The dream reimagined

Local musician creates new version of “America the Beautiful”

What started as a song for a children’s choir to sing at Hancock’s Martin Luther King Day celebration last year has become an ongoing collaboration of musicians and music groups across the country.

As a member of the planning committee for the event, Hancock singer-songwriter Steve Schuch had taken on the task of organizing a musical performance. At the time, he had been reading about the history of the patriotic anthem “America the Beautiful,” originally written as a poem by American author and poet Katherine Lee Bates in 1892, and studying the life and writings of American civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr.

“Then, I thought, what would happen if we took the opening lines of ‘America the Beautiful’ that everyone knows and added a chorus and new verses that reflected Martin Luther King’s wider dream for all of America?” Schuch said.

The reimagined version of “America the Beautiful,” titled “America the Dream,” received such a “strong response” at the celebration, Schuch said, that he decided to keep expanding on the project.

He teamed up with another local musician, Mike Bradley, to write more lyrics and reached out to Shelbie Rassler, a senior at Berklee College of Music at the time, who had produced a viral YouTube video of a virtual choir of students singing “What the World Needs Now,” to assist with the musical arrangement and assembling a virtual choir to perform the piece.

Rassler was “all in,” Schuch said, and has produced three virtual performance videos of the song so far, with more on the way, including a contemporary country version out of Nashville.

“I hope that with each passing year, different singing groups around the country will want to do it,” he said. “It would be neat if someday Keith Lockhart wants to do this with the Boston Pops for the Fourth of July, or, hey, in my wildest dreams, maybe Beyonce would sing it at the Super Bowl.”

Late last year, Schuch and his collaborators launched the “American Dream Project” website where people can find the performance videos as well as sheet music for six different arrangements of the song, sound samples of the different choral parts and a piano accompaniment track for singing groups to use for rehearsals or performances if they don’t have access to live musical accompaniment.

“[The arrangements] run from really simple ones that are appropriate for elementary schools or children’s choirs up through ones for accomplished high school and college choirs and adult community choirs,” Schuch said. “There is enough variety that any music director or conductor could find a version that’s right for their group and their setting.”

What makes “America the Dream” especially unique, Schuch said, is that it’s an open source piece; not only can people access the sheet music and sound samples for free, but they also have permission to create and perform their own versions of the song with different musical arrangements and different or additional lyrics for non-commercial use.

“We encourage people to keep adding to it and would love for them to submit their recordings to add to the website,” he said.

The website also includes a list of suggested reading material and resources for groups or individuals who want to use the “American Dream Project” as “a springboard for discussion,” Schuch said.

“It’s more than a song,” he said. “It’s a chance for all Americans to think about what we hold in common for the dream of our country and what our country can become.”

Featured photo: “America The Dream” virtual performance by Berklee College of Music students, Shelbie Rassler Orchestral Arrangement. Courtesy photo.

Game on

Esports alive and well at New England College

Whereas many college sports have been suspended, competitive video gaming, known as esports, gives students an opportunity to compete nationally and be part of a team in a safe way during the pandemic. Now in its second year at New England College in Henniker, esports includes leagues for a number of match games, including Madden, Call of Duty, NBA 2K, Fortnite, Overwatch, Valorant, Super Smash Brothers and League of Legends. NEC junior and Valorant team captain Noelle Julian talked about the game, the team and what esports looks like this year.

How did you get into esports?

I’ve always played video games — growing up and throughout high school and my early years of college — and I’ve always been a competitive person. Then, two years ago, I got an email from the director of [NEC] esports saying that they were holding tryouts, and I was like, ‘That sounds like something I’d be interested in,’ so I went and tried out.

How do practices work?

We practice for two hours five days a week, and we also have matches every week. … We have an arena on campus, which is basically a computer lab, but instead of your typical computers that you do homework on they’re very expensive PCs that are built specifically for gaming. Obviously, with Covid, it’s been a bit more difficult to get together. … During quarantine, we didn’t have access to the arena, but all the players on my team have their own PCs, so we can practice remotely from our dorm rooms. When we aren’t in quarantine, there is a 10-person limit in the arena, which basically means that only one team is able to practice at a time. Because we have so many teams and practices are a two-hour time block, [the practice schedule] can make for some very early days and very late nights. It’s not ideal, but we make it work.

Exactly what do you do during practice?

Each game has different [skills] you need to work on, but for Valorant specifically, aim is a huge one. It can make or break the game. A lot of us, during practice time as well as on our own personal time, will just hop into an aim trainer, [which is a program] where you specifically practice your aim and hand-eye coordination. We also just play normal matches and get a feel for [the game layout and mechanics].

What does being a team captain entail?

I’m kind of the spokesperson for our team. I register our team each season with whatever leagues we decide to play in, and I reach out to the other teams we compete with to schedule matches and that kind of thing. I schedule our practices, make sure everyone is putting in the time and pulling their own weight, and I just make sure everything is running smoothly.

Do you lead the team as far as strategy, too?

As far as strategy and stuff goes, we all work on it together. I do spend some time watching professional players in their matches to see how they play, and then I try to reflect that in our own practices, but I’m never going to be the most knowledgeable at games. I love hearing from my players, and if they have great ideas that’s great, because I don’t know everything.

How does esports affect you physically, and how do you take care of yourself?

Eye strain is probably the biggest thing when you’re sitting in front of a computer for hours. I wear blue light glasses when I play. The lumbar support [on the chairs] in the arena that we have is pretty nice, and when you’re sitting in a chair for at least two hours it’s definitely important to have good chairs with good back support.

So, can you play these games just for fun after you’ve played them competitively?

[Laughs] Unfortunately, no. That’s the toll that comes with it. After playing Overwatch [competitively] for a year and a half, when my friends from back home ask me, ‘Hey, do you want to play Overwatch?’ I’m like, ‘Absolutely not.’ I find myself still in that competitive mindset, thinking, ‘I have to do this, and I can’t mess up,’ and if I do mess up, I get so angry with myself, so, no, I just can’t.

What do you love most about esports?

The sense of community. … Immediately when you join [a team], you have new friends, because you know you all have that similar ground with each other; we all love gaming, and we all want to be the best we can be at it. We’re all in it together.

Featured photo: Courtesy photo.

The Art Roundup 21/02/04

The latest from NH’s theater, arts and literary communities

Watercolor by Barbara London, featured in “Let Me Show You What I Love” exhibit. Courtesy photo.

Quick bits of fiction: The Monadnock Writers’ Group is having a virtual Three Minute Fiction Slam on Saturday, Feb. 6, at 10 a.m. on Zoom. According to a press release, the Slam is a fast-paced competition in which writers read an original work of fiction in three minutes or less for an audience and panel of judges. Prizes will be awarded to the top three writers, and the winner will have the opportunity to compete in the statewide finals competition hosted by the New Hampshire Writers’ Project (date TBA). The event is free to access, and all are welcome to participate or just watch. Email [email protected] to receive the Zoom link. Visit monadnockwriters.org.

Call for artist members: The New Hampshire Art Association’s spring jurying for new members will take place on Monday, March 22. The oldest statewide artist association in the state, NHAA provides many opportunities for New England artists to exhibit and sell their artwork throughout the year. Prospective members must submit original works of art in the same medium that “reflect the artist’s voice and are representative of their body of work,” according to the NHAA website. A jury of established NHAA artist members with backgrounds in a variety of media will review and judge the work. The jury looks for “maturity of artistic concept, mastery of the medium, composition, consistency of artistic concept and presentation,” the website said. For a prospectus and application form, visit nhartassociation.org and click on “Become a Member.” Applications and application fee payment are due by Thursday, March 18, and can be submitted online or in person at the NHAA headquarters (136 State St., Portsmouth). Instructions for dropping off and picking up artwork will be emailed after an application and payment are received. Call 431-4230.

Virtual look at The System: Nashua Public Library, in partnership with Newton Free Library, presents a virtual author event with Robert B. Reich on Thursday, Feb. 11, at 7 p.m. Reich, former U.S. Secretary of Labor, will discuss his latest book, The System: Who Rigged It, How We Fix It, which is described as a look at how wealth and power have contributed to the rise of an elite oligarchy, devastated the middle class and threatened democracy in the U.S. Christopher Lydon, host of the original podcast Open Source broadcast by WBUR in Boston, will moderate the discussion. Space is limited, and registration is required at tinyurl.com/npllectures by 5 p.m. the day of the event. Information on how to access the event will be sent to registered participants the day of the event. Visit nashualibrary.org or call 589-4610.

For the love of art: The Seacoast Artist Association has a new art exhibit on view now through the end of February in the windows at the gallery (130 Water St., Exeter) and inside by appointment and open to the public on Saturday, Feb. 13, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. for Valentine’s Day gift-buying. The Valentine’s Day themed exhibit, titled “Let Me Show You What I Love,” features a variety of art by gallery members depicting “what they love — what seizes their hearts, minds and souls,” according to a press release from the Association. Visit seacoastartist.org or call 778-8856.

No quiet for the choir

Nashua Choral Society sings together from a distance

The Nashua Choral Society is inviting new singers to join its 2021 spring season, which is just getting underway. The non-auditioned community choir has found some creative ways to rehearse while maintaining social distance, including weekly virtual rehearsals over Zoom and monthly “driveway rehearsals” where members can gather in person and sing together from their cars.

When Covid hit last spring, the choir was just polishing up an upcoming performance with Symphony NH, featuring a full program of Haydn music, and a performance with the Nashua Chamber Orchestra, which was to include the premiere of a new song written for the choir.

Those performances were postponed, but instead of losing momentum the choir has gotten stronger — active members have stayed, less-active members have become more involved and new singers have joined, artistic director Dan Roihl said.

“Obviously, performance is a big part of [being in a choir], but I think there is some intrinsic reward in the communal aspect of just singing together, hearing your voice with other voices and creating works of beauty,” Roihl said. “That’s been enough for people right now.”

Still, moving from in-person rehearsals to virtual rehearsals was a bit more complicated than expected, Roihl said.

“As most choirs quickly figured out, singing together live over Zoom just isn’t practical because of the lag time,” he said. “It’s just not possible to synchronize.”

To get around this, Roihl has been encouraging members to record themselves singing the pieces on their own and send him the recordings, which he mixes together and plays at the rehearsals so that members can hear how their voices sound in unison. He also plays the instrumental musical tracks and has members sing along with their microphones muted.

“That way, they can at least have the simulated experience of singing together in real time,” he said.

In addition to the weekly Zoom rehearsals, the choir meets once a month in person for a “driveway rehearsal” in the parking lot of the church where they used to have their regular rehearsals. While remaining in their cars, members sing together using wireless microphones. The sound is run through a mixing board and played back through an FM radio station that members can tune into and hear each other. The choir had its first driveway rehearsal on World Choral Day on Dec. 13 with around 30 members in attendance.

“It was almost magical, because at that point we hadn’t been able to actually hear what we sound like together in real time for about nine months,” Roihl said. “It’s just really amazing to experience singing together again, even if it is just through our car windows.”

The driveway rehearsals are not only more personal than the Zoom rehearsals, Roihl said, but also more productive.

“It’s a lot more like a real rehearsal because [singers] can respond to my gesture, and I can get feedback on how they are responding to my gesture in real time, which is something that had been sorely lacking in the Zoom context,” he said. “It allows us to really assess how we are doing so I can still do some music teaching and we can work on our techniques.”

While the Nashua Choral Society has performed primarily classical music, Roihl is working on developing a more versatile repertoire to include pop song arrangements, familiar hymns and “everyday-use songs” that he believes will appeal to a wider audience and expand the choir’s performance opportunities.

“We always hope to keep one foot firmly planted in our classical wheelhouse, but I think having some easier songs that we can do a cappella or on short notice or if we don’t have the full [choir] there … will give us more flexibility,” he said.

While the choir has no public performances scheduled at the moment, Roihl said they’ve been “kicking around the idea” of doing some community-based drive-in performances in the parking lots of hospitals, nursing homes and such, using the same mechanics as their driveway rehearsals.

“We know it’s not quite the same as a [normal] live performance, but at least [audiences] could see me out there waving my arms and hear us singing in real time,” he said. “It’s more about letting people know that we’re thinking of them and that we’re looking to share the joy of the art we bring.”

Nashua Choral Society
Singers of all abilities are welcome to join. No auditions necessary. Spring season runs now through mid-May, with virtual rehearsals via Zoom every Monday from 7 to 9 p.m., and monthly “driveway rehearsals” in Nashua. Visit nashuachoralsociety.org or facebook.com/nashuachoralsociety or email [email protected].

Featured photo: Artistic director Dan Roihl leads a Nashua Choral Society “driveway rehearsal.” Courtesy photo.

If you build it…

Performing Arts Center moves into construction phase

After four years of planning, construction on the Nashua Performing Arts Center is set to begin this month. The 750-seat venue, located on Main Street in the space formerly occupied by Alec’s Shoes, is scheduled to open in late spring 2022. Richard Lannan, president of Nashua Community Arts, which is overseeing the project, talked about how the venue is coming along.

What progress has been made on the Nashua Performing Arts Center so far?

The history goes back a few years ago when a committee was formed to find a consultant to do a study to determine if Nashua could support a performing arts center and, if so, how big could it be and where could it be located and so forth. The study came back [and revealed] that, yes, Nashua can, in fact, support it, so we started talking about size and possible locations. … We had determined that a size in the 750-seat range was the sweet spot for what Nashua could support and still be profitable, and that the Alec’s Shoes building was by far the best location; it could handle the size, has an abundance of parking available [nearby] and is in the heart of downtown, walking distance to restaurants and bars and shops. … Then, the mayor appointed a steering committee of 12 people. It included four … aldermen and individuals from the arts community and from downtown, so it was a pretty diverse group. … The [first] of the steering committee’s goals was to hire a team … for the architecture, construction and operation. … There was a bond approved by the City of Nashua to fund the performing arts center [with the condition that] an additional $4 million be raised privately in order to get it off the ground. … We did end up raising the $4 million that was necessary and were able to close out the transactions [with the contractors] in the middle of December.

How did Covid affect the progress?

Nashua Community Arts had already started [raising private funds] and was pretty successful in late 2019 and early 2020, but when Covid hit, we weren’t sure what was going to happen, so we pulled back and were kind of on a hiatus for four or five months. … But even with the pandemic, there was still a lot of interest and desire in the Performing Arts Center, and people were still donating, so we decided to start back up again and be more aggressive to raise the money. … So, [Covid] probably did hurt us a little bit — we might have been able to get to our [fundraising] goal a few months earlier — but we still made it in time.

What are you working on now?

We’ve been planning with the subcontractors to get everything in line, and everything is pretty much lined up to start construction as early as [this month]. … Nashua Community Arts is continuing to fundraise. We’ve kicked off a name-a-seat campaign where people are able to donate and get a plaque on the arm of the chair that could be their name or a name in memory of someone or a company name. We’ll continue to do that program until all of the seats are taken. … Spectacle Management, which will be in complete management of the property, from the maintenance to the concession stands to booking performances, is already gearing up to take over when it opens. They’re [setting up] their social media and already have a Facebook page, and they’re even having some conversations about future performances to book.

What kinds of events will the Performing Arts Center host?

We’re striving to make it very versatile. The whole bottom level’s seats are designed to roll back into a wall, so we could have a flat floor and set up tables for a corporate banquet or a wedding or whatever kind of event. Then, we could roll the seats back out and have a concert or comedy show or book signing. … If we were having a rock concert or something like that, we could also roll the seats back to make it a standing room. We can actually fit up to 1,000 people if we do that.

What is this going to do for Nashua?

Theater events end up bringing a lot of people into the city and create vibrancy downtown. People may come a little early or stay after the event and walk around downtown, grab a bite to eat or a couple of drinks or do some shopping. … It’s also going to employ a lot of people, not only out of the performing arts center itself, but also in downtown, because if [downtown businesses] are doing well, that may create more jobs around the city. It’s all a domino effect.

Featured photo: Richard Lannan. Courtesy photo.

The Art Roundup 21/01/28

The latest from NH’s theater, arts and literary communities

Art by new NHAA member John Kessler, featured in “A New Day” exhibit. Courtesy photo.

Call for actors: Powerhouse Theatre Collaborative, a new theater program at the Belknap Mill and the resident theater company of the Colonial Theater in Laconia, is holding auditions for two upcoming play festivals it’s producing in collaboration with the Community Players of Concord. The Zoom Play Festival will be held virtually on Friday, April 16, and the Rotary Park Play Festival will take place outdoors at Rotary Park in Laconia on Saturday, May 29, and Sunday, May 30. Both festivals will feature short original plays by New Hampshire playwrights. “With the pandemic continuing to affect theater productions around the country, we have decided to give people the opportunity to get back ‘on stage’ in as safe a manner as possible,” Powerhouse producer Bryan Halperin said in a press release. Auditions are by video submission, and roles are open to college-aged through senior citizen actors. The submission deadline is Monday, Feb. 1. Instructions for the video submissions can be found on the Powerhouse Theatre Collaborative Facebook page or by emailing [email protected].

Art by new NHAA members: Catch the New Hampshire Art Association’s exhibit “A New Day,” before it’s gone on Sunday, Jan. 31. Viewable online, in the front windows at the NHAA’s Robert Lincoln Levy Gallery (136 State St., Portsmouth) and at the gallery in person by appointment, the exhibit features work by 35 new NHAA members. “We are thrilled to welcome so many talented artists into NHAA and are happy to provide them opportunities to show and sell their work,” NHAA board president Renee Giffroy said in a press release. “The fresh perspectives they bring help everyone in our community continue to grow.” Among the featured artists are Carla Zwahlen, a landscape painter from Mont Vernon; John Kessler of Windham, an oil painter of landscapes and still life; and Howard Muscott, a nature photographer from Amherst. NHAA’s next jurying opportunity for new members is scheduled for March. “We look forward to having more local artists join us next year,” Giffroy said. Call 431-4230 and visit nhartassociation.org.

Virtual author event: The Music Hall in Portsmouth presents a virtual event with award-winning author, podcast host and culture critic Rebecca Carroll on Tuesday, Feb. 2, at 7 p.m., as part of its Writers on a New England Stage series. Carroll will discuss her new memoir, Surviving the White Gaze, which chronicles her struggle to forge her identity as a Black woman in America after growing up in rural white New Hampshire. Carroll will be joined in conversation by Peter Biello, host of New Hampshire Public Radio’s All Things Considered and The Bookshelf, an ongoing segment featuring local and regional authors. An audience Q&A will follow the discussion. Tickets cost $5 for access to the event, which will be livestreamed on Crowdcast. Writers on a New England Stage will continue with author Diane Rehm, presenting her new book, When My Time Comes, on Tuesday, Feb. 23, and Nobel Prize winner and New York Times columnist Paul Krugman presenting his new book, Arguing with Zombies, on Tuesday, March 2. Visit themusichall.org or call 436-2400.

Community exhibit: The Lane House Arts Center (380 Lafayette Road, Hampton) will have a community arts exhibit “Winter Blues,” on view in person from Friday, Jan. 29, through Saturday, Feb. 27. The exhibit features art in a wide range of media created by more than a dozen local artists. “Community art exhibits provide much-needed opportunities for area artists, while enabling us to invite a broader segment of the community into the gallery,” Karen Desrosiers, founder and curator of Lane House Arts Center, said in a press release. Gallery hours are Wednesday through Saturday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., and by appointment. Call 926-1111 or visit lanehousearts.com.

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