Spring choral concerts mark departure of director Jenny Diamond
Release Date: 5/2/2008. Expired: 5/8/2008
The Renaissance Center’s Choral Department presents its final concerts under the direction of Jenny Nolan Diamond May 6 and 8.
Diamond has directed the center’s community choirs since its opening in 1999 but is relocating to Florida where her husband, Brad, has accepted a position teaching at the University of South Florida.
She will take the podium with the center’s Training and Children’s Choirs for the final time Tuesday, May 6. Tickets for the 7 p.m. concert in the Performance Hall are $5.
Diamond’s final concert comes Thursday, May 8, when she will direct the center’s Community Choir and Chamber Choir. Tickets for the 7 p.m. concert are $5.
“Jenny Diamond created The Renaissance Center’s choral programs from the very beginning and for the last nine years has nurtured the love of music in children and adults,” said Bob Kucher, senior director of Fine Arts. “Her professionalism, talent and gentle heart have helped produce some of the best community choral programs to be found anywhere in the region. There are former members of her children’s choirs who couldn’t wait until they were old enough to join the Community Choir and continue to grow musically under Jenny’s direction.”
A graduate of Dickson County High School where she excelled in Cindy Freeman’s choral program, Diamond earned a degree in Music Education from Westminster Choir College in Princeton, N.J. She attended the Capital University Kodaly Institute and received her Level I Kodaly Certification.
She has performed under the baton of Joseph Flummerfelt, Kurt Massur, James Levine, Zubin Mehta and Ricardo Mutti.
“We will truly miss Jenny at The Renaissance Center,” Kucher said. “But she is assisting us in the search for a new choral program director who will carry on with the excellent foundation that Jenny has built here.”
The Renaissance Center’s Choral Department includes the Training Choir for students in first and second grade, the Children’s Choir for students in grades 3-6 and the Community and Chamber Choirs for adults. All of the choral programs are free participation and present at least two annual concerts in the center’s Performance Hall.
Diamond’s choirs also have been asked to perform at various events outside the center, including Dickson County’s official Bicentennial Celebration.
The 32-member Training Choir will present a program that includes Day-O (the Banana Boat Song), Mama Don’t Allow and Who Will Be a Witness, among other songs at its May 6 concert.
The 41-member Children’s Choir’s program includes performances of Music Speaks, Looking Glass River and Pirate’s Life, among others.
To conclude the concert, both choirs will take the stage to perform My America and May the Road Rise to Meet You, which has been the traditional final number for Diamond’s children’s choral performances.
The Chamber Choir and Community Choir present an eclectic evening of music on Thursday, May 8.
The 52-member Community Choir’s program includes Unforgettable, Swinging on a Star, Chili Con Carne, Music’s Echo and Turkey in the Straw as well as other songs.
The 20-member Chamber Choir performance will include I Got Rhythm, Oh Won’t You Sit Down?. Ev’ry Time We Say Goodbye, Battle Hymn of the Republic and Danny Boy, which has been the traditional closing number for her adult choir performances.
“Thank you to all of you who have come to concerts year after year to support the choral program here at The Renaissance Center,” Diamond says in her farewell program notes. “I hope you will continue to support the wonderful music that I am certain the choirs will be making for years to come.”
To purchase tickets for the May 6 Training and Children’s Choirs concert or the May 8 Community Choir and Chamber Choirs concert, call (615) 740-5601. For more information on the center’s choral programs, call (615) 740-5600 or visit www.rcenter.org.
The Renaissance Center is a fine arts education and performing arts center at 855 Highway 46 South in Dickson, just 35 miles west of Nashville on Interstate 40 at exit 172.
Visit the Events - Concerts and Recitals page for more about musical performances.