The Hartt School Community Division Announces Carolina Flores as New Directer of Adult Choir Celesti Sondato

West Hartford, CT – August 22, 2016. “Music takes you to places that no other art does,” says Carolina Flores, new director of Celesti Sondato, The Hartt School Community Division’s (HCD) adult chamber choir. Flores will begin her role with the choir when its Tuesday-night rehearsals begin on September 13.

Celesti Sondato is thrilled to have Flores, a highly accomplished musician, joining as director. A frequent lecturer, adjudicator, and clinician, Flores is an Associate Professor of Music at Manchester Community College (MCC) in Connecticut, where she teaches conducting, diction, piano, ear-training, music theory, and music history and appreciation, and directs the MCC Chorale and the MCC Madrigal Singers. Celesti Sondato members may remember Flores from Festival de Coros, a 2013 collaborative concert that included HCD and MCC choirs.

Flores has ties to The Hartt School as both a student and adjunct faculty member. She completed her doctorate in choral conducting at Hartt, studying under Edward Bolkovac, DMA. Flores went on to teach undergraduate conducting and graduate choral literature at Hartt, and also directed the Hartt Camerata, The Hartt Chorale, and The Hartt Chamber Choir, including directing a couple of European tours.

Flores began her pursuit of music as a child in her native Spain, where she studied organ privately and piano at a music conservatory. Although piano was her main course of study as a teenager, Flores was invited to sing with the Escolania de los Infanticos del Pilar. This experience influenced her career path, which evolved to include choral study.

“Our director was a priest and a very well-known Spanish musicologist who trained in Munich,” Flores said of Escolania de los Infanticos del Pilar. “We toured Spain and did a couple of recordings, singing music of the Spanish Golden Age and lots of J. S. Bach with period instruments at a time when performing with period instruments was not the norm. My love for choral music began during these years, although I did not know back then that I would want to become a choral conductor,” says Flores.

After high school, she moved to Madrid to study at the Madrid Royal Conservatory. It was an audition with a jury member for “Pilar Bayona,” a prestigious international piano competition, which led Flores to move to the US to study at the Manhattan School of Music in New York. After six years in New York, she moved to Connecticut, where she taught piano and became a music director for a church.

Flores is looking forward to working with the members of Celesti Sondato. She includes a combination of methods in her teaching, such as Kodály, Dalcroze, imagery, and many of the Robert Shaw techniques.
“Kinesthetic motions are important. If the rehearsal room allows it, I use movement such as walking, dancing, etc. Attention to rhythmic precision, vocal technique, and vowel formations and expression are at the core of every rehearsal,” says Flores, describing her teaching style. “Regardless of methodology used, I believe that there is a child inside of each one of us and learning has to be fun.”

“Do not be afraid!” stresses Flores to adults who are considering auditioning for Celesti Sondato. “Many people think about singing in a group like this, but are afraid thinking they are not good enough or that they are too busy.” Regular attendance and a sense of humor are characteristics Flores appreciates in her students. “Participating in a choral ensemble will make you healthier, happier and more productive,” says Flores, eager to kick off fall rehearsals. “The audition is simply a placement audition, so if you like singing, do not think about it, just join us!”

Celesti Sondato is open to adult singers. Placement auditions are available annually in June, or by appointment. For more information, visit hartford.edu/hcd.

About The Hartt School Community Division (HCD)
At our locations in West Hartford, Hartford, and Simsbury, Conn., The Hartt School Community Division serves over 2,800 students of all ages and backgrounds. As the community arm of the University of Hartford’s Hartt School, the mission of HCD is to enrich lives through innovative and unparalleled performing arts education. For more information on The Hartt School Community Division, visit hartford.edu/hcd.

The Hartt School is the performing arts conservatory of the University of Hartford that offers innovative degree programs in music, dance, and theatre. Founded in 1920, Hartt has been an integral part of the University of Hartford since its charter merged the then Hartt School of Music, the Hartford Art School, and Hillyer College to create the University in 1957. 2010 marked Hartt’s 90th year of providing world class performing arts education to students in Greater-Hartford and around the world. With more than 400 concerts, recitals, plays, master classes, dance performances, and musical theatre productions each year, performance is central to Hartt’s curriculum. For more information about The Hartt School, visit hartford.edu/hartt.

Pictured: Carolina Flores