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Concert: The Fountain Arts Center Community Orchestra Youth Choir and Genesee Valley Chorus
June 8 @ 6:30 pm - 7:30 pm
The Fountain Arts Center Music Program will present a unique music collaboration at “A Summer’s Eve Concert” on June 8th in the Wesley Auditorium at Houghton University. The program “On Earth as it is in Heaven” will feature the Fountain Arts Center Community Orchestra conducted by Alva Robbins, the Genesee Valley Chorus, and the Fountain Arts Center Youth Choir under the direction of Amanda Robbins and Shelly McGraw.
The concert is free and open to the public. It is supported in part by the Ralph C. Wilson, Jr. Arts & Culture Initiative, and a collaboration with the Knights Creek Evangelical Methodist Church Music Program made possible with funds from the Statewide Community Regrants Program, a regrants program of the New York State Council for the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature and administered in Allegany and Wyoming Counties by the Arts Council for Wyoming County.
The Fountain Arts Center Orchestra is a community orchestra that includes strings students of violist David Peralta performing alongside music educators and professionals throughout the area. The orchestra was birthed out of a recital at Knights Creek Church in Scio in 2021 when half a dozen strings students collaborated with a brass quintet to provide an opportunity for students to perform. In a few short years, the number of strings students tripled, and additional musicians in brass, winds, and percussion joined the group rehearsing at The Fountain Arts Center.
The community orchestra has outgrown the Knights Creek Church, and The Fountain Arts Center performance spaces. However, it holds several music performances a year, that include student recitals, orchestral concerts, chamber music events, and the youth choir, which are presented at a variety of venues. The orchestra is conducted by Alva Robbins, music educator at Genesee Valley Central School.
The Fountain Arts Center Youth Choir had its humble beginnings when a handful of home-schooled students rehearsed a Christmas program in Belmont with a class of students in Brazil. Former arts center director Melody Mills connected her students in Brazil via ZOOM to the group at The Fountain Arts Center and they debuted their bilingual Christmas medley at the Almond Community Church in December of 2021. Since then, the youth choir has steadily grown to include more than two dozen students ranging from 4 to 18 years of age; they have also performed in a variety of venues, either solo, or with other music groups. Since its inception, the choir has been under the direction of Amanda Robbins; she was recently joined by music director Shelley McGraw who assists in developing the range and depth of the choir.
The Genesee Valley Chorus has been bringing music to Allegany County for nearly fifty years. Since 1976, the choral group has been delighting audiences throughout the region with a variety of musical performances that cover a wide range of genres that include classical, popular, Broadway, gospel, and country. The beautiful harmonies, directed originally by John Molinari, and most recently by Norene Ferris, Dave Toot, and Andrea Harris, belie the fact that not all members are music professionals. However, it is quite evident that all members love music, and they genuinely love to sing.
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Funded by a Community Arts Grant. The Community Arts Grants program is made possible with funds from the Statewide Community Regrants Program, a regrant program of the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature and administered in Allegany and Wyoming counties by the Arts Council for Wyoming County.