Ehren Brown » articles

Stay Tuned For YouTube Symphony, The Sequel

ehren — Sun, 06 Mar 2011 13:53:41 +0000

Matthew Westwood | From:The Australian

American conductor Michael Tilson Thomas directs the New World Symphony Orchestra in Miami. His YouTube orchestra will perform in Sydney this month. Source: AP

LISTENING to classical music on the internet was for many years an awkward, even unpleasant experience. The sound was tinny and the music would lurch and sputter with digital drag: the curse of slow download times. Rock ‘n’ roll seemed a much better fit for this new medium, just as it found a natural partner in the 45rpm record in an earlier era.

Broadband and other innovations have helped bring opera and classical music online with much greater success, and downloads and live streaming of performances – whether it be an opera or a symphony – are more commonplace. Now comes the YouTube Symphony Orchestra, an attempt to build a symphony orchestra by recruiting musicians via the video-sharing website.

Its figurehead is the eminent US conductor Michael Tilson Thomas, who inaugurated the YouTube orchestra at New York’s Carnegie Hall in 2009. He will lead performances by the YTSO’s second incarnation at the Sydney Opera House this month.

Thomas, speaking by phone from Philadelphia after giving a concert there, says people are still getting into the habit of experiencing classical music online.

“It’s been a tremendous change as far as YouTube is concerned,” he says. “Only a few years ago, when I did the first project, I can’t tell you how many people in the classical-music world were saying, ‘Why on earth are you doing this?’ But nobody says that now.”

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Vaughan Williams’s Cambridge Mass world premiere

ehren — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 15:28:40 +0000

Alan Tongue conducted the premiere of A Cambridge Mass on 3 March 2011

A forgotten Vaughan Williams score will have its world premiere on Thursday.

A Cambridge Mass, written when the composer was a student at Trinity College, Cambridge, had been filed away in the University Library.

Conductor Alan Tongue discovered the piece in 2007 and spent the past year transcribing it.

Vaughan Williams was just 26 when he wrote the mass, but Mr Tongue said: “Every bar already had the hallmark of a great composer.”

The choral manuscript was submitted for his Doctor of Music examination in October 1899.

It lay undiscovered until the university held an exhibition of some of its 500,000 volumes of printed and manuscript music scores.

‘Very significant’Mr Tongue said he was amazed when he stumbled across the unknown work.

“There was a big sheet of Vaughan Williams – a work that I had clearly never seen before, and it looked so good I wanted to hear it,” he said.

“It had been mentioned in a few books but no one had ever bothered to take it out and try to perform it, which is extraordinary. It’s waited for 110 years.”

Vaughan Williams’s 45-minute work for four soloists, double chorus, orchestra and organ was given the title A Cambridge Mass by Mr Tongue. The composer had originally named only the individual movements.

“It’s very significant and is the earliest large-scale Vaughan Williams work that we have,” said Mr Tongue.

“And it’s a very positive, carefree, happy, optimistic piece composed just before his famous hymn-writing period and very unlike his later bleak period.”

Mr Tongue will conduct the first performance of A Cambridge Mass at Fairfield Halls in Croydon.

“As a conductor I take a lot of English music around the world and normally I’m introducing foreign audiences to the work of Elgar, Vaughan Williams, Holst and so on.

“This time I shall be introducing a work of Vaughan Williams to a British audience and that will give me a lot of pleasure,” he said.

“It’s not a student work at all. But let’s see what the reviewers and musical experts think of it.”

source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cambridgeshire-12565842

BBC © MMXI The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Read more.

UConn A Cappella Groups Recognized Among Nation’s Best

ehren — Wed, 24 Nov 2010 16:06:16 +0000

By: Colin Poitras
source: UConn Today

This story was first published on March 12, 2010.

This week, during Thanksgiving break, in addition to any breaking news about the University, we are revisiting some previous posts, including both well read favorites and some content that was first published when our site was still new. Daily news coverage and fresh features will resume Nov. 29. Happy Thanksgiving!

Members of the UConn a cappella group Conn Men rehearse in the Drama Building. Photo by Lauren Cunningham

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Hours of hard work, passion, and drive has paid off for two popular UConn a cappella groups that were recently recognized as being among the best college performance groups in the country by theContemporary A Cappella Society (CASA).

Songs by the Conn-Men and A Completely Different Note will be featured on CASA’s nationally distributed compilation CD, The Best of College A Cappella or BOCA 2010.

UConn was one of only three universities across the nation that had multiple winners this year; the others being Tufts and the University of Pennsylvania. Only 20 groups are selected for the BOCA showcase CD out of more than 2,000 active a cappella singing groups on more than 400 college campuses. The BOCA CD is produced by Varsity Vocals, a national organization dedicated to promoting a cappella at the college and high school level.

“It’s a great honor to be selected for such a highly-rated CD,” says John DePalma, a senior member of the Conn-Men. “If you sing in an a cappella group, you know what BOCA is. It was always in the back of our minds for one of our songs to be selected for BOCA. We never thought with thousands of songs submitted, ours would be one. It’s like winning the lottery!”

The Conn-Men’s unique version of Marc Broussard’s “Come Around” is featured on the BOCA CD. The song was arranged by Joseph Bates and features soloist Greg Nelson, a sophomore international business major from New Jersey.

This isn’t the first time the Conn-Men have received national notoriety. In December 2008, the group, with the help of the UConn Foundation, traveled to Washington, D.C., for three special performances. By request of Anita McBride, a UConn alumna and then-Chief of Staff to First Lady Laura Bush, the Conn-Men performed in the White House to help ring in the holidays. The group also traveled to Virginia to perform for music students at Yorktown High School and for the staff at the Music Educators National Conference Headquarters in Reston.

The group is currently finishing production work on its first studio album, Released.

Members of UConn's A Cappella group A Completely Different Note perform at 'Jingle Jam' in the Student Union Theatre on Dec. 3. Professional group Blue Jupiter and UConn student groups Shir Modulation, A Minor, The Chordials, and Extreme Measures also performed. Photo by Frank Dahlmeyer

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A Completely Different Note (CDN), formed in 1999, is the oldest all-male a cappella group at UConn. The group has put out several CDs, and their version of “Irish Lullaby” on the CD Mixed Nuts was nominated for a Contemporary A Cappella Recording Award (CARA) in 2009 in the category of “Best Barbershop Song.”

The group’s version of Tonic’s “Take Me As I Am,” which is the lead track on CDN’s latest CD Blazin’, is featured on the BOCA 2010 CD. The track was arranged by Nick Lyons and features soloist Joshua Blodgett, an English major from Massachusetts who graduated in August 2009.

“When the group first found out we were selected to be on the BOCA2010 CD, we were ecstatic,” group member Justin Beauchamp says. “It is such a prestigious honor and we are ever so grateful for being chosen.”

Beauchamp says the group prides itself on its diverse repertoire, which includes pop songs, country, rock, and choral pieces.

“We don’t always follow the status quo or perform songs that countless other groups do,” he says. “We take a chance and sing tunes that may not traditionally be done a cappella.”

Members of the UConn a cappella group the Conn Men discuss a song during rehearsal. Photo by Lauren Cunningham

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The Conn-Men also pride themselves on their work ethic, spending countless hours rehearsing a song to make sure it’s right before performing it at events or recording it on an album.

“Our work ethic and drive help separate us from the rest,” DePalma says. “Collectively, we have always felt we’ve had the talent to be a very good group, and we have been lucky enough to have excellent musicians to lead us. We’re all very close friends, but when it’s time to get down to business, we need no reminding.”

Since UConn’s a cappella experience began in 1998, eight groups have established themselves on campus. Some of the earliest groups included the all-female ensembles The Chordials and Rubyfruit. A Completely Different Note and the Conn-Men emerged along with several other groups over the years: A Minor – the University’s first co-ed group; Extreme Measures; The Rolling Tones; and most recently, the co-ed group Notes Over Storrs. Together, they make up the University’s A Cappella Association.

Music professor Robert Miller, faculty advisor to the Conn-Men, says the groups operate in a cooperative and supportive environment. They receive encouragement and support from the School of Fine Arts and are popular headliners at campus events.

“The a cappella scene here at UConn is extremely healthy,” Miller says. “Our established groups continue to perform at a very high level. New groups join them each year, and the number of students continues to grow. This growth has been encouraged by the excellent support and cooperation the singers have received from the Music Department, the School of Fine Arts, the UConn Foundation, and the University at large.

“The students benefit greatly from the help they receive,” Miller says. “In return, these ensembles are tremendous assets for the University and the state of Connecticut, performing each year in venues from local nursing homes to the White House. Quite a range.”

To order copies of the Contemporary A Cappella Society’s BOCA 2010 CD, go to the a-cappella.com website. To listen to a sample of the selected tunes on the CD, go to iTunes.

LISTEN:

“Come Around” performed by the Conn-Men

“Take Me As I Am” performed by A Completely Different Note

VoiceBox – radio for singers

ehren — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 17:16:36 +0000

KALW in San Francisco has just started a new radio program called VoiceBox, airing on Friday nights from 10pm-11pm. From the San Francisco Chronicle:

“The show, produced by singer and arts journalist Chloe Veltman, will cover the vocal music scene in the Bay Area as well as national and international artists. The Phyllis C. Wattis Foundation recently supported the project with a $25,000 grant.

“I’m a longtime fan of Terry Gross and Michael Krasny,” said Veltman of her vision for the show. “My goal is to bring that same high level of intelligence and depth to my conversations with vocal musicians as they do with cultural figures, authors and filmmakers.”

For those of us who live far from San Francisco, you can listen to KALW’s live stream online at http://www.kalw.org/listen.html. Upcoming shows are described below, and you can find the show’s website at http://www.voicebox-media.org.

Hooray for Community Choruses, January 15, 2010 10pm KALW 91.7 FM
There are more than 500 choruses in the Bay Area and one in five Americans sings in a choir. Why are Americans so passionate about singing for pleasure?

Men with high voices, January 22, 2010 10pm KALW 91.7 FM
Once upon a time, countertenors wouldn’t go about publicizing the fact that they sang high. These days, male sopranos and altos are kings of the classical and pop worlds.

Mavens of Cabaret, January 29, 2010 10pm KALW, 91.7 FM
VoiceBox explores the vocal pyrotechnics of the smoothest cabaret artists from the Bay Area and beyond

Choruses lead the way!

ehren — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 18:32:57 +0000

This is a fabulous clip from CBS Sunday Morning about the impact that singing in a chorus has on not just singers, but everyone in their community.

New Study Finds Positive Benefits of Choruses and Choral Singing for Children, Adults, and Communities

ehren — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 15:05:50 +0000

Washington, D.C.—If you enjoy singing with your neighbors, congregation, or classmates, you’re taking an increasingly popular path to a successful life. According to a new study by Chorus America, an estimated 32.5 million adults regularly sing in choruses today, up from 23.5 million estimated in 2003. And when children are included, there are 42.6 million Americans singing in choruses in 2009. More than 1 in 5 households have at least one singing family member, making choral singing the most popular form of participation in the performing arts for both adults and children.

That’s good news because singing in one of the 270,000 choruses in the U.S., such as a community chorus or a school or church choir, is strongly correlated with qualities that are associated with success throughout life, the study finds. Greater civic involvement, discipline, and teamwork are just a few of the attributes fostered by singing with a choral ensemble.

Chorus America first evaluated the benefits of choral singing and its impact on communities in a 2003 study. The results from this latest research support and advance earlier findings that choral singers exhibit increased social skills, civic involvement, volunteerism, philanthropy, and support of other art forms, when compared with non-singers.

“The prototype of a choral singer is how Americans aspire to see themselves today: as active, involved citizens with a broad range of creative interests and concerns for their communities,” says Ann Meier Baker, the President and CEO of Chorus America.

Adults who sing are remarkably good citizens.

A few of the current study’s major findings for adult singers include:

* Choral participation remains strong in America with 32.5 million adults regularly singing in at least one of 270,000 choruses nationwide.

* Choral singers exhibit higher levels of civic involvement, with choristers almost 3 times more likely to be officers or committee members of local community organizations such as the PTA.

* Seventy-eight percent of choral singers indicated they “at least sometimes” volunteer their time in their community, while only 50% of the general public say the same.

* Seventy-four percent of choral singers agree or strongly agree that singing in a chorus has helped them become better team leaders or team participants in other areas of their lives; nearly two-thirds agree or strongly agree that being in a chorus has helped them socialize better in other areas of their lives.

* Choral singers donate 2.5 times more money to philanthropic organizations than the general public.

* Ninety-six percent of choral singers surveyed who are eligible voters said they vote regularly in national and local elections; only 70% of the general public cites the same level of participation.

* Civic engagement also extends to patronage of other art forms, with choral singers at least 2 times more likely to attend theater, opera, and orchestra performances as well as visit museums and art galleries.

The 2009 study included a new component that explicitly examined the effects choral singing has on childhood development. The results show children who sing in choirs display many of the enhanced social skills found in adult singers, substantiating earlier conclusions that singing in childhood is likely to have an enormous influence on the choices individuals make later in life. Additionally, both parents and educators attribute a significant proportion of a child’s academic success to singing in a choir.

Children who sing in choruses have academic success and valuable life skills.

Several of the study’s major findings for young singers include:

* There are approximately 10.1 million American children singing in choruses today.

* The majority of parents surveyed believe multiple skills increased after their child joined a chorus. Seventy-one percent say their child has become more self-confident, 70% say their child’s self-discipline has improved, and 69% state their child’s memory skills have improved.

* More than 80% of educators surveyed—across multiple academic disciplines—agree with parent assessments that choir participation can enhance numerous aspects of a child’s social development and academic success. Educators also observe that children who sing are better participants in group activities, have better emotional expression, and exhibit better emotional management.

* Ninety percent of educators believe singing in a choir can keep some students engaged in school who might otherwise be lost—this is particularly true of educators (94%) who describe the ethnicity of their schools as diverse.

* Children who participate in a chorus get significantly better grades than children who have never sung in a choir. Forty-five percent of parents whose children sing state their child receives “all or mostly A’s” in mathematics (vs. 38% of non-choir parents) and 54% get “all or mostly A’s” in English and other language arts classes (vs. 43%).

The decline in choral singing opportunities for children is of concern.

While the 2009 study determined there are numerous academic and social benefits resulting from a child’s participation in a chorus, it also pointed to an alarming trend suggesting that these opportunities are not available, or are being reduced or eliminated from schools across the country. More than one in four educators responded that there is no choir program in their schools. Additionally, more than one in five parents said that there were no choral singing opportunities for their children in their communities.

A conclusion of the 2003 study was that choral singing is an accessible entry point for arts exposure, with fewer barriers—economic, cultural, and educational—than posed by other art forms. This is still true today, suggesting that the decrease in choral singing opportunities in schools and communities is a missed opportunity for bolstering student achievement and engagement in their schools.

“The data in this report suggests that it would be a mistake not to leverage the benefits that choruses bring to children, adults, and the communities they serve,” observes Todd Estabrook, Chairman of Chorus America. “Simply put, if you’re searching for a group of talented, engaged, and generous community members, you would do well to start with a chorus.”

A large percentage of the American population appears to be drawn to choral singing and the desire to participate in the communal expression, creation, and performance of beautiful music. Whatever motivates choral singers to sing, the data indicates that choral singing is a thriving and growing form of artistic expression in America, and can be acknowledged not just for providing great musical performances, but for advancing many of the positive qualities associated with success in life both for children and adults.

from Chorus America: http://www.chorusamerica.org/about_choralsinging.cfm

Great Words about the Arts

ehren — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 14:48:40 +0000

MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow gave a free talk about the arts at Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival in Beckett, Mass, in the Berkshires: “Sometimes we choose to serve our country in uniform, in war,” she said. “Sometimes in elected office. And those are the ways of serving our country that I think we are trained to easily call heroic. It’s also a service to your country, I think, to teach poetry in the prisons, to be an incredibly dedicated student of dance, to fight for funding music and arts education in the schools. A country without an expectation of minimal artistic literacy, without a basic structure by which the artists among us can be awakened and given the choice of following their talents and a way to get to be great at what they do, is a country that is not actually as a great as it could be. And a country without the capacity to nurture artistic greatness is not being a great country. It is a service to our country, and sometimes it is heroic service to our country, to fight for the United States of America to have the capacity to nurture artistic greatness. Not just in wartime but especially in wartime, and not just in hard economic times but especially in hard economic times, the arts get dismissed as ‘sissy.’ Dance gets dismissed as craft, creativity gets dismissed as inessential, to the detriment of our country. And so when we fight for dance, when we buy art that’s made by living American artists, when we say that even when you cut education to the bone, you do not cut arts and music education, because arts and music education IS bone, it is structural, is it essential; you are, in [Jacob's Pillow founder] Ted Shawn’s words, you are preserving the way of life that we are supposedly fighting for and it’s worth being proud of.”

Want to Rewire Your Brain? Study Music

ehren — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 17:28:32 +0000

An article by Lee Dye at ABC news tells musicians what we knew all along: that a musician’s brain recognizes sound that carries emotion. Literally, our brains are re-wired. From the article:

All those hours practicing the piano pay off big time by biologically enhancing a person’s ability to quickly recognize and mentally process sounds that carry emotion, according to a new study.

The study, from Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill., offers a new line of evidence that the brain we end up with is not necessarily the same brain we started out with.

“We are measuring what the nervous system has become, based on an individual’s experience with sound,” Nina Kraus, director of the university’s groundbreaking Auditory Neuroscience Laboratory, said in a telephone interview.

Click here for the full story.

A Great Day In Vernon

ehren — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 19:11:43 +0000

From the Journal Inquirer
Published: Saturday, February 21, 2009 12:09 PM EST

On Sunday, Feb. 15, in Vernon, an extraordinary thing happened.

A concert.

A concert that became a meeting of hearts and minds.

The Vernon Chorale and The Hartford Chorale Chamber Singers, conducted by Ehren Brown, and The Alfred E. White Chorale, conducted by Ingrid Faniel, presented “A Choral Celebration of Black History Month” at the First Congregational Church of Vernon. It featured an original composition by UConn choral guru Dr. Peter Bagley, and separate performances by all three choirs, as well as a stunning finale by the three choirs combined.

That this event was scheduled at all was notable, overdue, and admirable.

But the great part is what happened once all were gathered in that church; once the concert actually happened and the music took off.

The singing was rousing.

The church was full to the brim.

And everyone sang eventually: choirs and audience; black and white; musicians and amateurs; believers and skeptics.

They all sang these words by Hezekiah Walker, led by the Alfred E. White Chorale, as a finale:

“I need you, you need me.

We’re all a part of God’s body.

Stand with me, agree with me.

We’re all a part of God’s body.

“It is His will, that every need be supplied.

You are important to me, I need you to survive.

(repeat 3X)

“I pray for you, You pray for me.

I love you, I need you to survive.

I won’t harm you with words from my mouth.

I love you, I need you to survive.

(repeat 8X)

“It is His will, that every need be supplied.

You are important to me, I need you to survive.”

The tune is as simple and profound as the words. Profound because anyone can sing the tune and everyone needs the words.

Mutual respect.

That is how societies survive and democracies thrive.

Our president is trying to tell the other leaders in Washington that.

A nonviolent affirmation of justice and mutual respect — that’s how we’ll get through the storm together.

This song might be a good one to teach in our schools, especially where there is race tension, or there are troubled kids.

Every school.

And in our Congress.

Sing those verses over and over and just try to keep your heart hardened.

This concert was performed for a mostly white audience in a mostly white church and led (taught) by black singers — in honor of black history.

We affirmed that it is a history that matters to us all.

How about that?

Maybe music can change hearts.

Maybe it simply reflects change of heart.

Maybe it feeds the hearts and minds of those able to listen and willing to change.

Maybe something is happening in America.

And hard times can teach us.

As President Barack Obama likes to say: “The arc of history is long, but it bends toward justice.”

Connecticut Opera Closes, Won’t Refund Tickets

ehren — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 18:42:27 +0000

The recent closing of Connecticut Opera is a tragedy that will be felt throughout the arts community in the entire state. At this time of economic instability, this is the latest reminder that we must find ways to reach beyond our own organizations to work together for the good of arts everywhere.

Full article below.

By KATHLEEN MEGAN | The Hartford Courant
February 12, 2009

After 67 seasons, the fat lady has sung for Connecticut Opera. The opera has ceased business, has let staff go, has closed its office, and told its 2,000 subscribers they will get no money back on the two springtime productions that were recently canceled.

“We have ceased business and we are trying to work out the arrangements with our secured creditor about what will be done with our very few remaining assets,” said John E. Kreitler, chairman of the opera board.

The opera has not filed for bankruptcy. “The cost of doing so would be wasted money,” said Kreitler.

“It’s worse than sad, it’s a shame,” he said. “It’s just another casualty of the economic conditions.”

Attorney General Richard Blumenthal said he will be investigating the situation and plans to make a formal demand for information from the opera on Friday. “We believe the opera has a strong obligation legally and morally to provide full accountability and transparency,” he said.

Although the opera is nonprofit, Blumenthal said it has the same responsibilities as “any business that takes money and promises services.”

Kreitler said ticket prices for the opera, which had an annual budget of about $2.1 million, range from $25 to $35 a ticket to about $100.

Mary and Bob Warzecha of South Windsor are typical, having spent $340 on tickets to see “Daughter of the Regiment” in March and “La Bohème” in May, the two shows that were canceled.

Mary Warzecha said she was infuriated after receiving a letter from the opera dated Feb. 6, informing the couple that “we are unable to provide refunds for your remaining tickets” and suggesting that they claim their unused tickets “to the full extent allowed by the law” as a charitable contribution to the opera.

“First, subscribers had the rug pulled out from under them with the unexpected cancellation of the spring performances,” Mary Warzecha wrote in an e-mail. “Then, we are thrown off a cliff with a terse communication that the money we had paid for tickets had morphed into a ‘charitable donation.’”

“It all seemed sort of callous,” said Warzecha, “not a ‘by your leave’ or anything. It was ‘this is the way it is and tough luck.’”

Warzecha said she has cautioned her brother to think twice about subscribing, as he usually does, to another local arts organization for next year’s season. “We don’t want him to be left holding the bag if this is the tip of the iceberg of a death spiral of performing arts locally.”

Warzecha said she is considering buying music or theater tickets only on a performance-by-performance basis in the future.

Peter Polomski of Chaplin, another subscriber, characterized the opera’s actions as “reprehensible” in an e-mail that went on to say: “I’ve received a letter today informing me, basically, ‘You’ve been ripped-off, sorry!’”

He said he fears such action could have a “chilling effect on subscriptions” to performances.

There is better news, however, for those operagoers who bought single tickets through the Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts, rather than through the opera. David Fay, president and chief executive officer of the Bushnell, said the organization will provide refunds on the opera tickets it sold for the two canceled productions.

Fay said the Bushnell makes it a practice to always have funds available in case of cancellation. “We have a huge responsibility to keep the faith with our public.”

With the collapse of the opera, Fay said, the Bushnell will be stuck with a bill of about $80,000 owed by the opera for services provided through the theater.

He said the opera has notified him “to take off the holds on next year’s calendar.”

However, he said the opera audience in the Hartford area is a strong one and he is already exploring options to bring other touring opera productions to the Bushnell.

“It may be too late for next season, but certainly the following season,” Fay said. “I would expect there to be opera.”

Ken Kahn, executive director of the Greater Hartford Arts Council, said that performance groups and art institutions should keep money on hand to pay ticket refunds if necessary, but “this happens from time to time. It’s very unfortunate. … The opera has been very hard-pressed in the past few years.”

He said the opera board has “put up a heroic struggle” over the past few years, to save the institution, “but the odds they faced were overwhelming.”

“The Greater Hartford audience has gotten a lot of opera” since the early 1940s when the opera began, he said. “We need to take the long view. It’s not the end of the world, but it looks like it may be the end of an independent Connecticut opera company. It’s very sad, a sign of the times, and also a sign of changing cultural preferences and patterns of living in the 21st century.”

Kahn said that arts lovers need not fear purchasing subscriptions to established Hartford arts organizations. While those organizations “are struggling, no question about it,” he said those groups are “nowhere near the position that the opera found itself in. … Subscribers in general can have confidence in the arts organization here and should go ahead and subscribe.”

Kahn noted also that there is an effort to continue the opera’s “Opera Express” — a traveling opera program — so that it can meet its booking commitments in schools this spring.

Brooks R. Joslin, president of the opera board, said that the board was doing everything it possibly could do to keep the opera going, but was faced with “a perfect storm” of economic problems: an extremely poor turnout for its production of “Don Giovanni” at Waterbury‘s Palace Theater in November as well as, with the sagging economy, reduced corporate and individual donations.