CONCERT WITH A CAUSE
Berkshire Lyric's August 17 Concert With a Cause was a rousing success. Thank you to our many donors who supported our effort to give something back to our local community during this pandemic. Over $3000 was raised and distributed to three Berkshire County food pantries.
Our 45 minute video featured new virtual recordings by our summer chorus Ubi Caritas, as well as audio and video clips from recent years as well as clips of the mighty Berkshire Lyric Chorus at Tanglewood's Seiji Ozawa Hall. The video also included interviews with a number of Berkshire Lyric singers who are on are professionally involved
with aspects of the crisis.
45 minute video premiered Aug. 17, 2020
Our combined efforts helped to support
The People’s Pantry
St. James Place, 352 Main St.,
Great Barrington
Community Food Pantry, Pittsfield
South Congregational Church
Pittsfield
Berkshire Food Project
134 Main Street
North Adams
Berkshire Lyric Media Links
click below
New England Public Radio Broadcast Story, April 2019
CTSB Interview with Jack Brown, May 2019
WMHT-FM 89.1 Interview with Jack Brown, May 2019
Berkshire Eagle Feature Article May 2018
WMHT-FM 89.1 Haydn Creation Interview Broadcast, May 2018
Social Media Links
Berkshire Lyric Theatre, Inc.
P.O. Box 347 Pittsfield MA 01202
Fall Rehearsals Underway
The Berkshire Lyric Chorus has gone virtual this fall with remote rehearsals started on Monday, September 21 via Zoom. Due to the pandemic, all regular in-person rehearsals and concerts for the 80 voice chorus have been cancelled this fall. Instead, Lyric will be putting together a virtual Christmas concert and film for a December release.
For this fall semester, the chorus welcomed ALL interested singers without any audition to be part of the Berkshire Lyric tradition. Lyric has been presenting beloved holiday programs since 1963. With many school and community choruses as well as church choirs on hiatus this fall, this will be an opportunity for singers to learn some new music and find a choral safe haven. The rehearsals are led by Berkshire Lyric’s long time artistic director Jack Brown and will be assisted by accompanist Joe Rose. Special guest choral directors and professional singers will also share their vocal insights
every week.
The Berkshire Lyric chorus was working towards a concert with orchestra of Brahms and Bruckner at Tanglewood’s Seiji Ozawa Hall last March. Like all performing groups, all of our plans suddenly came to an abrupt end.
There will be no dues for this fall semester for any singers who were with us for the start of that cancelled spring season.
All new singers are required to pay the regular $75 semester dues. There are NO auditions this fall. Dues are waived for young singers ages 14 to 22.
To register,
contact us through our email:
pay semester dues of $75:
2020 Online
Summer Music Workshops Conclude
Thank you to Jack Brown, Joe Rose and Anson Olds for presenting our summer music workshops. Three nights a week for 6 weeks, they enabled us to stay connected and learn about music while we are on hiatus.
The History and Development of Western Choral Music, Palestrina to Whitacre.
led by Lyric's Artistic Director Jack Brown
Music Theory Fundamentals and Sight Singing Workshop
led by Lyric's young Composer in Residence, Anson Olds
The Home Music Studio: Using the New Technologies for Teaching, Practicing and Recording
led by Lyric's long-time accompanist/arranger and jazz pianist Joe Rose
What is Berkshire Lyric?
Berkshire Lyric is a community of choruses where singers ages six to eighty-three explore the world of beauty through the choral art.
Founded in 1963 and now led by artistic director Jack Brown, Berkshire Lyric continues to explore a wide variety of great music for chorus. We believe that the sung word is the language of the heart and has a unique power to transform both the singer and the listener. We live in a world of great spiritual hunger, and choral music has a unique power to move one's spirit.
While making great music together, we bring people together: young and old, professional and amateur. We try to demystify the great world of classical music, to show that this is music for all of us.
NEPR Broadcast Story aired April 25 telling Berkshire Lyric story.
New England Public Radio has recently has put together a feature story on Berkshire Lyric. It was broadcast over the NEPR network on April 25, airing both on Morning Edition and All Things Considered. Broadcast journalist Nancy Cohen visited us during an April rehearsal and interviewed director Jack Brown and several chorus members for this story about what makes a great, multifaceted community chorus tick. It has been archived on their website at www.nepr.net. Enjoy!
Acoustic Test Drive of Tanglewood's New Linde Center
On January 27, The Berkshire Lyric Chorus was invited by the BSO to make an acoustic test drive of the brand new Linde Center on the grounds of Tanglewood. We were the first people to have a chance to sing in this amazingly beautiful hall that will open to the public this June. Instead of having our regular Monday rehearsal in Pittsfield, we had a "field trip" to just across the field from our regular spring concert venue of Seiji Ozawa Hall. This amazing space can be acoustically tuned to the music at hand, and we enjoyed singing Schubert, Morton Lauridson and a swinging version of "Moonglow" with our great Joe Rose on their big Steinway. We learned a great deal from working with their acoustician from Kierkegaard Associates. Much fun for all to enjoy this gorgeous new music resource for the Berkshires. Bravo BSO!