New Day Vocal Spring Concert to Benefit Local CUMC Food Pantry

COBLESKILL – New Day – Voices of Schoharie County announces its Spring Vocal Concert to be held at the Cobleskill United Methodist Church located at 109 Chapel Street, in Cobleskill, NY. The performance will take place Sunday June 9th, 2024 @ 4:00pm. 

As has been its tradition, New Day will perform a wide variety of music for this program. The concert will open with “Alleluia” by newer widely acclaimed female composer Elaine Hagenberg. Paul Smith’s 2019 setting of the 4th century canticle “Nunc Dimittis” is followed by the Tomas Luis de Victoria “Regina caeli laetare” written for 8 independent parts. Continuing with more of the top composers of today, “New Day” will present Ola Gjeilo’s “Northern Lights” and Eric Whitacre’s “This Marriage”, a setting  of the 13th century text by Sufi poet Jalal al-Din Rumi. Rounding out the program are compositions by The Real Group’s Anders Edenroth(“It Don’t Mean a Thing”), and Voces 8’s Blake Morgan(“This Is My Song/Finlandia”). The women of the group will be featured in Elaine Hagenberg’s “You Do Not Walk Alone” and the men’s sections will be featured in Jacob Narverud’s “Lunar Lullaby”. The final work on the program will be a Traditional Freedom Song often referred to as the unofficial anthem of South Africa, “Tshotsholoza” arranged by Jeffrey Ames. 

Members of New Day come from a wide variety of backgrounds with a common love of vocal music and musical excellence. The members of New Day are: Sopranos – Elizabeth Borkowski, Brittany Tissiere, & Sarah Wright; Altos – Lissa VanDeValk, Laurie Pracher, Kathy Burgin, & Teresa Munson; Tenors – Jerry Law & Johnny Wilson;  Basses – Paul Schultz, Paul Munson, Jim Cole & Robert Gosselink. The group’s Artistic Director is Mark Pracher. 

In addition to its dedication to quality vocal performances, the group also focuses on giving to the community. Each year the spring concert is presented as a benefit concert for an area cause or charity. New Day is pleased to announce that this year’s spring concert will be held as a benefit for  the Cobleskill United Methodist Church Food Pantry.

Established in 1986, the Food Pantry, located in the Cobleskill United Methodist Church, provided 2-3 days of food for 53 families the first year.  Early on, the food pantry was intended to meet emergency needs based on referrals from social services and head start. 

Thirty eight years later, the CUMC pantry serves, on average, 94 households per month! The food pantry has an open door policy that provides 3-4 days of food for each user, twice a month, to any county resident in need. The pantry also provides some personal care and paper products, items that cannot be purchased with food stamps.

There will be no charge for admission and all who attend are encouraged to make donations at the concert directly to “The CUMC Food Pantry”.