Nashville Mayor Bill Purcell and vocal coach Renee Grant-Williams announced today the formation of Music City Community Chorus (MC3), a non-profit, broad-based volunteer performing chorus in Nashville. As the group’s conductor, Grant-Williams’ goal for the chorus is to give both professional and non-professional singers in Nashville a chance to participate in a community musical experience, building a bridge between the various genres of music that flourish within Nashville’s music community.

“I envision MC3 as the people’s chorus of Nashville,” says Grant-Williams. “There are so many talented people in this city that we don’t ever see and hear perform. This organization will provide them that opportunity.”

Mayor Bill Purcell feels, “Now, with the formation of the Music City Community Chorus we have additional opportunities for the local music community and citizens of Nashville to come together.”

The chorus will be open to anyone 18 years of age or older. Auditions will be structured to recruit not only those who are skilled at reading music, but those who are willing and able to acquire music skills. Grant-Williams is already holding auditions, which began August 2.

“I’m so excited about the news of the chorus, because Nashville is sorely lacking and needs to have a community chorus opportunity,” says singer/musician John Cowan. “The fact that the chorus will be in the hands of Renee Grant-Williams tells me it will be guided by a consummate professional who has the resources to guarantee excellence.”

It is Grant-Williams’ plan to have two performances per year. The Winter performance will follow rehearsals that take place September through December and the Spring performance will follow rehearsals that take place late January through May. Auditions will be held again in January.

The repertoire will be primarily, but not limited to, classical choral works in the tradition of the great composers. Whenever possible and appropriate, solo assignments will be extended to members of Nashville’s non-classical community. As dictated by programming and budget, all performances will be accompanied by the appropriate professional caliber instrumentalists.

Music City Community Chorus will include a scholarship program of four $850 voice scholarships for section leaders representing 10 private lessons to study with one of Grant-Williams’ associate teachers.

Grant-Williams established a similar program when she lived in San Francisco, where she was hired by the Community Music Center to form a city-wide broad-based community chorus. Very quickly, the San Francisco Community Chorus became a highly respected, highly disciplined performing choral ensemble of 200 dedicated enthusiasts that presented polished, sold-out performances.

MC3 will rehearse at Glencliff High School at 160 Antioch Pike. To arrange an audition, call 887-5599.

For more information, visit their web site at www.MusicCityCommunityChorus.org.

Posted in Amplification, Events, News

Bass Specialties, the first – and only – bass guitar retail store in the Philadelphia area will host a grand opening celebration from noon until 5 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 9. The store is located at 2846 Street Rd. in Bensalem, Pennsylvania.

The event will include appearances by noted bassists Gerald Veasley and Anthony Wellington. Manufacturer’s representatives also will be on hand to demonstrate and answer questions about their products. Bass Specialties will provide local bassists access to a large selection of quality basses and bass gear, including M Basses, Roscoe and Lakland basses and Aguilar amplification.

Owner and bassist Glenn Marrazzo was inspired to start Bass Specialties after attending well-known bassist Victor Wooten’s Bass Nature Camp and several of Gerald Veasley’s Bass Bootcamps. He is not new to business ownership or the bass: he co-owns Centre Fruit Gourmet in Morrisville and is the bassist for popular dance party band Exit 28.

Marrazzo’s vision is to make Bass Specialties into a resource the Philly bass community can tap into for top-notch gear, instruction, information and support including the presentation of bass clinics that will feature guest artists. The Bensalem store is conveniently located to the Philadelphia and metro area, along with south and central New Jersey.

The store will be open Monday – Friday from 10:30 a.m. – 6 p.m., Saturdays noon to 5 p.m. and will be closed on Sunday. After hours appointments also will be available.

For more information, visit their web site at www.BassSpecialties.com.

Posted in Bass, Events

With final arrangements being polished for the Audio Engineering Society 121st Convention, (Moscone Center – Oct. 5-8), the AES has posted a Detailed Preliminary Calendar of Events at www.aes.org. Designed to aid attendees in pre-planning their visits for optimum efficiency (and enjoyment) the Calendar is available as an easy-to-navigate, full-color schedule with drop-down boxes of essential information.

“As with all AES Conventions, the goal of the Committee has been to create an extremely comprehensive and contemporary program,” said AES Executive Director Roger Furness. “With a full complement of Workshops, Papers, Tutorials, Technical Tours, Platinum, Broadcast, Live Sound, Student, Historical and Special Events, the 121st Convention will epitomize our mandate to continually raise the standards for quality and relevance.”

Committee Chair John Strawn adds, “A quick perusal of the Preliminary Calendar will illustrate the diversity of our events and presenters. We’ve developed one of the best programs in AES history. There may be some additional fine-tuning, but attendees can certainly start using the Calendar to plan their AES schedules now. Visitors should also use the www.aes.org site to book hotel reservations at reduced rates.”

To preview the AES 121st Convention Preliminary Calendar and to book hotel accommodations please visit www.aes.org and click on ’121st Convention.’

For more information, visit their web site at www.aes.org.

Posted in Audio, Events, Recording

Aviom has signed on as a Gold Sponsor of Fits and Starts Production’s popular HOW-TO Sound Workshops church tour. Designed specifically for to raise the audio proficiency and knowledge level of church sound personnel, praise team musicians and ministers of music, the two-day hands-on HOW-TO Sound Workshops offer the latest in gear and techniques, and are taught by live sound and recording engineers who have decades of experience in these fields.

As part of the sponsorship, Aviom has provided the workshop tour with its signature Pro16 personal monitor mixing system. In addition to being covered as part of the instructional portion of the program, workshop participants will experience using the Aviom personal mixers during a live performance of a local praise team during the second day.

“There’s no better way for church sound people to learn about the virtues of Aviom personal mixing than to use it for themselves,” explained Aviom’s Director of Marketing, Jason Frenchman. “The HOW-TO Sound Church Workshops give them that opportunity and, once they experience our technology first-hand, they’ll discover how it solves some of the problems of excessive volume and intelligibility they confront on Sundays.”

The current workshop tour begins on July 28 at the Rehoboth United Methodist Church in Williamsport, MD.

For more information, visit their web site at www.aviom.com.

Posted in Education, Events

Due to be held at the Museum of Hamburg in Germany during the weekend of 21/22 October, the International Vintage Guitar Show Hamburg is a new event intended as a meeting place for those wanting to sell/exchange vintage guitars, basses, amplifiers, and accessories predating 1980.

Visitors will also get the opportunity to view an extensive exhibition of rare and custom guitars from some of the largest, most important collections in Europe. These will include five ’59 flametop Les Paul Standards and three ’58 Flying V’s.

Also participating and showing a number of Custom Shop instruments are Gibson, Fender, Gretsch, Epiphone, Guild and Höfner. Making a guest appearance, Nashville guitar guru, George Gruhn, will be on hand to offer appraisals of vintage instruments, while John English of the Fender Custom Shop will be holding a workshop.

Hamburgermuseum
Holstenwall 24
D20355 Hamburg, Germany
Tel: + 49 (0)40 428132-2380
Fax: + 49 (0)40 428132-3103
info@hamburgmuseum.de
www.hamburgmuseum.de

For further information on exhibiting contact:
Frank Krabbenhöft
Fax: + 49 40 39 10 94 06
vintageguitar@online.de

For more information, visit their web site at www.hamburgmuseum.de.

Posted in Events, Guitar, Industry