BRATTLEBORO — After nearly 30 years at the helm of the Brattleboro Music Center's Brattleboro Concert Choir, choral director Susan Dedell has announced that the 2017-18 season will be her last as its music director.
Dedell has been artistic director of the Brattleboro Concert Choir since 1990. The Choir, the premier program of the Brattleboro Music Center created by Blanche Moyse in 1950 as the Community Chorus, has employed only three artistic directors during its lifetime: Moyse, Catherine Stockman, and Dedell.
Although she will no longer lead its chorus, Dedell wants to make clear that she isn't leaving BMC.
“Actually the Choir makes up approximately a fourth of what I do professionally,” she says. “Of course, that may be my most visible work in the community here in Brattleboro, but much more of my time is spent teaching and performing piano.”
Dedell studied piano at the University of Michigan, working with such eminent musicians as Charles Fisher and Gyorgy Sandor, and becoming Maynard Klein's choral assistant.
Dedell later moved to the Brattleboro area, and she has developed a rich musical career in Southern Vermont.
Musical mover and shaker
She joined the piano faculty at the Brattleboro Music Center and subsequently became Artistic Director of the Brattleboro Concert Choir. She has been director of the chorus at Marlboro College, founder and director of the Vermont Repertory Singers, Winged Voices, the Jubilee Girls Choir, and the Bach Festival Children's Chorus, and is director of music at St. Michael's Episcopal Church in Brattleboro, a position she has held since 1992.
In addition, Dedell has directed a variety of opera, oratorio, and musical theater productions.
On top of all that, she enjoys an active concert and recital schedule as a pianist.
Dedell told the BMC board of her decision to leave the Choir four months ago, but it was decided not to release the news to the public until after the school's transition from downtown to its new site at the former Winston Prouty campus off Guilford Street in Brattleboro.
“Since the BMC is currently moving to its new building, I am afraid that some people will see a cause and effect and think that is why I am retiring from the Choir,” Dedell explains. “It's simply not true.”
The fact is, Dedell has been considering making this transition for several years.
“It was a difficult and frightening decision to make,” she says.
Dedell states firmly that her decision was in no way about not wanting to work with the chorus any longer.
“I am not at all burnt out,” she says. “I adore all my members, and am excited about all the new members we have. Since I feel that the chorus is in great shape, I think this is an ideal time for a new director to help them grow and take them to places different than I had.”
As Dedell writes in BMC's news release announcing her retirement from the chorus, “My love and gratitude to the singers of the Brattleboro Concert Choir is unlimited. However, I feel the time is right for me to explore some new musical visions that have been brewing. As difficult as this decision was, I can take this step with confidence, because I know that the stability and musicality of the Concert Choir is secure, and, in fact, has never been higher."
Expanding her repertoire
Now, Dedell wants to explore musical formats beyond the confines of a large chorus. She would like to develop a smaller, more nimble ensemble to try out unusual compositions that never quite worked with such a massive choir.
Dedell is eager to collaborate with other arts organizations in the area.
“Some things I am considering [are] a jazz mass with Eugene Uman at Vermont Jazz Center or perhaps a performance of Purcell's opera Dido and Aeneas with puppets, care of Sandglass Theater in Putney,” she says.
The truth of the matter is that right now, Dedell doesn't know what her future holds.
“I want to take some time to consider what my possibilities might be,” she says. Besides, she isn't leaving yet, and has a final season with the Choir ahead of her.
About the coming year, Dedell says the chorus and the community can expect the same full-throttled passion and attention to detail that have been the hallmark of past performances.
She writes, “I am thrilled to begin work on the programs the Choir will be performing during the upcoming concert season. January's concert, to be held at the Latchis Theatre, will introduce the astonishing Requiem of Sir Karl Jenkins, a contemporary composer who has won acclaim for his groundbreaking cross-cultural compositions.”
Jenkins' Requiem weaves five Japanese haiku memorials into the Requiem Mass. Called “the ultimate in postmodern Requiems” by Music Week, Jenkin's Requiem employs an orchestration of strings, horns, flutes (including the Japanese shakuhachi), and a plethora of percussion to create an exalted celebration of the cycle of life.
In May at Persons Auditorium at Marlboro College, Dedell will celebrate her tenure with the Concert Choir with an exuberant program featuring two of her favorite works: the Poulenc Gloria and Mozart's Vespers.
“Although separated in composition by 200 years, the Vespers and the Gloria are both masterpieces of freshness and brevity, brimming with elation and contentment,” she writes. “Both composers share the wondrous gift of intuitive sensitivity to the human voice, making their music as outrageously enjoyable to sing as it is to hear.”
A distinctive legacy
The diversity and quality of the music in these concerts isn't unusual for Dedell. She leaves a legacy of distinctive programming for the Choir.
Mary Greene, managing director of the Brattleboro Music Center, notes “Susan's breadth of repertoire has been a hallmark of her work. She has delighted her audiences with programs ranging from the classic to the contemporary and presented music by composers from across the world and from our local area.”
Dedell programs concerts of Brattleboro Concert Choir with great care.
“Over the years, there perhaps have been more connections between the works I perform than even I realize,” she says. “The works I chose must have certain qualities: communication, exploration, fun, and sometimes even danger. I like to introduce new choral pieces to people. I think we are in a great era in which gifted composers are writing fine choral music.
“When programming famous works, I constantly remember that the piece will be new to many who have come to see it. The German Requiem, which we did last year, may have been recorded and performed innumerable times, but for some this concert will be a first-time experience. For the others, our challenge is to make audiences hear works fresh.”
In the past 15 years (before that, she says, she was too much a novice to worry about such things), Dedell has become increasingly aware of how a musical performance should be a dialogue with the audience.
“This begins with discovering among ourselves in the chorus first what we are trying to convey, but then to join with the audience in this music conversation,” she says.
She believes that too often classical music plays down to the audience.
“Classical musicians are so concerned with doing the work justice, that is, in doing it just the way the composer wanted (as if we could ever know that), that we forget that we have an audience out there,” she says. “We must never lose sight of the fact that we are communicating with real living and breathing people. In performing any piece of music, I strive to feel the vibes of our musicians in front of me and the audience behind to make this a magical experience.”