Welcome
Welcome
HERE WE GROW AGAIN!!
There will be two spring performances in early May .
Featuring Bruckner's Requiem in D Minor
“The 24-year-old Bruckner wrote the Requiem in memory of Franz Sailer, godfather of Bruckner's younger brother, Ignaz.
It is infused with real intensity of feeling and contains many little gems, such as the tiny a cappella Hostias for male voices only and the ensuing fugal Quam olim. A flowing Benedictus and a very brief, poised Requiem aeternam – again, a cappella – are equally pleasing.”
Ralph Moore-Music web intl
“If the syncopation and low, dark register of the opening bars of the ‘Requiem aeternum’ summon (sometimes almost verbatim) echoes of Mozart’s Requiem to mind, then the prevailing idiom seems to me more consistently to pay homage to the Baroque,… there are some striking timbral glances as the three trombones assert their robust nasal presence, for example. From the opening bars it is clear that music’s melodiousness and straightforward harmonic dramas would undoubtedly provide much enjoyment.”
Claire Seymor, Opera Today
We will also be premiering a new edition ( by one of our own members (Sebastian Tsai) of a mass by Antonio Caldara not heard since 1717
Since 1957, the Rockingham Choral Society has expanded and enhanced cultural experiences by performing choral masterpieces and adhering to the highest musical standards. The Choral Society is comprised of over 100 members and presents two concerts annually to the audiences in the New Hampshire Seacoast region.
For its audiences in the Seacoast communities, the Society provides educational and enjoyable experiences of the highest musical quality. Its concerts, which feature local singers, soloists and instrumentalists, are examples of the significant contribution that the performing arts make to life in New Hampshire.
Come try us out the first two Tuesdays after New Years day at our OPEN rehearsals.
If you are thinking about joining us, please click the link below so we will have a chance to prepare for your arrival.
Artistic Staff- Music Director Kristofer Johnson
Music Director Kristofer Johnson
is the Chair of the Department of Music and Director of Choirs at Phillips Exeter Academy where he holds the Michael V. Forrestal ’45 Chair for Music. At PEA, he conducts the Concert Choir and Choral Union as well as coaching and performing vocal chamber music with students. From 2010-2019 Kris served as music director of Concord Chorale (Concord, NH). Kris has a reputation for developing choral sound and expressive performances while fostering community and devotion to the choral art. A champion of new composition, he has overseen the commissioning and premieres of many works for choirs. Student and adult choruses under his baton have toured in the United States, Great Britain, Latvia, Estonia, the Russian Federation, Croatia, Bosnia & Herzegovina,
Austria, the People’s Republic of China, Vietnam, and Hong Kong.
Kris holds a Bachelor of Music degree in vocal performance from Oberlin College Conservatory of Music and a Master of Music in choral conducting from the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana. He is an active tenor soloist and choral/vocal clinician. A career educator, Kris has taught on the faculties of the Blair School of Music (Vanderbilt University), Plymouth State University, Oberlin Conservatory’s Vocal Academy for High School Students, Proctor Academy, and Canterbury School. Singers from his voice studio have won regional and national singing competitions and have been accepted into many of the country’s leading voice performance programs.
Artistic Staff- Collaborative Pianist, Jeannie Goodwin
Jeannie F. Goodwin graduated with a B.S. in Music Education from the University of New Hampshire. She now maintains an active piano studio in her home where she has worked with students of all ages, although she now specializes in adults. Active in the Music Teacher’s National Association, she has served on state, division and national levels. She has also been active in church music, founding several vocal and hand bell choirs at her Congregational Church in Dover, New Hampshire. She is a professional accompanist, and especially enjoys her work with the Rockingham Choral Society. Ms. Goodwin and her husband are avid sailors and have cruised their sailboat “Sea Natural” on the East Coast from Nova Scotia to the Bahamas.