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New Bedford Harbor Sea Chantey Chorus

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~ Chorus Members ~

About Ernestina's Sea Chantey Chorus

The New Bedford Harbor Sea Chantey Chorus is made up of some of Schooner Ernestina's most vocal volunteers, one of the most harmonious crews ever to come ashore.

Formed in 2000 as a non-auditioned civic chorus that would learn the nautical repertoire in a social setting, the group prepared a full program that has been enjoyed by hundreds of listeners in over the last three years.

The repertoire includes a variety of chanteys and songs that reflect the rich maritime heritage of New Bedford and the region.  As a sampler of musical traditions connected to New Bedford Harbor and the New England seafarer, their performances feature the chanteys (work songs) of the Yankee sailor and whaler, along with the ballads and ditties of global mariners and coastwise fisherfolk in North America, the Cape Verde Islands and the British Isles. In addition to the Crioulo and French sailor's tunes, the singers are offering an Italian fisherman's ditty and a traditional Norwegian mariners' song.

The 40-voice group also sings rich choral music.  These range from the ancient "We be Three Poor Mariners," by 16th century composer Thomas Ravenscroft, to the Ralph Vaughn Williams setting of the traditional "Down Among the Dead Men," to excerpts from Gilbert and Sullivan's classic, "H.M.S. Pinafore" to the traditional "Navy Hymn" and "Shenandoah."

If you are interested in joining, the Chorus is assembled in January each year, contact us for more information!

The Captain

Tom Goux
The Mates

Judy Cormier - African Djembe
Paula Daddio - soloist
Jack Dolan - bodhran and soloist
Polly Gardner - soloist
Iain Geddes - concertina and soloist
Mike Greene - guitar
Dan Lanier - violin and soloist
Tim Lyden - guitar
Marc Olson - soloist
Chuck Smiler - soloist
Joan Stopka - soloist
Jacek Sulanowski - percussion and soloist
Vi Taylor - percussion
Woody Underwood - violin
Polly Zajac - flute, penny whistle, and soloist

The Crew

John Allen
Michele Agostinho
Louise Anthony
Paul Anthony
Tor Bendiksen
Mary K. Briand
David Brownell
Sally Brownell
Jack Dean
Katherine Gaudet
Mary Helen Gunn
Damon Howard
Charlie Howland
Liz Jacobsen
Janet Langlois
Joe Langlois
Ned Lund
Barbara Marshall|
John McCoy
Kate McGonigle

Marian Menard
Sue Miller
Helena Monty
Daisy Morin
Rick Ober
Marc Olson
Chris Parks
Viola Pires-Pina
Martin Poriss
Julie Pratt
Eva Reed
Jody Reeves
Jane Reilly
Bob Shaw
Danielle Slight
David Tonnessen
Deborah Tripp
Marty Tulloch
Joan Underwood
David Ward

C U R R E N T        E V E N T S


CHORUS 2006 SCHEDULE

Sunday, March 26
4pm

Fairhaven Unitarian Church
Farihaven, MA

Saturday, May 20
1pm

Cape Cod Canal Visitors Center
Sandwich, MA

Sunday, May 21
12noon & 1pm
Hyannis Waterfront Park
Hyannis, MA

Hang around for The Great Falmouth Mostly-All Male Chorus
with a perfromance later on in the afternoon

Saturday, June 3
Time TBD

Rotch-Jones-Duff House and Garden Museum
County Street
New Bedford, MA

Thursday, August 31
7pm

New Bedford Whaling Museum
Johnny Cake Hill
New Bedford, MA

Sept. 22-24 

The Working Waterfront Festival
New Bedford, MA

The chorus has a concert on Sunday, September 24th in the PM

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CHORUS RELEASES NEW CD!

New Bedford Harbor Sea Chantey Chorus CD Tracks

Track

Time

Title / Author / Soloists

1 2:48 Spanish Ladies / Traditional  /  Tom Goux & Jacek Sulanowski
2 3:11 The Mermaid  / Traditional
3 2:38 Long Time Ago / Traditional / Chuck Smiler
4 3:11 Dom Pedro / Traditional / Tom Goux
5 3:48 Mary L. McKay / From: Songs and Ballards from Nova Scotia by Helen Creighton
 Words by Frederick William Wallace / Jacek Sulanowski
6 3:22 Over the Waterfall & Ragtime Annie / Traditional / Dan Lanier and Andy Woolf
7 4:43 Lovely Ernestina / Jim Bean / Jim Bean
8 2:38 Yo-Yo Schooners at Digby  / Tom Goux / Tom Goux
9 2:29 Fisherman's Wife / Traditional / Polly Zajac & Polly Gardner
10 4:17 Fiddler's Green  / John Connolly / Jack Dolan
11 1:58 The Navy Hymn / John B. Dykes, William Whiting, M.C.D. Hamilton
12 4:26 The Spray / Dillon Bustin / Jim Bean
13 1:25 Sally Brown / Traditional / Dan Lanier
14 2:47 We Be Three Poor Mariners  / Thomas Ravenscroft
15 2:01 Port of Many Ships / Words by John Masefield, Music by Tom Goux / Tom Goux
16 2:31 Sailor's Hornpipe  &  Fisher's Hornpipe / Traditional / Dan Lanier & Andy Woolf, fiddle
17 2:52 Tubarao / Traditonal morna / Joan Stopka
18 4:49 Essequibo River / Traditional / Tom Goux
19 4:23 Song for Ernestina / Tom Goux / Tom Goux

We'd like to extend a sincere thanks to Neal Weiss at Whaling City Sound, 560 Pleasant Street, New Bedford 02740-6236 for his great support and assistance in the production and distribution of this CD! Please see www.whalingcitysound.com 

To order your CD today, just call the Ernestina office at 508-992-4900 or email to programs@ernestina.org
CDs are $15.00 with an additional $3.50 for shipping total $18.50. Payment can be by check or major credit card.

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HONORABLE        MENTION


CHORUS RECEIVES A GRANT FROM THE NEW BEDFORD CULTURAL COUNCIL

The Schooner Ernestina was granted $1000 to help support the all-volunteer New Bedford Harbor Sea Chantey Chorus Concert Series in 2003.

We are very thankful for the funding provided by the Massachusetts Cultural Council through the local New Bedford Cultural Council. We know from first hand experience that cultural events have a great positive impact on the economies of cities like New Bedford!

In other news, the Chorus has been selected by MCC as a Gold Star Project as a result of its unique blend of arts and community. In a ceremony at Mechanics Hall in Worcester on  April 12, 2003, Ernestina Executive Director Gregg Swanzey accepted the award on behalf of the Chorus from MCC Executive Director Mary Kelley and Communities Department Manager Daniel Kertzner.

 

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CHORUS        PROFILE


WHO'D JOIN A SEA CHANTEY CHORUS?

We're an eclectic group with singers and musicians who have performed around the world; others are well known for their great arias while driving in heavy traffic! Here's a glimpse of just a few of our crew:

John Allen (AKA Johnny Boy to friends and family) is a forty-something sailor, psychologist and lover of the sea. His only greater passion is his girls -- wife Lezlie Suzanne and daughter Mariah Grace. Raised summers along the shallows of Vineyard Sound, he spent his youth working his way up from sunfish to sloop to topsail schooner. If you can't find him counseling courageous people recovering from physical injury or illness; and if you can't find him romping along south cape beaches with his girls; you may very well find him at the wheel of a "cat", singing some ditty in a following breeze.

Tor Bendiksen has been a serious choral singer and plays handbells at the Pilgrim United Church.  However, Tor's family has been connected to the sea for generations and he continues that tradition as a net designer and maker and singer of sea chanteys. 

David Brownell has sung with the Greater New Bedford Choral Society, Tryworks Chantey group, and Calabàn.  He owns and operates of Aries Sheep Farm in South Dartmouth.

Judy Cormier began playing flute at 12 and played in the Bishop Stang band and orchestra.  She discovered sea chanteys at the annual Eisteddford music festival at SMU in 1975 and sought them out every year. Judy began playing native American flutes in the late nineties (12 so far! ) and discovered the African Djembe (hand drum) in 1999.  She was part of the First Unitarian Universalist Drum Circle of New Bedford for five years.

Jack Dean plays clarinet, guitar, piano and enjoyed singing in his college chorus.  He left the musician's life to become a consultant in the field of electrical engineering.

Jack Dolan reports that the show biz bug bit him at the tender age of six, when he performed a rousing rendition of "Shake the Apple Tree" for his second grade class.  This led to years of experience in school and church choirs.  He would eventually become a vocal soloist and the business manager of the Harvard-Radcliffe Collegium Musicum, where he performed with the Boston Symphony, the Buffalo Philharmonic, and the Toronto Symphony.  "But," says Jack,  "all of this pales in comparison to my current stint with the New Bedford Harbor Sea Chantey Chorus!"  When he's not singing, Jack's a lawyer and a fly-fisherman.

Daisy Desautels-Morin sang with the Stetsonaires for years and performed in many a minstrel show at St. George's Church.  She occasionally takes tap and jazz dance lessons.

Polly Gardner came to the chorus after years of singing at campfires, in school choruses, and with her college a cappella group.  Polly 's latest musical challenge is mastering traditional tunes on a $7.95 tin whistle (once known as a penny whistle.)  You can find her in the yurt on Monday nights for a weekly jam session.

Katherine Gaudet is a 4th grade teacher at Friends Academy.  Katherine actually had no prior singing experience except for a stint in  boyfriend's jug band in high school playing the spoons!  The one thing she has going for her is that, " I LOVE to sing."

Iain Geddes, born in Glasgow, Scotland, says this about his musical family, "My grandfather played the banjo and fiddle - though not simultaneously - and mom played the piano accordion and always said she married my father because she needed someone to carry it!"  Iain got his first guitar at age 11, became involved in school operettas, and played with a Celtic group called The Corbies in the 1960's  (don't look for any old LPs on Ebay!)  When sea chanties became part of his repertoire, he learned the Anglo concertina you’ll hear in our fo’c’sle band.

Luther Damon Howard III spent four years in high school choral groups.  He also participated in the 1969 war moratorium and peace march in Washington, DC.  The sea called to Damon and he spent a year going around the world working on an oceanographic vessel from Woods Hole.  He published research of the roots of Native American cultural connections to the Old World, through spoken language links and inscribed stories in the New World.

Charlie Howland is a singer at heart, participating in the New Bedford Choral Society, Berkshire Chorus, and his high school glee club.  Charlie is also plays the accordion.

Elizabeth Jacobsen played violin and trumpet, was a member of her high church choir.  “All of this musicianship has been developed through years of intensive rehearsal in the shower and by the campfire,” claims Liz.  She was a sixth grade teacher and now enjoys gardening, hiking, kayaking, and writing.

Janet Langlois shares her vocal talents with the St. Lawrence Martyr Church Choir and the Church Women United Choir and a member of Pilgrim Handbell Choir. She is a Eucharistic Minister, a mother of 4 daughters, and a grandmother of 2 grandsons.  Joe Langlois is Janet's sidekick.  He also sings at St. Lawrence Martyr Church.  Joe has been a psychotherapist for 30 years at the state psychiatric hospital.

Tim Lyden is our resident pirate.  He's been playing guitar for 16 years and has played with a variety of rock bands.  He "caught the classical bug and began playing Bach" in recent years, which has led to frequent appearances at Renaissance fairs and festivals around New England.  When not playing guitar, Tim enjoys mountain climbing, hunting, fishing, SCUBA diving, building historical furniture reproductions, riding his Harley, and (as any pirate would) treasure hunting.

Barbara Marshall's performance credits begin with the New Bedford High School Chorus (a few years ago) and continue with her current membership in the Center School Intergenerational Chorus.  During her working career, Barbara was a paralegal.

John McCoy is a retired New Bedford firefighter who is just beginning his singing career.  It's about time he learned some chanties: he once served as a crew member aboard the HMS Bounty and has "plied the oars" as a member of the Whaling City Rowing Club.

Kate McGonigle, an English and Latin teacher at Dartmouth High School, has been involved with music "forever," since Santa brought her a shiny red phonograph and records to play on it.  "Singing everywhere" followed naturally, through college and into the "real world," where/whenever possible.  Her affinity for the sea and love of sailing led her to the New Bedford Sea Chanty Chorus as soon as it was advertised. When they are in dry dock, she keeps her pipes oiled with the New Bedford Choral Society.

Marian Menard made music her career.  She taught for 34 years, 10 of those were as a music, recorder, and drama teacher at Acushnet Elementary School. While a student at Framingham State College, Marian played a pirate and policeman in Gilbert and Sullivan's "Pirates of Penzance."

Helena Monty, originally from Chelsea, has had a life long affection for music.  During her school years, she sang in grammar and high school choruses.  After moving to the New Bedford area, Helena sang with a local group, The Stetsonaires, for over 30 years.  She even cut an LP with them!  In addition to the Sea Chantey Chorus, she also sings with the Center School Intergenerational Chorus.  Helena is a retired LPN who was on staff at St. Luke’s Hospital and did private duty nursing and cared for AIDS patients.

Rick Ober is enjoying his first year with the chorus.  In the past, he studied piano and guitar.  His last choral performance before joining the group occurred when he graduated from eighth grade when the class sang, “I Believe.”  Rick and his wife are preparing for “an empty nest” as their third son leaves for college in the fall.

If our HMS Pinafore carried and contingent of marines, Marc Olson would command them!  He is a transplant to the South Coast area from Newton.  He is also a member of the Sippican Choral Society.

Chris Parks performed with several choruses in high school and sang in her church choir.  Chris also plays piano and is a bookbinder  and a sale associate for the Joyce D. Lopes Realty Corp GMAC.

Julie Pratt also has shared her singing talents with the Somerset Choir.

Jane Reilly is in her second year with the chorus. Her singing started while in grammar school and in church EVERY SUNDAY.  She also learned accordion in her younger days and sang in all-girl chorus in high school.  Jane confesses to singing at all times while underway - that would be while navigating traffic in the car! Jane works as a therapist and vocational counselor.

Chuck Smiler played the saxophone and sang in high school and then went on to join the Harvard Freshman Glee Club and the Harvard Glee Club.  He was a member of the Choraleers Community Chorus in Barra, VT, the Baroque Court, a select renaissance and baroque group, and had a lead role in the play “Kiss Me.”  Chuck and his wife, Ruth, are the new  owners of the Capt. Haskell B&B.  They look forward to welcoming you or your visitors to New Bedford’s newest B & B.

Joan Stopka began singing in grade school and continued with a madrigal group in high school.  She also played French horn and trumpet and was a member of the jazz band, concert band and marching band.  Joan joined the Collegium Musicum while at college and is currently learning how to play the mandolin.  Joan is an avid knitter and can be seen on local highways and byways at the controls of her BMW motorcycle!

Vi Taylor is a music teacher at Friend’s Academy.  She is also a cellist in the New Bedford Symphony.  When Vi’s not making music, she can be found volunteering at the New Bedford Whaling Museum or enjoying local waters in her kayak.

Woody Underwood learned every song on the LP “Whaler out of New Bedford” about 40 years ago; he was a natural to become "ship's fiddler" in our fo'c'sle band.

David Ward comes to the chorus as a World War II Navy veteran and and a retired teacher with 31 years in the classroom.  He was the owner and director  fro 46 years of Camp Sea Space and the Sea Space Sailing School.  He and his wife Harriet sailed to Florida and the Bahamas twice and he also sailed across the Atlantic Ocean in a 36-foot boat.  David currently competes in the Winter and Summer Senior Olympics earning medals in skiing during the 2003 competition.

Polly Zajac chose to play the flute in third grade after seeing an episode on the PBS show, ZOOM.  She played through high school and college in marching, concert and jazz bands and, yes, really enjoyed band camp!  She was a member of the pit band for the New Bedford High Drama Club musicals.  She also began playing the guitar in high school and dreams about playing the blues.  Polly is a former classroom teacher and now serves as Program Coordinator for Schooner Ernestina, running after school programs, writing and directing plays for New Bedford middle school students, leading community activities and sailing on the ship whenever possible.  She also lives vicariously through her children who can sing a whopping “Johnny Come Down to Hilo” and are learning to play the violin and piano!

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