Berkshire Choral International is bidding farewell to its birthplace after 36 years. Saturday was the group’s last performance in Sheffield, Massachusetts.
Berkshire Choral International CEO Debi Kennedy says the decision to say goodbye to Sheffield didn’t come easy.
“It’s kind of bittersweet,” Kennedy says.
Saturday’s show was the last time BCI will perform in Sheffield after 36 years there.
“It was just spectacular,” Kennedy says. “We had a sellout crowd. We had the biggest chorus we ever had – it was just a spectacular evening.”
Kennedy says the chorus can exceed 250 people. The final performance in Sheffield was led by conductor Tom Hall, the music director of the Baltimore Choral Arts Society for 34 years.
“The model of what we do is not changing,” Kennedy says.
Every summer, BCI hosts four week-long choral festivals in different cities in the U.S. and internationally. Kennedy says the performers are amateurs who are crafted into artists.
“Under the leadership… we get very big named, world-renowned choral conductors who are familiar of our program and anxious to work with these skilled, amateur singers,” Kennedy says.
Founded in 1982, BCI started to travel beyond Sheffield in 1990.
Kennedy says many of the performers are now interested in travelling to new places and venues, instead of the same-old traditional show in Sheffield.
“We had people in the chorus and in the orchestra who played in the very first concert,” Kennedy says.
The chorus performed Verdi’s Requiem, accompanied by the Springfield Orchestra, at Saturday’s concert at the Berkshire School, bringing some closure to the proceedings; it was the first piece the group performed back in ’82.
“Change happens and I think everyone is looking forward to the next 36 seasons and what will be in store for us,” Kennedy says.
BCI is changing it up for 2018.
“People seem to want the idea of having this experience, this program that we do in new places,” Kennedy says.
Kennedy says the timing was right – the lease is up at its Sheffield headquarters.
“Perhaps where you start something has some special… just like if you live in a particular city or town for a number of years and you move away that always holds some kind of special place in your heart and in your memories and then that’s probably very similar for what this is for many people that have come here for many years,” Kennedy says.
But more and more, that’s not the case. Overall enrollment in Sheffield is down, excluding the last performance.
“People need to understand: We also have a very large population of people that sing with us over and over again that have never been to Sheffield.” Kennedy says. “Not everyone comes here and has that same connection.”
BCI’s next practice and performance will be in Budapest on August 6th.
Next year, the chorus has sights on Southern California, Baltimore, Saratoga Springs, New York, and England.
