Singers from the Ridgefield Chorale met at 8 am on Friday, June 16th to board the bus to Washington DC where they will represent the state of Connecticut at a Kennedy Center performance commemorating the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech. Their first stop is Arlington Cemetery where they will sing "Blades of Grass."
The Ridgefield Chorale is proud to represent the State of Connecticut in the “We Have a Dream Choral Festival” at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. on June 18. The event commemorates the 50th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s historic speech.
Thirty-four current members of the Chorale along with two past members and one guest singer will be traveling to the Nation’s capital on June 16 to join with choral groups from Michigan, Florida, Kentucky, and Indiana. Over the weekend, they will meet and rehearse with the other groups under the leadership of artistic director Dr. Eugene Rogers. Dr. Rogers is the conductor of the two-time Grammy Award- winning Washington Chorus, as well as associate professor of conducting at Michigan University.
The performance will take place at 2:00 pm on Sunday, June 18. Tickets are free and can be purchased on the Kennedy Center website. The Ridgefield Chorale’s participation has been arranged by Music Celebrations International.
The Ridgefield Chorale is a contemporary music singing group whose members hail from Fairfield County Connecticut and Westchester County New York. Known for its vocal excellence and dedicated to the performance of contemporary choral music, from a cappella to Broadway, the standards, jazz and world music, the Chorale presents today’s finest choral composers and arrangers, accompanied by some of our area’s best musicians.
Ridgefield Chorale Director Daniela Sikora will be celebrating her 25th year with the Chorale this fall.
Born in Germany and raised in Chicago, her education took her from the Robert Schumann Hochschule für Musik in Germany to Northwestern University’s Bienen School of Music, and the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University where she did her graduate work in Voice Performance and Arts Management. She has won numerous awards, honors, and competitions as a professional musician, including the Metropolitan Opera Regional Award and a Fellowship in Chamber Music at the Aspen Music Festival in Aspen, Colorado.
As gifted as Daniela Sikora is in the world of classical music and opera, she is just as at home with the standards, Broadway show tunes, pops and swing numbers that transport her audiences. Daniela was recognized by the Ridgefield Arts Council with The Nancy Comstock Andrews Superlative Teaching/Mentoring Award in 2016. In 2017, she received the Town of Ridgefield’s Spirit of Dr. Martin Luther King Award, which recognized her tireless work and advocacy for the arts. In 2021, Daniela received a Connecticut Arts Hero award for her inspiring work in the arts community.
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