabai: Althira Romas, reader
Choral Hymns from the Rig Veda (Group Three): Hymn to the Dawn
Hymn to the Waters
Hymn to Vena
Hymn of the Travellers
Lara Hayes-Giles, dancer
Jennifer Thompson, dancer
Nancy Brace, harp
Deborah Reshotko, choreographer
Gustav Holst
Emily Dickinson: Carolyn Crouse, reader
“Nature, the gentlest mother” from Twelve Poems of Emily Dickinson: Mariena Richards, soprano
Alex Craig, piano
Aaron Copeland
As Sisters in Zion: Mary Bullock, reader
Janice Kapp Perry
How Can I Keep From Singing?: Jane Schein, conductor
Alex Craig, piano
Gwyneth Walker
O Unico Amore: Melanie Nehls Burow, mezzo-soprano
Alex Craig, piano
Kathleen Fagre
I Thank You God: Alex Craig, piano
Gwyneth Walker