Alumni 114th Concert of Sacred Music

To Sacred Concert Musicians from Sheila Heffernon

Dear Friends,

I write to you during yet another snowstorm; as the snow piles up, we are having our usual busy February in terms of performing arts. This past weekend we disappeared in the mist with the musical Brigadoon. The dance companies recently presented a dazzling concert, Bold Moves. In the same week the Jazz Ensemble won a multi-school jazz festival. The choirs raised $337 through a benefit concert for the Big Brother and Big Sister Association of Franklin County, and our instrumental groups performed on behalf of Meals on Wheels, raising more than $500!

Now we are looking toward spring and the 114th Annual Concert of Sacred Music; I hope you will participate in this powerful tradition. It will take place Friday through Sunday, May 9–11. The theme of our program this year is “peace.” We will perform several movements from Haydn’s Mass in Time of War and from a new work entitled The Armed Man: A Mass for Peace by Karl Jenkins, a contemporary British composer. Both works should be a good challenge. In addition Sacred Concert will include two world premieres. As the culmination of a year-long project, the Symphony Orchestra will present a piece of music composed by themselves under the guidance of conductor (and composer in his own right) Steve Bathory-Peeler. The Select Women’s Ensemble will debut a piece composed specifically for this Sacred Concert by Philip Dietterich ’50. A professional composer and conductor, Dietterich is most significantly the grandfather of Becky Gillig, a senior in the ensemble.

It has been another good year here at NMH. Construction of the Rhodes Center for the Arts has moved inside. Now that the arts center stands on the east end of the academic quadrangle, it’s hard to remember what that area was like before! The building is on schedule both in its construction and its budget. There will be time in the afternoon on Saturday to take a tour—do plan on getting inside to see this amazing space. I am especially excited that the concert hall will be named after Al and Virginia Raymond. This tribute is an important recognition of the inspiration Mr. Raymond was to all of his students, and the contribution both he and Virginia made to this community. It will be an honor to perform in his hall! We hope that those whose lives were touched by the Raymonds will contribute to complete the funding of the concert hall.

Sacred Concert continues to take place in the Auditorium. We will rehearse Friday night and Saturday morning in the Auditorium, as usual. On Saturday afternoon we will move to Mount Hermon and do our sectionals in the music building. Dinner will be on the Hermon campus as well, followed by entertainment provided by our a cappella groups, Hogappella and the Nellies.

Music and information will be mailed the second week in April. For those of you who are Internet-savvy, rehearsal sound files will be available on a secure page of our website. When your music arrives, you will get instructions to navigate to the page and a password to access it. CDs will be provided by request only. If you have any questions, do not hesitate to be in touch with me. The best asset we have at NMH remains our wonderful students—I look forward to hearing you make music with them!

Affectionately,

Sheila Heffernon
Chair, Performing Arts Department
Director of Choral Music
Northfield Mount Hermon School
413-498-3341
sheffernon@nmhschool.org

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