NH Soundings by Ellen Nordstrom

Blog review from Ellen Nordstrom’s New Hampshire Soundings. Discusses live performance in March 2011 at Concord Community Music School, showcasing New Hampshire Composers, including Lindsey Schust. See clip below, or find full article here.

 

“A Celebration: Music of Our Time and Place

 

Concord, NH. In celebration of its 26th anniversary, the Concord Community Music School (CCMS) presented an eclectic collaboration of faculty members and guest artists and composers from New Hampshire, Maine, and Massachusetts, featuring contemporary selections in a program entitled, Music of Our Time and Place.

 

The program began with a presentation of the renowned African drummer, Olatunji’s spirited African processional, Ajaja, a Yoruba Welcome Song, or “call to blessing” and certainly seemed a befitting opener to the anniversary celebration and promise of the night of music ahead. Lindsey Schust, the co-director of CCMS’ Songweavers Drumming Ensemble (SDE) led the African chant (almost scat-like in nature) through the main aisle of the Recital Hall with her full-bodied and energized mezzo answered by the beautifully blended voices of CCMS’ all female Scholarship Vocal Ensemble (SVE) and director, Emily Jaworksi. From the stage, fellow SDE co-director and founder, Grace Schust, along with guest percussionist, Emilie Meadows, not only beckoned the entourage of colorfully adorned singers to join them with their infectious African rhythms, but they also energized the audience from their very first declamatory, yet earthy rhythmic utterances. The SVE then sang two final selections led again by Ms. Lindsey Schust; one a traditional Bambara Folk song, Yiriba ye, (arranged by Ms. Schust) “honoring the elders who came before” (again, another thematic and apropos choice of sorts for the evening as if in homage to all musicians and influential composers of the past,) as well as Ms. Schust’s award nominated composition Mama LeLe, an a cappella selection featuring Pigmy rhythms and yodel style voicings signifying the birds from the African rainforests coupled with amazing harmonies with an intermittent quasi jazz and Afro Blues aspect that was equal in quality to any well produced recording by the renowned a cappella group “Sweet Honey and the Rock”. All in all, the overall opening of the program lent both a welcome aural as well as visual vibrancy and seemed the perfect invitation to a night of musical variance.”

 

 

To learn more about the Concord Community Music School and other featured faculty members, and artists contact: www.ccmusicschool.org

 

 

Read full article here.