Cantigas Women's Choir: Dancing on Airs

Hoboken’s all-women community chorus, Cantigas Women’s Choir, presents its ninth annual spring concert entitled DANCING ON AIRS: Songs to Lift the Spirit & Soul on Saturday, May 21 at 7:30 p.m. at St. Matthew Trinity Church (57 Eighth Street at Hudson Street) in Hoboken, N.J. The suggested donation for the concert is $15 ($5 for seniors and students).

Experience music from around the globe through song and dance with pieces ranging from German and Greek to Russian and Argentine as well as songs throughout time ranging from madrigals to jazz and from Wolfgang Mozart and Franz Schubert to Irving Berlin and Leonard Bernstein. Highlights include Randall Thompson’s “Alleluia,” Duke Ellington’s “It Don’t Mean a Thing,” and Sergei Rachmaninoff’s “Angel.”

Christopher Greene of Maplewood, N.J., serves as the interim director for the choir, which was founded by Joan Isaacs Litman, who is on sabbatical this season. The performance will feature piano accompaniment by assistant director Erasmia Voukelatos.

“There are many dance motifs in the songs — or airs — we sing, so our singing will be accompanied by actual dancing including waltz, tango, Greek ethnic dances, and swing,” Greene says. “This concert is unique because of the collaboration between dance and music,” Voukelatos adds. “Some of our songs connect to dance metaphorically and others literally with the use of real dancers. We invited dancers for whom dance is an incredibly meaningful and significant part of their lives.”

Four members of the Hellenic Dancers of New Jersey will perform in traditional attire to Greek folk songs, accompanied by Greek clarinetist George Stathos. An Argentine tango will also be performed by Marco Leal, whose roots are Mexican and Argentine, and his partner Ninah Beliavsky. “Together they will translate the subtle, expressive nuances found in Argentine tango music to the improvised and communicative footwork of the tango,” Voukelatos says. Bandoneon player David Hodges and members of his tango band Los Chantas will also seduce the audience with their unique sound and expression.

Cantigas member Andrea Gunden will also show off her Lindy Hopping skills, joined by fellow dancer Robert Allen. Together they will be sharing their energetic swing style to the sounds of a jazz combo, led by local Jersey City musicians, pianist Brendan Kibbee and double bassist Pedro Giraudo. A sultry waltz led by Joe Banahan will serve to introduce our audience to the evening’s dance theme.

Cantigas Women’s Choir, named after a medieval Spanish song form called a “cantiga,” is composed of 50 women of varying ages and backgrounds and brings women of the community together to explore the rich tradition of women's singing. The group performs a broad spectrum of global music and advocates through song for those whose hearts need to be uplifted and whose voices need to be heard, performing regularly with the inmates of the Edna Mahan Correctional Facility for Women in Clinton, N.J., as well as at other community events like the Cancer Survivors Support Network in Bayonne, New Jersey, and the Empty Bowls hunger relief benefit in Hoboken. Litman founded the group in September 2002.

Director Joan Isaacs Litman is a native of Los Angeles and has been a choral director in the New York metropolitan area for 30 years. She was awarded with the prestigious “Educator of the Year Award” by the Organization of American Kodaly Educators in Washington D.C., in March 2009. She also received the first “Excellence in Teaching” award from Westminster Choir College. Litman is a member of the music faculty of the United Nations International School in Manhattan and a member of the summer faculty at the Kodály Institute at Capital University. In April 2008, Litman was the guest conductor at the American International School in Even Yehuda, Israel, and her United Nations International School children’s chorus has performed for Pope Benedict XVI’s visit to New York. Additionally, Litman is the author of Song Caravan: Songs of the Middle East. She is a founder and Music Director Emerita of Mustard Seed School in Hoboken.

Interim director Christopher Greene hails from Atlanta, Georgia, and now lives in Maplewood, N.J. He is a soloist and has been a choral music director for 40 years. He received his master's degree in voice from Temple University and was the founder of the choral program at Stockton College, where he conducted four choruses and a professional orchestra. He sang with the professional New York Choral Artists under the greats, including Leonard Bernstein and Erich Leinsdorf. Greene has been the music director and parish administrator at St. Paul Lutheran Church in Jersey City for 20 years.

Assistant director Erasmia Voukelatos is a Canadian of Greek descent and has been active as a chamber musician and solo pianist, teacher, music director, and concert series presenter. Concerto appearances include Mozart Concerto in A Major and Haydn Concerto in D Major with the Canadian ensemble Mercredi Musique and Bach’s keyboard Concerto in D Minor, which was released on The Best of Brooklyn CD. She currently teaches piano and elementary and is on the music faculty at the Far Brook School in Short Hills, NJ. She enjoys collaborating with her husband, violinist Ashley Horne, and together they founded My Music Garden, a music enrichment program for schools. Voukelatos has been with Cantigas since its formation.

Cantigas Official Web Site: www.cantigas.net

Cantigas Publicity Contact: 
Rachel Chang 
201-683-0171
rachel@byrachelchang.com