Encore’s Fifth Annual Institutes at St. Mary’s College of Maryland and the Chautauqua Institution are rapidly approaching! If you're not already among the many who are registered, don't delay!  The first Institute, at St. Mary's College of Maryland, is only a month away.  Details below:

The St. Mary’s College of Maryland Institute will be June 19-23, 2012. In addition to the traditional Choral Institute, this year Encore will be adding a Band Track. The band program will be under the direction of Dr. Roy Ernst, founder of the New Horizons International Music Association, New Horizons has “199 and counting” groups, mostly bands, across the U.S. and internationally.

As always, the Choral Track will be conducted by Encore Founder and Executive Director Jeanne Kelly. Co-conducting this year will be Krystal Rickard McCoy, director of Encore’s Southern Maryland Chorale and St. Maries Musica.

Encore returns to the Chautauqua Institution for the fifth time August 27-31, 2012. As in 2011, the Institute will include Choral, Theatre and Dance Tracks.

The Choral Track will be co-conducted by Jeanne Kelly and Barry Talley, retired Director of Music Activities at the United States Naval Academy.

Dr. Stuart Kandell, Founder of Stagebridge Theatre in Oakland, California, and David Barnet, professor of theatre at University of Alberta, Canada, will again conduct the Theatre Track, while Shula Strassfeld will return to conduct the Dance program.

For more complete information, or to register for St. Mary's download a brochure and registration form here.  The Chautauqua brochure and registration form is downloadable here.

If you prefer to register online (Encore will send you an invoice), CLICK HERE to register for St. Mary's.  CLICK HERE to register for Chautauqua.

Read about the 2011 Encore Institute at St. Mary’s College of Maryland and view photos HERE.

Read about the 2011 Encore Institute at the Chautauqua Institution HERE.

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Encore is nearing the end of another busy concert season in May, when the 550 Maryland, Virginia, and District of Columbia Encore Chorale singers from eleven chorales have been performing a total of eleven concerts.  Highlighting the season were concerts of the Virginia Chorales at the Washington-Lee High School in Arlington on May 11th (VIEW CONCERT PHOTOS HERE)  and the Maryland Chorales at the Pascal Center for the Performing Arts at Anne Arundel Community College on May 12th. The Smithsonian Encore Chorale was thrilled to again be performing at the National Museum of the American Indian on May 9th (VIEW CONCERT PHOTOS HERE).  One more concert to go: The Southern Maryland Encore Chorale will be performing at the Calvert Marine Museum in Solomons, Maryland, this coming Saturday, May 19th, at 2:00pm. Solomons is a beautiful place for a day trip.  Come down and have lunch at one of the many waterfront restaurants, then enjoy the concert! 

Date	Time	Location	Chorales Singing
Sunday May 6	4:00pm	Myerberg Senior Center	Myerberg Chorale
Monday May 7	7:30pm	The Westchester, 4000 Cathedral Avenue, Washington DC 20016	Washington Conservatory Glen Echo Chorale SPONSORED BY FAMILY & NURSING CARE
Tuesday May 8	4:00pm	Woodlands Retirement Community, Fairfax, VA	Potomac Academy at GMU Chorale
Tuesday May 8	7:30pm	Goodwin House, Bailey's Crossroads Falls Church, VA	Goodwin Houses and Langston Brown Chorales (Not Open to the Public)
Wednesday May 9	1:00pm	Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian	Smithsonian Chorale GUEST PERFORMER: DAVID WILLIAMS, BARITONE
David Williams, Baritone
Thursday May 10	7:30pm	Goodwin House, Alexandria, VA	Goodwin Houses and Langston Brown Chorales (Not Open to the Public)
Friday   May 11	4:00pm	Asbury-Solomons Retirement Community Solomons, MD	Southern Maryland Chorale (Not Open to the Public)
Friday   May 11	7:30pm	Washington-Lee High School, Arlington, VA	Virginia Chorales, Virginia Members of Smithsonian Chorale. GUEST PERFORMERS: WASHINGTON-LEE HS JAZZ BAND; DAVID WILLIAMS, BARITONE
Washington-Lee HS Jazz Band
Saturday May 12	3:00pm	Pascal Center for the Performing Arts, Anne Arundel Community College, Arnold, MD	Maryland Chorales, Maryland Members of Smithsonian Chorale. GUEST PERFORMER: ST. MARIES MUSICA
St. Maries Musica
Monday May 14	7:30pm	Schweinhaut Senior Center, Silver Spring, MD	Schweinhaut Chorale SPONSORED BY FAMILY & NURSING CARE
Saturday May 19	2:00pm	Calvert Maritime Museum, Solomons, MD	Southern Maryland Chorale

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Over 100 members of the Maryland Encore Chorales (Anne Arundel Community College, Schweinhaut Senior Center, Washington Conservatory at Glen Echo, Myerberg Senior Center, Asbury~Solomons, and Maryland residents of the Smithsonian Encore Chorale)  performed at the Maryland Innovations in Aging Conference at the Gaylord Hotel, National Harbour, on May 5th, 2012.  The Chorales gave a rousing performance before an appreciative audience of the conference and tradeshow attendees. Favorites were Rockin' Jerusalem, a Gilbert & Sullivan Medley, When I'm Sixty-Four and and exciting rendition of Battle Hymn of the Republic, which brought many members of the audience to their feet.

The Maryland Department of Aging, District of Columbia Office on Aging, and the Virginia Department for the Aging conducted  Innovations in Aging 2012. This event featured professional training, an expo, job fair, and walk for professional and consumer audiences.

The goal of Innovations in Aging 2012 was to showcase new directions for aging policy, programs, supports, and services that promote healthy community living for a lifetime. Highlights will include new technologies and innovative approaches to planning for the future and preparing to age well in the community.

CLICK HERE TO VIEW A PHOTO SLIDESHOW OF THE PERFORMANCE.

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Join Encore Chorale for a fantastic “Singing at Sea” voyage May 15, 2013,  sailing from Normandy to Paris, France on board the luxurious Grand Circle river boat Bizet.  We will be touring the Normandy Beaches, Honfleur, Rouen, Giverny, Auvers-Sur-Oise, and on to Paris.  Singers will be performing in two towns along the way. Included in this exclusive discovery series are a Paris cruise, introduction to Impressionism, a French cooking demonstration and language lesson,  home-hosted visit, French gourmet tasting, painting lesson, cheese-tasting, and the Caen Peace Memorial Museum.  Don’t miss out on this once in a lifetime opportunity!

Singers who are not currently singing with Encore Chorales will receive music via mail and will be expected to know the music at performance level when they arrive in France.    We will have some rehearsal time on board the Bizet.

Encore goes international!   Come join us.

Download an informational flier HERE or email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it for more details and reservation information.

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Encore Creativity for Older Adults is excited to announce we have been selected as a recipient of a grant under the Metlife Foundation Creative Aging Foundation.  The MetLife Foundation Creative Aging Program was funded by MetLife Foundation and administered by the National Guild for Community Arts Education. Encore will use the grant to fund expansion outside of the MD/DC/VA area.  Read the full announcement by the MetLife Foundation and Naional Guild for Community Arts Education below:

MetLife Foundation and National Guild Award $90,000 in Grants to Nine Creative Aging Programs

Arts education program to improve well-being of older adults

New York, NY---MetLife Foundation and the National Guild for Community Arts Education have announced the grant recipients of the 2012 MetLife Foundation Creative Aging Program. Technical assistance and grants totaling more than $90,000 have been awarded to nine nonprofit arts education organizations that will deepen and expand professionally-led arts education programs for older adults. Each of the grantees has demonstrated the capacity to develop programs that can increase participants’ social engagement as well as mastery of one or more art forms.

Grants were awarded to the following National Guild member organizations:

• Artists Collective, Hartford, CT (Music & Storytelling)
• Brooklyn-Queens Conservatory of Music, Brooklyn, NY (Music)*
• Community Music Center, San Francisco, CA (Music)*
• Creative Center at University Settlement, New York, NY (Theater & Visual Arts)
• Elders Share the Arts, Brooklyn, NY (Visual Arts & Writing)*
• Encore Creativity for Older Adults, Washington, DC (Music)
• MacPhail Center for Music, Minneapolis, MN (Music)
• Marcia P. Hoffman Performing Arts Institute, Clearwater, FL (Music & Writing)*
• McGroarty Arts Center, Tujunga, CA (Visual Arts)
  
  *Returning grantees

Click here for a description of each program.

The National Endowment for the Arts’ Creativity and Aging Study shows that professionally-led arts education programs can have extremely positive effects on the general and mental health of older adults. Older adults who participated in programs supported by the MetLife Foundation Creative Aging Program in 2009 experienced a statistically significant improvement in their moods, reinforcing the findings in the National Endowment for the Arts study. A report (PDF) detailing the results of the Creative Aging Program is available online.

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Family & Nursing Care, Inc., the area's leading and most highly regarded resource for private duty home care, has partnered with Encore to support our Encore Chorale program. Through the partnership, Family & Nursing Care will support programs for more than 200 Maryland Encore Chorale singers to practice and present at concerts throughout the Washington, DC area. Family & Nursing Care has partnered with Encore to sponsor upcoming Spring 2012 Maryland Chorale Concerts. This partnership will allow for increased access to artistic opportunities for older adults.

“Our decision to sponsor Encore Chorale’s programs was an easy one,” said Neal Kursban, President of Family & Nursing Care. “Encore Chorale enables older adults to have an active and quality life, which is what Family & Nursing care strives to do every day with the clients we serve. Encore and Family & Nursing Care are clearly aligned in our goals for excellence and accessibility.”

“Both Encore and Family & Nursing Care enable older adults to maintain their quality of life and stay involved,” said Jeanne Kelly, President and Executive Director of Encore Creativity for Older Adults. “We are thrilled to have Family & Nursing Care’s support so that we may continue to grow our programs and make them available to an even wider audience of older adults.”

The free concerts being supported by Family & Nursing Care through the partnership include a concert at The Westchester in Washington, DC on May 7th, and the Schweinhaut Senior Center in Silver Spring on May 14th.

Family & Nursing Care, family owned and operated since 1968, has long been recognized as the area’s leading and most highly regarded resource for private duty home care. They specialize in helping families maintain a balanced lifestyle by referring experienced caregivers who provide a range of personalized services that meet the individual needs of each client. Their hallmark is finding that special match between each client and caregiver. Service is provided in Maryland (ALL of Montgomery and Prince George's counties) and Washington, DC. Learn more at www.familynursingcare.com.

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