April 30, 2003
Contact: Andrea Klouse (253-538-3671/e-mail: aklouse@mail.bethel.wednet.edu)
ELLENSBURG, Wash. - When Central Washington University presents George Crumb’s “Star-Child” on Friday, May 16, at 8 p.m. in Seattle, it will require a large orchestra, a solo soprano, solo trombone, male speaking choir, bell ringers and four conductors, along with antiphonal children’s voices.
That’s where members of the “Vivace! Choral Program” Kids Treble Choir come in. The 65 singers, boys and girls ages 8 to 17, will appear alongside their university counterparts for the performance in the S. Mark Taper Foundation Auditorium of Benaroya Hall. They will perform under the direction of Andrea Klouse, the program’s founder and executive director.
“Star-Child provides a strong, contemporary call to the listener’s senses, quite literally ‘in- the-round,’” Klouse says, “and is well known among music connoisseurs for its whole-tone brass fanfares, circular string ‘looping’ vocal echoes, and, well, quite frankly, even a bit of chaos! That is where the ‘voices of innocence and light’ come in. The children’s voices offer hope. It is both wonderful and quite different. The 33-minute work is quite a vocal challenge. And the choristers are now meeting their task quite well.”
Founded in 1999 by Klouse, Vivace! is a non-profit educational organization, “in residence” with the Bethel School District at Frontier Junior High School in Graham. It’s open to boys and girls of all grade levels. This year there are about 140 participants singing in four different choirs.
The treble choir is for elementary students. Members are introduced to a wide variety of literature and languages, theory, sight-reading, staging and choreography. Emphasis is placed upon the introduction to music fundamentals and experience in a fun, nurturing environment, Klouse notes.
Klouse received an Outstanding Music Educator award from the Washington Music Educators Association (WMEA) in 1998. Last year, she was also nominated for Disney’s American Teacher Award.
Klouse, who has spent more than 25 years in the classroom, is a CWU graduate with a bachelor’s degree in music education and performance. This will be her inaugural collaboration with her alma mater.
“This is the first official invitation I have had in a professional capacity as a director,” Klouse adds, “and it’s an exciting project to be a part of. It really is a wonderful opportunity; to practice the creative musical skills, so diligently shared with me years ago, in a rich and artistic concert venue with my students today.”
In addition to her work with the Vivace! Klouse’s Frontier Junior High choirs have won three consecutive “Best in the Northwest” titles at the Northwest Choral Festival at the University of Portland.
Many of her groups have been featured at Music Educators National Conference (MENC) and American Choral Directors Association (ACDA) conferences. They are also known worldwide and have performed at a variety of international venues.
Tickets to see Klouse’s Vivace! choir perform with CWU are $30 general admission and $10 for students and are available at Ticketmaster outlets. For more information, visit the CWU music department Web site at www. cwu.edu/~music or call (509) 963-1216. For persons of disability to arrange for reasonable accommodation or for the hearing impaired, call TDD (509) 963- 2143.
In addition to the performance, the Vivace! Cathedrals Choir will perform a “foyer-warming” concert in the hour prior to the event.
