Ashland Area Chorus Invites Locals to Sing in ASO Pops Concert

The Ashland Area Chorus (AAC), a non-auditioned mixed choir of 40-60 participants, invites local singers to join them for the short summer session and to perform with the Ashland Symphony Orchestra. The 4-week rehearsal schedule meets for four consecutive Mondays including: June 5, 12, 19, 26. Each rehearsal is from 7-8:30 p.m. at Ashland University in Room 242 of the Center for the Arts. The session will conclude on Sunday, July 2 with a live performance of light, popular, and patriotic tunes with the Ashland Symphony Orchestra for the Pops In the Park concert at Brookside Park Band Shell.

The Chorus is open to the entire Ashland community and beyond, with previous singers travelling from Richland, Medina, Wayne, Holmes, and Crawford counties. Previous choral experience is helpful and encouraged. While there are no strict age limits, singers under 18 must be approved by the director.  There is no cost to the singer for the summer session.

The AAC performs in several concerts each year on the AU campus and with the Ashland Symphony Orchestra. Recent appearances have included a stand-alone presentation of the Dvořák Mass in D Minor, subscription concerts with the ASO (including Orff’s Carmina Burana, Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, and Mendelssohn’s Elijah), Ashland University choral concerts (including Handel's Messiah and the Brahms Requiem) and summer pops concerts in the park.

Current members should encourage their talented friends and neighbors to attend the first summer rehearsal to join this unique community opportunity. For further information, please contact the AU Director of Choral Activities, Dr. Ron Blackley, at rblackle@ashland.edu or (419) 289-5114. Or, simply show up on June 5.

AU Music Releases Promo Video

Enjoy and share the new promotional video for Ashland University Music featuring the Ashland University Band performing the Ashland University Battle Song.

Guenther Guest Soloist for Ashland Musical Club

Featuring Ashland University organist Dr. Timothy E. Guenther as the guest soloist, the Ashland Musical Club will present its spring Scholarship Benefit Recital at 4 p.m. on Sunday, May 14 at Trinity Lutheran Church, 508 Center Street in Ashland. The program is “A Celebration of Lutheran Organ Music” in celebration of the 500th anniversary of the Reformation and in celebration of the 30th anniversary of the constituting of the Association of Lutheran Church Musicians (ALCM).

Composers on the first portion of the program represent the first several hundred years after Martin Luther’s Reformation of 1517, and include Georg Boehm, Dieterich Buxtehude, Michael Praetorius, Johann Sebastian Bach, Johann Ludwig Krebs and Anton Wilhelm Leupold. After intermission, more recent composers will be featured including Herman Kuenster, Flor Peeters, Harald Rohling, Paul Manz, F. Melius Christiansen, Jan Bender, Charles Ore, Richard Wienhorst, David Cherwien and Jeffrey Blersch.

The recital is open to the public and a donation will be taken to benefit the club's scholarship fund. A reception will follow.

The Ashland Musical Club was founded in 1900 by some of Ashland's most prominent women to promote good music and music education.  Now open to men as well, it is affiliated with the Ohio Federation of Music Clubs and the National Federation of Music Clubs. One of the ways it aids music education is with a scholarship awarded each year to an Ashland County graduating senior. Each year the club sponsors a scholarship benefit recital with all donations going to the scholarship fund. The Ashland Musical Club scholarship fund began in the early 1940s and many of the persons who are currently active in Ashland's musical life were recipients of this scholarship. Any Ashland County graduating senior may audition for the scholarship.