The Arlington Children’s Chorus, led by Artistic Director Felix Polendey, once again brought Valentine cheer to chorister family and friends with their rendition of You Are My Sunshine. Listen to it here.
The ACC had a wonderful and busy evening, performing at both The Willard Intercontinental Hotel in Washington, D.C. and the Ballston Singing Tree Lighting at Wellburn Square on Wednesday, December 6th. Artistic Director Felix Polendey with accompanist Mimi Youkeles led the Bel Cantos and Troubadours at the majestic Willard Hotel while Assistant Artistic Director Jennifer Keller had a fun time with her group singing traditional Winter and Christmas repertoire in Ballston with television station WUSA 9 on hand!
Watch ACC’s Executive Director Anika Tené on Good Morning Washington on WJLA 7 speaking about the ACC’s upcoming concert at the Ballston Singing Tree at Wellburn Square, December 6 at 5:30 pm!
The Arlington Children’s Chorus new Artistic Team lead by Artistic Director Felix Polendey delighted the audience with a wonderful selection of new and diverse winter songs sourced from around the world at the ACC’s Winter Renaissance Concert. With all tiers joining in the traditional Dona Nobis Pacem, the Dolce Tier led by Assistant Artistic Director Jennifer Keller sang a selection of winter songs in French and English, the Troubadour Tier under the direction of Mr. Polendey enchanted the audience with the beautiful Israeli song Artza Alinu and finished with a selection of winter songs, and the Bel Canto Tier performed a traditional and mixed repertoire, finishing with the challenging Cantate Domino arranged by Charlotte Botha. Along with accompanist Mimi Youkeles, all three excelled in their debut showcase!
The Winter Renaissance Concert was held at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Arlington on December 3, 2023 at 3:30pm.
The end of the ACC’s 2022-23 season marks an exciting new adventure as the Arlington Children’s Chorus continues in its second decade. With the advent of new Executive Director Anika Tené and Chorus Manager Julie Thompson, along with a doubling in size from just a few years ago, the ACC has grown into a mainstay of the Arlington Arts Community, able to bring impressive programming and opportunities to the local youth and community.
This year marks another change as the ACC’s outstanding Artistic Director Caleb McClay, Assistant Artistic Director Andrea Harmon, and accompanist Yingfei Li lead their final performance at the ACC Spring Concert – Why We Sing, A Celebration of Spring – held May 14, 2023. The entire ACC community joins together in thanking Caleb and his team for the amazing work they have done. Mr. McClay’s artistic vision and leadership have been integral to ACC’s success over the years, along with his passion and dedication. He and his team’s contributions will be greatly missed.
The Arlington Children’s Chorus participated in a concert at the Lisner Auditorium on March 25, 2023 presented by the Pan American Symphony Orchestra (PASO) as they celebrated the lively folkloric traditions of Latin America with music inspired by typical dances from El Salvador, Mexico and Argentina with Leyendas, Heroes, y Sueños .
The ACC featured in PASO’s performance of Alas (a Malala), Wings to Malala, a piece inspired by the cumbia, a dance popular throughout Latin America. With lyrics by Marquez’s daughter, Lily, this work has proved to be an inspiration worldwide for children’s education and human rights.
The concert featured premiers by two young Salvadoran composers, Audiel Benjamin Avalos and Juan Guerra Gonzalez. In 2020, with funding from the D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities, PASO created a competition for orchestral works by composers of Salvadoran heritage and sent out an international call. The jury selected two works. The first, El Juco, by Audiel Banjamin Avalos, is written for strings, woodwind quartet, and French horns and is based on a Salvadoran rhythm called Xuc, with a simple melody that reflects Salvadoran culture. The second, Munamikitia, by Juan Guerra Gonzalez, is based on the well-known traditional dance Chapetones de Panchimalco, which is performed during the Festival of Palms and Flowers in the town of Panchimalco and ridicules the Spanish colonizers with exaggerated movements to a delicate waltz. “
The concert also featured two works by Mexico’s most famous living composer, Arturo Marquez. Leyenda de Miliano, a 13-minute tone poem composed in 2010 for Mexico’s bicentennial of its independence from Spain, is a tribute to the revolutionary hero and champion of the Mexican underclass, Emiliano Zapata. PASO also performed Marquez’s dramatic tribute to Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani youth activist and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2014. .
Rounding out the program, the work Tifón, by young Argentine pianist and composer Ariel Pirotti, represents dance from the northern provinces of Argentina. Pirotti, who wrote the piece while performing in Japan and enduring a typhoon, bases the music on the vidala, a popular genre of music and dance from the Andean northwest of Argentina that draws on traditions that retain their pre-Hispanic characteristics.
This unique concert took DC-area residents on an exciting musical journey to unexplored parts of Latin American culture. Though the Washington, DC area is home to a large Salvadoran diaspora, symphonic music celebrating its rich cultural heritage is rare.
