Glasgow Musicale hits high note

By AMBER DILLEY
Glasgow Daily Times

GLASGOW October 29, 2008 10:58 am

— The Kentucky Baptist Women and Men’s Chorale will perform at Glasgow Baptist Church on Thursday as part of the Glasgow Musicale program.
The local program is a member of the National and Kentucky Federation of Music clubs.
The performance starts at 7 p.m. and is free to the public.
The group, based in Brandenburg, is composed of: the Women’s Chorale, the Men’s Chorale and the Kentucky Baptist Instrumental Ensemble.
“There’s over 100 members total, who come from all over the state,” said Linda Hitchcock, Glasgow Musicale publicist and secretary. “Many are professional singers and musicians. All come from a church choir background and are the top vocalists from their respective choirs. We expect about 75 to 80 of them to perform Thursday.”
An old organ helped bring the group to town.
“It’s worth a tremendous amount of money,” Mary Elizabeth Jones-Berry said of Glasgow Baptist Church’s instrument. “It’s valued at almost a million dollars. They wanted a nice organ to play, so I guess that helped in getting them here. It’s been four years since I’ve invited this group to come here and we’ve finally got them here.”
The program for the Glasgow concert will include presentations from each group and several numbers presented by the groups combined.
“The Glasgow Musicale tries to share the blessed legacy of music with the entire community,” Hitchcock said. “The programs are varied, family friendly, accessible and free. We also fund scholarships for the annual Stephen Foster Music Camp for Glasgow and Barren County students. This is part of a monthly music program done from September through May and we try whenever possible to bring in statewide groups.”
According to Hitchcock, the Men’s Chorale, directed by Carl Stam, has been a group since 1965 and has traveled to New England, Kenya, Brazil, Russia and was accompanied by the Women’s Chorale on a mission trip to Europe.
The Women’s Chorale has been a group since 1988 and is directed by Dr. Sue Ellen Ballard.
The instrumental ensemble, directed by Ken Goforth, is comprised of ministers of music and other staff from Kentucky Baptist churches, Baptist college faculty members, staff from the KBC Music and Worship Department, students from Southern Seminary and church orchestra members.
The ensemble also participates in all of the programming for the Men’s Chorale.

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