Area pianists to accompany Beesontown Singers
Two well-known area pianists will accompany the Beesontown Singers in this week’s spring concert on Sunday, May 20, at Asbury United Methodist Church of Uniontown. Joanna Ball and Levi Graft of Connellsville will be featured performers for the group’s presentation of the “Liebeslieder Wallzer (Lovesong Waltzes)” by Johannes Brahms. The pieces are scored for four-hand piano.
Connellsville native Joanna Ball is the accompanist for the Beesontown Singers.
She is a graduate of the Oberlin Conservatory of Music and the University of Michigan and a former music teacher in the Connellsville Area Schools. She is currently organist at the Trinity Lutheran Church and organist/choir director at the First Baptist Church, both in Connellsville.
Ball recently was an honored recipient of the Athena Award from the Connellsville Chamber of Commerce for her music contributions in the Fay-West area. Currently president of the Mozart Club of Connellsville, Ball has for 22 years organized and chaired the very successful Thanksgiving Festival of Choirs.
Assisting Joanna will be Levi Graft, son of Dennis and Barcine Graft of Connellsville. Graft is a senior at Connellsville Area High School and will be attending the University of Indiana in the fall as a piano major.
Graft is accompanist for the high school choirs and also for the choir of the Immaculate Conception R.C. Church in Connellsville. He has studied piano with Harry Coleman of Greentree and Joel Hudock of Uniontown.
His honors have included playing for the Pittsburgh Concerto Competition and for the Steinway Society. He will receive a Mozart Music Club Award on June 15. In addition to the Brahms, Levi will also play Chopin’s “Scherzo No. 2 in B-flat minor, Opus 31.”
This will be the second spring concert for the Beesontown Singers. The choral ensemble is the only auditioned community choir in the tri-county area.
The goal of the choir is to preserve the choral arts for future generations.
Other choral works on Sunday’s program will include “If ye Love Me, Keep My Commandments” by Thomas Tallis, “Agnus Dei” by Ron Kean, “Choose Something Like a Star” by Randall Thompson and a newly commissioned piece by Pepper Choplin, “Psalm to the Savior.”
The Beesontown Singers are under the direction of William M. Dreucci.
The concert is free to the public and will begin at 4 p.m. in the sanctuary of Asbury United Methodist, corner of South Beeson Avenue and Dunbar Street. Asbury Church is handicapped accessible.