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About Schola Cantorum
Schola Cantorum of Syracuse, literally "School for Singers", is a chamber choir of twelve to sixteen members, both amateur and professional, devoted to the performance of music from the Medieval, Renaissance and early Baroque eras; that is, music composed from about 1000 to 1700 AD.Early music can be of many different kinds, styles and qualities, including noble works by the greatest composers. Hearing them, one is reminded that their parent cultures also bred Dante, Shakespeare, Moliere, Michelangelo, Rembrandt and El Greco, to name a few.
A viol consort, consisting of professional musicians under the direction of Alex Rakov, contributes to each concert. Members of the consort also provide accompaniment, solos and ensemble pieces on other period instruments such as lute and recorders.
Schola Cantorum annually presents a three-concert subscription series under the directorship of Dr. Joyce Irwin. Some concerts are presented twice--once at Pebble Hill Presbyterian Church and again elsewhere in the community. Other venues have included Colgate University, Ithaca, and Cortland. Each summer Schola Cantorum also sponsors a choral workshop with invited conductors.
Director
Consort Master and Guest Conductor
Dr. Joyce Irwin became music director in 2000, having sung with Schola Cantorum since 1985. She is also organist and choir director at St. David's Episcopal Church in DeWitt and has led the choir on three trips to Great Britain, where they have been in residence at cathedrals in St. David's, Lichfield, and Chichester. Dr. Irwin's experience in the direction and performance of early music is extensive, having sung in early music groups at Yale and the University of Georgia prior to joining Schola Cantorum of Syracuse. She has been organist and choir director in Oneida and Hamilton churches, Colgate and Cornell Universities over a period of 20 years. Her scholarly career is impressive: M.A. in medieval studies, Ph.D. in religious studies, Yale, 1972, and author of Neither Voice nor Heart Alone: German Lutheran Theology of Music in the Age of the Baroque as well as many journal articles in church history. She is a Colleague of the American Guild of Organists. Consort Master
Alexander Rakov received his education in performance and conducting from Leningrad Conservatory and has dedicated himself to performing early music since the early 1970s. He performs internationally on viola da gamba and lute and has directed collegia at St. Lawrence and Syracuse Universities. He is a former director of Schola Cantorum and is presently consort master, reviving a medieval-renaissance tradition of instrumental preludes before choral performances, originally church services.
Guest Conductor
Leon Carapetyan is retired professor of voice at SUNY Oswego. During his tenure there he was conductor of several choral ensembles including the College Choir and the Festival Chorus. He founded the Oswego Bach Choir in 1985 and for ten years conducted performances of the cantatas. Long a singer of renaissance music and chant, he is now an enthusiastic student of medieval music. He is music director at the Church of the Resurrection in Oswego.
History
Schola Cantorum of Syracuse began as a Collegium Musicum at Syracuse University under the direction of Donald Smithers in 1973. When Smithers left the university in 1976, Barry Torres took over as director. Other music directors have included Bruce Campbell, Jay Hersher, Leonard Phillips and Alex Rakov.In 1982, the group incorporated as a non-profit organization and formed a board of directors. Schola Cantorum of Syracuse has received continuous funding since 1983 from the New York State Council on the Arts, as well as grants from the Onondaga County Cultural Resources Council in 2005 and 2006.
Your contributions to Schola Cantorum of Syracuse are fully deductible for federal and NY State income tax purposes according to the provisions of the U.S. Internal Revenue Code, Section 501(c)(3) and NYS Charities Bureau (registration No. 14-37-08).
© 2002-2008 Schola Cantorum of Syracuse
P.O. Box 35189
Syracuse, NY 13235