Grantee Spotlight: College Park Arts Exchange

Submitted by College Park Arts Exchange, one of CPCF’s first grant recipients. In 2013, CPCF awarded a grant to CPAE to fund sheet music for its new adult choir, the College Park Chorale.

The College Park Chorale, directed by Allison Hughes, has completed its third year with a celebratory concert held at the University of Maryland Memorial Chapel on May 16, 2015.

As a community choir, College Park Chorale gives singers the great joy of making music together with their friends and neighbors.  It also brings together cheerful amateurs with singers who have had more extensive training and performance experience.  No audition is required to join the Chorale, but Ms. Hughes has succeeded admirably in melding a diverse group of forty singers into a skillful choir.

The College Park Chorale at a recent concert at University of Maryland. In the foreground is director Alison Hughes. An original setting of “Peace Like a River,” by College Park composer Dr. Gabriel Ruiz-Bernal, was the tour de force performance of the concert. Dancer Laurie Sanda interpreted the piece before the audience with a long blue scarf which helped to represent peace like a river, joy like a fountain, and love like an ocean.   This challenging contemporary composition demanded mastery of complex melodic and harmonic lines from the choir.   Dr. Yee Von Ng, accompanist, supported the Chorale adroitly on piano, for this piece and throughout the concert.

There was a wide variety of musical styles were represented in the concert though all the pieces had a common theme of water.  From the premiere performance of Ruiz-Bernal’s contemporary composition “Peace Like a River” to Renaissance madrigals alluding to the ocean and weeping, to modern settings of folk songs like “Shenandoah” and “The Water is Wide” and new arrangements of popular music such as “7 Bridges Road” and “Bridge Over Troubled Water,” the audience was lead through a wonderful breadth of material.  Several songs featured the talents of strong soloists, as well as instrumentalists playing guitar and violin.

Tying into the water theme, the Chorale partnered with Saha Global, a non-profit working to find local solutions for clean water and electricity in Ghana.   The chorale is grateful for the support of many volunteers and local groups that helped to make this concert a success.  The College Park City University Partnership and the University of Maryland helped to secure the beautiful UMD Chapel as the venue.  College Park Community Foundation helped stabilize the Chorale in early days by helping to defray the cost of purchasing sheet music.

Chorale 2015

#CollegePark5KSeries: That’s a Wrap

The results are in! Runners in the College Park Mother’s Day 5K can see their results here, from our partners at Blue Point Timing: http://bit.ly/5KResults2015.

The Mother’s Day 5K was the third and final race in the College Park 5K Series. College Park Community Foundation is proud to have partnered with UMD’s Office of Community Engagement and Campus Recreation Services to bring you this three event series. We appreciated the opportunity to bring together the College Park campus and community to promote health, wellness, and community building!

Picture collage showing CPCF board chair Tricia Homer holding balloons; runner Omar G. N. winning the Mother's Day 5K; Board Chair Tricia with OCE Director Gloria Aparicio Blackwell and College Park Mayor Andy Fellows; and Javazen and MOM's Organic Market providing refreshments to race participants.The Mother’s Day 5K had 119 runners and more than 30 volunteers–we appreciate everyone who came out. We would also like to once again thank our generous financial sponsors and in-kind donors: The City of College Park, North College Park Citizens Association, Berwyn District Civic Association, MOM’s Organic MarketREI, and Road ID.

Stay tuned for more pictures from this great event, and we hope to see you back next year!