BRATTLEBORO — “I have been singing Sacred Harp for 60 years and have never seen it led so well,” said the late Pete Seeger when he saw Peter Amidon leading the Old Songs Festival Sacred Harp Sing.
Peter Amidon has become something of a musical legend in the New England area for his performing, arranging, and teaching of traditional American folk music. Members of the Amidon family have become magnets for musicians who have been attracted to the area to study with them and remain here to become part of the incredibly vibrant musical culture of southern Vermont.
In celebration of the publication of two books and companion CDs, Fifty-five Anthems for the Small Church Choir and Twenty-five Anthems for Interfaith & Community Choirs, First Baptist Church in Brattleboro presents “The Starry Mountain Singers Sing Amidon,” a concert of choral arrangements by Peter and Mary Alice Amidon, on Friday, May 22, at 7:30 p.m.
The performance will include the Amidons' choral arrangements of songs by Phil Ochs, Leonard Cohen, and Johnny Cash; arrangements of songs inspired by the singing of Peter and Mary Alice's elder son, Sam Amidon; arrangements of traditional folk songs, spirituals, and songs from the Sacred Harp; and several of the Amidons' original choral settings of ancient texts and newly composed poetry.
The Starry Mountain Singers is a group of eight singers: Peter and Mary Alice's younger son Stefan Amidon, his wife Zara Bode, Emily Miller, Suzanah Park, Jeff Fellinger, Avery Book, Gideon Crevoshay, and special guest soprano Cora Kelly. They have just released their third album of performances of choral traditions from around the world.
Members of this ensemble have worked with Meredith Monk and the Revels International, and have performed on NPR's “Prairie Home Companion” and “Mountain Stage.” They will be joined for this concert by Peter and Mary Alice Amidon, along with special guests Patty Meyer on piano, Keith Murphy on both guitar and piano, and Becky Tracy on fiddle.
Peter Amidon is founder and former director of Brattleboro Music Center Children's Choir and a choir director at the Guilford Community Church. He has led Sacred Harp singing at the Old Songs Festival for the past 15 years, and was handpicked by Pete Seeger to run the Circle of Song, a participatory singing stage at the Clearwater's Great Hudson River Revival Music Festival, for four years.
Along with Mary Cay Brass and Kathy Leo, who is its overall director, Peter is co-music director of Hallowell, a hospice choir that, since formed 12 years ago, has inspired scores of other hospice choirs to form across the U.S. and beyond.
In addition, Peter Amidon leads a chorus he calls the “Choir of the Community.” The choir first performed a week after 9/11 as people gathered together in response to the tragic occasion. Choir of the Community is unusual because its members change all the time. Peter puts out a call for people who would like to join him to sing at a special event.
“The chorus is made up of whomever shows up,” Peter explains. “for instance, I led an a cappella Choir of the Community that began the Brattleboro Fourth of July Parade a few years ago, and I organized, rehearsed and led a Choir of the Community that sang with the Paul Winter Consort in the Latchis Theater last autumn.”
Initially, a music major in cello with a special interest in early music, Peter discovered traditional American music and dance while living in Cambridge, Mass. “As soon as I found this music, I knew that was it,” says Peter. He put aside all he was doing and became completely dedicated to this music and dance.
“Contra dancing has a long New England tradition, but had been dying out,” says Peter. “Its revival had a lot to do with the back-to-the-earth and counterculture movements for which its aesthetic became a natural fit.”
While living in Cambridge, Peter met his wife, Mary Alice, who also had an interest in traditional American music. Soon, they moved to Brattleboro because the town was rumored to have a strong community also dedicated to roots music.
Peter says Brattleboro proved to be a rich area for traditional American music to thrive because the town had such a strong tradition of back-to-nature people moving here in the 1970s, who furthermore were embraced by the business establishment. Consequently, a strong arts community flourished.
Peter and Mary Alice Amidon are familiar faces at the major Northeast music and dance festivals, at teacher conferences, and at summer folk camps of traditional dance and song. They have performed concerts and led residencies in hundreds of schools, libraries and churches. They lead day-long, weekend, and week-long choral singing workshops in the United States and Scotland.
Over the years, Peter and May Alice Amidon have composed and arranged choral music for a broad range of singers.
“My wife and I have arranged tons and tons of songs from early American hymns to modern pop classics like Over the Rainbow and What a Wonderful World,” Peter says. “About 7 or 8 percent are original compositions.”
Peter considers their arrangements to be “conservative. They are written to be easy to learn.”
Many of the arrangements in Fifty-five Anthems for the Small Church Choir and Twenty-five Anthems for Interfaith & Community Choirs were written originally for the Guilford Community Church Choir, others for the Hallowell hospice choir; both of which Mary Alice sings in and Peter co-directs.
Although their new two collections of arrangements have only been published in the last year, the Amidons' choral arrangements are already being sung by church, community, hospice, high school, and college choirs throughout the United States and the UK.
Peter and Mary Alice have been deeply involved in choral music since they toured the United States and Europe 30 years ago with Larry Gordon's Word of Mouth Chorus, a choir that was later renamed Northern Harmony.
“Larry Gordon is from Marshfield, Vt., and he is a singing leader who founded choirs singing ethnic choral music from around the world,” says Peter. “Village Harmony is summer rehearsal and performing singing camps for teens and adults. Northern Harmony is professional touring choruses most of whom are gleaned from the Village Harmony camps.”
Peter notes that it was a Northern Harmony tour that created the Starry Mountain Singers. “They liked singing together so much on that tour that they created the independent group which now tours every spring,” says Peter.
“Three members of the Starry Mountain Singers, our son Stefan, his wife Zara Bode, and Emily Miller, are the core of the Brooklyn-based country band, the Sweetback Sisters,” says Peter. “No one sings our arrangements better than the Starry Mountain Singers, so I am delighted they are giving this concert to celebrate the release of the books and accompanying CDs.”
Besides the musical arrangements of Peter and May Alice, “The Starry Mountain Singers Sing Amidon” will include works by their elder son, Sam Amidon.
“Sam is a gifted fiddler who has made for himself a remarkable career singing roots traditional American songs that he has refashioned,” says Peter.
Sam also continues the tradition of his parents' arranging early American music, but in a style quite different than theirs.
“His arrangements are more complex than ours, which I find exciting,” says Peter.
Music has always been a family affair for the Amidons.
“Singing by ear is an Amidon family trait,” says Peter.
“Early on, Mary Alice and I toured together with the Word of Mouth Chorus for the Bread and Puppet Theater. Mary Alice, Sam, Stefan, and I toured with Northern Harmony back in the 1990s. Sam and Stefan both have been to several Village Harmony Camps, and on several more Northern Harmony tours. And every New Year's Eve, my whole family - Mary Alice, Sam, Stefan, Stefan's wife Zara, and I - are joined by the family - Keith Murphy, Becky Tracy, and their son Aidan - in performing a concert in Brattleboro.”