Cantigas Women’s Choir, named after a medieval Spanish song form called a “cantiga,” is composed of 40 women of varying ages and backgrounds and brings women of the community together to explore the rich tradition of women's singing.
The group performs a broad spectrum of global music and advocates through song for those whose hearts need to be uplifted and whose voices need to be heard, performing regularly with the inmates of the Edna Mahan Correctional Facility for Women in Clinton, N.J., as well as at other community events like the Cancer Survivors Support Network in Bayonne, New Jersey, and the Empty Bowls hunger relief benefit in Hoboken.
Director Joan Isaacs Litman is a native of Los Angeles and has been a choral director in the New York metropolitan area for 30 years. She was awarded with the prestigious “Educator of the Year Award” by the Organization of American Kodaly Educators in Washington D.C., last March. She also received the first “Excellence in Teaching” award from Westminster Choir College. Litman is a member of the music faculty of the United Nations International School in Manhattan . Recently returned from a sabbatical year, Ms. Litman was a guest conductor in Damascus, Syria, Tripoli, Lebanon and Tokyo. Additionally, Litman is the author of Song Caravan: Songs of the Middle East. She is a founder and Music Director Emerita of Mustard Seed School in Hoboken. She founded the Cantigas Choir in September 2002.
Cantigas Official Web Site: www.cantigas.net
Singer Auditions for 2011-12 Season
Cantigas Women’s Choir seeks committed singers for its upcoming 2011-2012 season.
This year’s repertoire will include music of Europe — particularly medieval Western Europe, Greece and 19th and 20th century Hungary and Slovakia. Additional repertoire will be drawn from Brazil, Iraq and Syria. Cantigas will premiere a new piece composed for the choir by Argentine composer Leonardo San Juan.
The group rehearses on Thursday nights from 7 to 9 p.m. at the Mustard Seed School at 422 Willow Avenue in Hoboken. The ambiance of the rehearsal is a combination of rigor and relaxation.
Auditions will be held by appointment. Sight reading skills are desirable, but not required. Ability to sing in tune and blend in classical style is essential.
To schedule an audition, please contact: joanlitman@gmail.com.
CELEBRATE THE HOLIDAYS WITH “SONGS FOR A WINTER NIGHT”
ReplyDeleteHoboken Women’s Choir Presents 10th Anniversary Winter Concert on Dec. 10 at 7:30 p.m.
HOBOKEN, N.J. – November 29, 2011 — For the last decade, Hoboken’s all-women community chorus, Cantigas Women’s Choir, has brought the gift of song to the community — and now the choir celebrates its 10th anniversary winter concert entitled SONGS FOR A WINTER NIGHT on Saturday, December 10 at 7:30 p.m. at St. Matthew Trinity Church at 57 Eighth Street (at Hudson Street) in Hoboken, N.J. The suggestion donation for the concert is $15 ($5 for seniors and students).
“This 10th anniversary season represents a benchmark for our choir,” says Joan Litman, Cantigas founder and director. “For the last decade, a steady stream of women from our Hoboken community — and beyond — have come not just to sing together, but to spread rich global music to audiences both near and far.”
The concert will span composers from Beethoven to Bach, languages from Finnish to German, and music from canons to traditional holiday favorites. Highlights include “Dixit Dominus (Psalm 110)” by Baldassare Galuppi and Five Hebrew Love Songs by the young American composer Eric Whitacre. “Whitacre’s compositions have caught fire around the world. I first heard the Five Hebrew Love Songs in Tokyo, Japan, last spring and was inspired to bring them back to Cantigas,” Litman says.
And in continuing the annual Hoboken tradition, the performance will feature Cantigas holiday favorites, especially “Ocho Kandelikas,” a Hanukkah song in tango style, as well as carol singing with audience sing-along. In honor of the decade of music the choir has brought to the community, former members from the last 10 years will also be acknowledged. The concert will also feature piano accompaniment by assistant director Erasmia Voukelatos.
Cantigas also uses music to empower women with annual performances at the Edna Mahan Correctional Facility for Women in Clinton, N.J., Hamilton Park Health Care Facility in Jersey City, N.J., and other community groups in the New York and New Jersey area. “The social justice strand of our mission is one that is at the root of who we are,” Cantigas founder Joan Litman says. The group will visit the Jersey City nursing home on December 15 this year.
Cantigas Women’s Choir, named after a medieval Spanish song form called a “cantiga,” is composed of 40 women of varying ages and backgrounds and brings women of the community together to explore the rich tradition of women's singing. The group performs a broad spectrum of global music and advocates through song for those whose hearts need to be uplifted and whose voices need to be heard, performing regularly with the inmates of the Edna Mahan Correctional Facility for Women in Clinton, N.J., as well as at other community events like the Cancer Survivors Support Network in Bayonne, New Jersey, and the Empty Bowls hunger relief benefit in Hoboken.
Joan Isaacs Litman is the founding Artistic Director of Cantigas Women’s Choir. She is a native of Los Angeles and has taught students and teachers in the New York City area for 32 years. Ms. Litman is a member of the music faculty of the United Nations International School in Manhattan where she directs the UNIS Mothers’ Chorus and a children’s choir. She is a founder and former music teacher at Mustard Seed School and also taught at The Hudson School in Hoboken. With a longing to stimulate curiosity, trust and enjoyment of often-misunderstood cultures, Ms. Litman has focused her musical research on the Middle East, which she shares with teachers in cultural context. Ms. Litman is the author of Song Caravan: Songs of the Middle East. Ms. Litman has enjoyed teaching (and learning from!) both students and teachers throughout the United States and abroad, most recently in Spain, Syria, Lebanon, Japan and Hong Kong.
Cantigas Official Web Site: www.cantigas.net