SUMMERSING RETURNS WITH NOTABLE GUEST CONDUCTORS

​May 8, 2019
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For immediate release

SUMMERSING RETURNS WITH NOTABLE GUEST CONDUCTORS

Megan Boyd & Michael Ciavaglia will lead the 2019 SummerSing at Christ Church Cathedral

Cincinnati, OH

Faces new to the Collegium – but not new to Cincinnati – will lead Collegium Cincinnati’s fourth annual SummerSing, a choral festival that invites singers from all over the region to perform masterworks with a professional orchestra and soloists, and to build connections within the city through social events and networking opportunities.

Dr. Megan Boyd, director of choral activities at Xavier University, will lead a chamber choir of up to 24 singers in a program entitled, "From Her Perspective," a program with texts by and about powerful and influential women. Join this powerful and influential woman as she makes her Collegium Cincinnati debut with this stunning program.

Dr. Michael Ciavaglia is music director-designate of the Asheville Lyric Opera, and has served on the music staff of Cincinnati Opera. He’s a graduate of the College-Conservatory of Music at U.C. He will lead the SummerSing Masterworks Choir in Vivaldi’s GLORIA and John Rutter’s REQUIEM.
Rehearsals and performances take place at Christ Church Cathedral, where Collegium Cincinnati is ensemble-in-residence.

Collegium Cincinnati’s SummerSing aims to serve as a cornerstone cultural event for the region; already, singers have come from as far afield as New York and New England to participate.

“Choral music is our nation’s most participatory art form,” says Collegium’s artistic director Christopher Eanes. “Through the SummerSing, we hope to connect people with each other and with the city, and give them an opportunity to participate in music in a low-stress and fun environment.”

Previous seasons have included performances of Baroque music, Faure’s, Mozart’s and Brahms’ REQUIEMS, and Morten Lauridsen’s LUX AETERNA.

Interested singers should visit www.collegiumcincinnati.org/summersing2019 for more information on how to register. All ages are welcome, though singers under 13 need to be accompanied by an adult. No audition is necessary for the Masterworks Choir.

DETAILS
SummerSing Chamber Choir
Dr. Megan Boyd, Conductor
July 18-21, 2019

SummerSing Masterworks Choir
Dr. Michael Ciavaglia, Conductor
July 21-27, 2019

www.collegiumcincinnati.org/summersing2019
(513) 428-BACH (2224)

ABOUT COLLEGIUM CINCINNATI
Founded in 2011 by Christopher Eanes and violinist Manami White, the Collegium has grown to become one of Cincinnati’s most vibrant professional arts organizations. With a multi-faceted season that includes major choral-orchestra works, chamber music, and participatory events, the Collegium strives to connect people to each other through the shared experience of music.
Recent and upcoming projects include Bach’s MASS IN B MINOR, Soprano Alex Schoeny in recital, and a complete broadcast of Handel’s MESSIAH on Classical 90.9 WGUC.  The 2019-2020 season will include a reconstruction of a twelfth-century sacred play as well as Mozart’s unfinished MASS IN C MINOR.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Dr. Megan Boyd has experience teaching choral music at all levels, elementary through university and in the community sector. She currently serves as the Director of Choral Activities at Xavier University leading the Concert Choir, Edgecliff Vocal Ensemble, and choral music education program. In addition to her work at Xavier, Dr. Boyd is the Associate Director of the Young Professionals Choral Collective of Cincinnati and a member of the professional women’s chorus mirabai.

Dr. Boyd holds a B.M. in music education and voice performance from Boston University where she studied with leading Boston tenor, Frank Kelley. She also earned an M.M. and D.M.A. in choral conducting from Michigan State University studying under Drs. David Rayl, Sandra Snow, and Jonathan Reed. During her time there, Dr. Boyd conducted the MSU Women’s Chamber Ensemble at Carnegie Hall and in their appearance at the 2014 American Choral Directors Association Central Division Conference. As a middle school and high school educator, Dr. Boyd’s ensembles consistently earned Superior Ratings at the NC Music Performance Adjudication, an invitation to perform at the 2009 NC Governor's Inauguration, and a solo performance at The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

Dr. Boyd also serves as an adjudicator and clinician in Michigan and Ohio and has been published in the Choral Journal. Her professional affiliations include ACDA, Chorus America, and Pi Kappa Lambda National Music Honor Society.
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Dr. Boyd currently resides just north of Cincinnati with her husband and two children.

Michael A. Ciavaglia, DMA, is a conductor and teacher active in the fields of choral performance, opera and higher education. In addition to his work with NYCHORAL, Dr. Ciavaglia is on the music staff at the Cincinnati Opera in Ohio, where he is in residence each summer. This season he conducted The Elixir of Love at the Asheville Lyric Opera, where he is Music Director designate. He is on the faculty of the Department of Visual and Performing Arts at Fairfield University, Fairfield, Connecticut, where he teaches music history and voice. He has conducted the Fairfield University Glee Club and Chamber Singers throughout the Northeast and in Europe.

Dr. Ciavaglia has taught and conducted at Mars Hill University and at Northern Kentucky University, and has prepared choruses for the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, the Pennsylvania Ballet, the Richard Tucker Memorial Gala, and numerous performances with superstar tenor Andrea Bocelli. He has sung with professional vocal ensembles including the Windrush Ensemble (Ohio), the Cincinnati Bach Ensemble and Archangel Voices (Connecticut). He is an active proponent of Russian Orthodox choral music in liturgical and concert performance, and a coach of Church Slavonic and Russian diction.

Dr. Ciavaglia’s culminating doctoral document, The Choral Music of Robert De Cormier (2013), included the first complete catalogue of Robert De Cormier’s published choral compositions and arrangements. He is an alumnus of the Boyer College of Music and Dance at Temple University and of the College-Conservatory of Music at the University of Cincinnati.

PRESS INQUIRIES
Christopher Eanes
[email protected]
(513) 428-2224
 
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