Summit Choral Society’s Masterworks Chorale
Spanning the Spectrum: A Unique Musical Odyssey
Saturday, April 26th, 2014 at 7:30pm
Akron Civic Theatre in Downtown Akron
The Summit Choral Society’s Masterworks Chorale presents their final concert of the 2013-2014 concert season, Spanning the Spectrum: A Unique Musical Odyssey. This concert will feature Karl Jenkins' daring musical masterpiece, A Mass for Peace in commemoration of Kent State University’s May 4, 1970 tragedy. Also featured is Carol Burnett’s A World Beloved: Bluegrass Mass in collaboration with Ohio’s own Honeytown Bluegrass Band.
There will be a pre-concert lecture at 6:30 with Dr. Jerry M. Lewis, Professor Emeritus of Sociology at Kent State University who has written, researched, and lectured extensively about this tragedy. Dr. Lewis is a co-founder of the annual vigil for the slain and wounded students, held each year on the Kent State campus.
About Frank Jacobs
Dr. Frank C. Jacobs founded the SUMMIT CHORAL SOCIETY in 1990 and has, since that time, devoted his full energies to managing, promoting, and serving as its artistic director.
He holds degrees from Occidental College (Los Angeles, CA); DePauw University (Greencastle, IN); and the University of Illinois (Champaign, IL). He has studied with such noted choral conductor/teachers as Wilhelm Ehman, Joe Flummerfelt, Elmer Iseler, Kenneth Jennings, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Helmuth Rilling, Howard Swan, and David Willcocks. Master conductors for whom he has prepared choral/orchestral works include Harold Decker, Lukas Foss, Louis Lane, John Rutter, Gunther Schuller, Robert Shaw, and Howard Swan.
Dr. Jacobs has taught elementary, junior high, and high school music in Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and California - and served as director of choral activities for five years each at DePauw University and at the University of Akron. During this time, he devoted much of his energies to the study and performance of major choral/orchestral works, and continues to have a primary interest in that area of performance. In the spring of 2000 he became the recipient of one of four Ovation Awards presented by the state-wide organization VARN (Vocal Arts Resource Network) for. . . "instilling and inspiring the love of vocal music through his work with children and adults, and through the Summit Choral Society's outreach into their whole community."
In the summer of 2005 Dr. Jacobs was privileged to be invited to conduct Bach’s B Minor Mass in the Forbidden City Concert Hall in Beijing, China. As a result of that invitation, forty members of the SCS Masterworks Chorale and the West Shore Chorale of Cleveland combined with sixty-five singers from Beijing’s Central Conservatory of Music to sing this monumental work accompanied by the Tianjin Symphony Orchestra to a capacity crowd. Reviews were universally outstanding and many friendships were forged.
In addition to his duties with the SUMMIT CHORAL SOCIETY, Dr. Jacobs remains active as a choral clinician, strategic planning consultant and guest conductor. He resides in Fairlawn, Ohio with his wife, Arlene, as they revel in their new-found role as grandparents to granddaughters Kylie Rose and Emmie Reese Jacobs.