Madison Youth Choirs
Good Shepherd Lutheran Church-Raymond Road 5701 Raymond Road, Madison, Wisconsin 53711
press release: This July, 55 members of Madison Youth Choirs' boychoirs will travel to Aberdeen, Scotland, to sing in the Aberdeen International Festival of Youth Arts, a new celebration of talented young performers from across the world. The festival will continue the legacy of the Aberdeen International Youth Festival, a tradition which had been running nearly 50 years when it was cancelled in late 2017 after Aberdeen city councillors withdrew its funding, citing budgetary concerns. A groundswell of local and global support for the festival led to the creation of a new event, hosted by the Aberdeen Multicultural Center, which will continue to offer world class performing opportunities for young artists.
In order to ensure that every eligible singer, including those whose families face significant financial challenges, had the opportunity to participate in this extraordinary experience, MYC undertook a major fundraising effort for the Scotland Tour Scholarship Fund, led by a generous anonymous benefactor who offered to double every dollar donated up to a total of $10,000. In total, 107 individual donors contributed to the fund, raising $20,224 to support the young singers' journey.
Prior to their departure to Scotland, the MYC lads will present a free send-off concert on Tuesday, July 24, 7pm at Good Shepherd Lutheran Church in Madison. The concert will feature the world premiere of a new work by Madison composer Scott Gendel, "For That Alone," which combines text from Thomas Jefferson's Declaration of Independence with text from a work that may have inspired it, the Declaration of Arbroath, written in 1320 to assert Scotland's independence.
Additional repertoire at the concert will highlight several outstanding American contributions to the musical canon, including Leonard Bernstein's "Chichester Psalms," Ysaye M. Barnwell's "We Are," "Fugue for Tinhorns" from Guys and Dolls, and "The Pasture," Randall Thompson's setting of Robert Frost's poetry.
MYC Scotland Tour Send-Off Concert
Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, 5701 Raymond Road
Tuesday, July 24, 2018
7:00pm
Free and open to the public. Donations at the door will be gladly accepted!