Watch the Prep Recital on Vimeo.

Many thanks to Liana Miucci and Alberto Nappi for the great filming:

Prep recital is at this site:
https://vimeo.com/81846751

Winter Recital Concerts and Attire

Winter recitals are taking place at Ambrit every week until Winter Break. Find your class below for date and attire.

Grades 2-3, Tuesday, December 10, 9:30 in the Theater.
Wear black and white, any combination. Nice shoes, no sports clothes. Dress up!

Grades 4-5, Thursday, December 12, 9:30 in the Theater.
Wear black and white, any combination. Nice shoes, no sports clothes. Dress up!

Grades 6-7, Friday, December 13, 19:00 in the Theater.
Black pants or jeans for both boys and girls. Black non-sport shoes and black socks or stockings. Students not in choir or orchestra will be given red Ambrit music T-shirts. This is a required concert.

Grade 8, Tuesday, December 17, 19:00 in the Theater.

Black pants or jeans for both boys and girls. Black non-sport shoes and black socks or stockings. Students not in choir or orchestra will be given red Ambrit music T-shirts. This is a required concert.

Nursery, Tuesday, December 17, 10:00 in the Classroom.

Wear red, white, green in any combination. Dress up!

Kinder, Thursday, December 19, 10:00 in the Theater

Wear red, white, green in any combination. Dress up!

Check out pictures for dress code on our website.

Treble Choir and Maria Infante Perform to a Full House!

Treble Choir and Maria Infante performed to a packed house in a fund-raising concert for the Shillong Jhantia-Khasi orphanage in Meghalaya, India. Donations summed €1035!

Singers performed American song and acted on stage. This was the first concert of the Winter Season. Keep up with the Blog for more concerts!

Grade 4 Sings and Protests Wars

Grade 4 sang anti-war and pro-peace songs on UN Day. Songs included "The Cruel War", "500 Miles", "Blowing In the Wind", and many others. Passersby stopped to appreciate a moment of music and peace.

Piano and Friends- Fundraiser for Shillong Orphanages: €310 raised

Peter and the Wolf Performance

The fine musicianship of the Peter and the Wolf Wind Quintet was appreciated by the entire student body in October.

Thanks to the kind support of the Friends of Ambrit, students and teachers were treated to the full, classical composition by Prokofiev. Narrated by music teacher, Paige Short, the story came to life with each character of the story represented by an instrument. Compliments to the performers and to the wonderful listening behavior of Ambrit students.

Halloween Singaglong 2013 on Vimeo

Spooky and musical, Miss AbouHana led as parents, teachers, and students sang and enjoyed the costume parade. Everyone felt

the Halloween spirit. In the Atrium, goodies were for sale for the Haiti Pane Condiviso orphanage.

To view the video, click on  https://vimeo.com/79587532

the password is singalong

Welcome Rhonda AbouHana and Damion Wallace!

The Ambrit Music Department is going to have three teachers this year. Rhonda AbouHana will be teaching Early Childhood Music, Grade 1 music classes and team teaching the Grade 1 Choir with Mrs. Short. Rhonda is from Virginia, USA, and has much experience working with music students from Kindergarten to High School. She is a singer, and has had her own voice studio, coaching singers for a variety of music, and has performed both classical and contemporary styles of music, and plays piano. She will also be the conductor of the Middle School Choir. Rhonda loves Italy and is very happy to be at Ambrit.

You might all know Damion Wallace as a primary classroom teacher, but he is also a seasoned musician and has been the director of our Primary Strings Orchestra for several years. Now we are thrilled to have him in the Music Department as Middle School Music teacher. Damion is originally from the musical city of New Orleans, and plays violin. He is also a composer and music arranger. He is looking forward to teaching Middle School students and getting everyone to make music.

If you have a moment when you are at school, please stop by and say "hello"!

Ambrit Dance Festival Now on Vimeo

Hi, Everyone! Check out our Dance Festival on Vimeo! Thank you to Liana Miucci and her colleagues who filmed this!

Junior Choir to Genova

Ambrit Chamber Ensemble and Junior Choir went on a joint tour to Genova this year. We sang at the Anglican Church and the concert was beautiful! These singers and musicians perform music from all periods, sound great,  and look smart! We also toured the Galata Maritime Museum, the Genova Aquarium, walked all the way to the Faro, which is one of the oldest standing structures of its kind in the world, and at the famous Pesto of Genova. All music trips include a heavy schedule or practicing (in the hotel, usually!) seeing the city and sights. We have also been to Milano, Monopoli, Brindisi, Todi, and Florence.
Conductors are Yvonne Fisher and Paige Short. To our Grade 5 singers, good luck next year. We will miss you in Junior Choir! Keep singing!

What's Happening in Karate Recorder/Flutophone?

Congratulations to our first Red Belt in Flutophone Karate at Ambrit, and to the first two Red Belt winners in Karate Recorder! These guys really practice and love to play recorder and flutophone. They practice a lot on their own at home and vacation. Pietu is the only Purple Belt in Grade 3. They are the first Ambrit students to get this far in Karate Recorder and they are only in Grade 4. They not only play recorder, but sing in Junior Choir and play violin and guitar, too. Karate Recorder is fun and, just like Flutophone Karate, you get a different colored belt for each level song you can play on the instrument. By the time you get to black belt, you will be ready for Renaissance music or Jazz! We have a lot of other students on the way to this high level, too, so see you in the Music Room!

Ambrit Treble Choir just came back from a day out. First we sang a concert for the all the students at the Britannia International School in Rome. Then we visited the Museo delle Navi (Ship Museum) in Nemi, which was built to house Caligula's two huge barges. The barges were used for Caligula's extravagant ceremonies, and were beautiful, clad in marble, decorated with columns, and tiled with tin. At the end of WWII someone burned the ships down, and so now, we see only the remnants. It is a place worth seeing, and we made it worth listening to, too, because we sang a a song there. Click on this link to hear us! (the rest of the day was spent swimming in the crater lake, Albano). A good time was had by all!

Ambrit Treble Choir Spontaneous Sing

Ambrit Singers go to MAIS Honor Choir

MAIS Honor Choir was held in Trieste March 28-April 1 and Ambrit was represented by three talented middle school singers: Ashalynn Kuemlangan, Pihla Pekkarinen, and Antoine Veillerette, who was one of the soloists. They sang with singers from Spain, Portugal, Morocco, Tunisia, Italy and France. Rehearsals were long but the choir also went on side trips to see beautiful Venice, Grado, and Trieste. They sang two concerts, both to full houses, and the second one got them a standing ovation! The music came from four different centuries and was sung in English, Xhosa, Latin, Yemeni, and one song, "We Are Bridges", included 27 languages. Congratulations on a fine concert to our Ambrit students, and to Paige Short, director of the choir. 

Composing!

Music students are still composing great works in the music room. Pretty soon you should be able to hear some new music.Yvonne Fisher gives some pointers to Francesco.

Recorder Inspiration

For our Grade 4 and 5 students learning to play recorder, please check out this great performance of Michala Petri, playing the Devil's Trill Sonata by Tartini. Written in 1713, it is still one of the most difficult and beautiful recorder sonatas, even today. Tartini Devil's Sonata for Recorder and Lute. Performers, Michala Petri and Lars Hannibal

New Middle School Music Teacher: Introducing Ms. Tiffany Herring

We are sad to see Ms. Carolina Johnson leave AMBRIT this year, but we know she will be successful in her next adventure. Carolina, thank you for all your hard work and dedication.

The Music Department would like to welcome Ms. Tiffany Herring as the new Middle School Music Teacher. Ms. Herring has many years of experience as an Operatic Vocalist, Music Teacher, and Director. She has performed in many countries including South America, North Africa, and in Europe. She has a Performance Diploma from the Jacobs School of Music in Indiana, and received a Bachelors in Music from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music in Ohio.  The Music Department is thrilled to have Ms. Herring. She is a great addition to AMBRIT and to the Music Department. 

Miss Johansson Leaves

We will greatly miss our wonderful, talented Miss Carolina Johansson, who is leaving Ambrit to take a position in Sweden as producer of children's theater. Carolina teachers Grades 4-8, conducted Middle School Choir and Honor Choir, and also directed the annual St. Lucia Carol Ceremony in Rome. Students traveled with Miss Johansson to London, Valencia, and Madrid. She will continue singing concerts and working with young people as she produces operettas, and designs sets and costumes for the performances, something Carolina enjoys a great deal. Many Ambrit students and colleagues will have fond memories form dance festivals and concerts they have performed with Miss Johansson, and we know that she will be taking warm memories of her Italian experiences with her.

 

EC Halloween Sing Along

The Early Childhood Halloween Sing Along was a success! The event started with a costume parade where EC students showed off their scary and spooky costumes. Then stutents sang a variety of Halloween songs and the parents joined in too! Thank you parents and friends for your cooperation and participation. What a great way to kick off the Autumn season! Hope everyone had a Happy Halloween!

Piano and Friends Recital November 24, 2011

The Piano and Friends Recital will be Thursday, November 24, at 19:00 in the Ambrit Theater. This annual concert is performed by professional musicians, many of whom teach music at the school. Our program this year promises to be beautiful and entertaining, from Baroque music to 20th Century. Students who are learning to play an instrument will also enjoy this concert, and should attend with their parents.

The program includes: Bach Brandenburg Concerto N. 3, Faure' Elegie for 'Cello and Piano, Bernstein Clarinet Solo, Franck Violin Sonata, and several other short pieces. The duration will be one hour and 15 minutes.

A Music Trip to Cyprus!

Arabic-European Choral Festival

Many of us have taken advantage of the wonderful professional development opportunities offered to teachers at Ambrit. In September I was fortunate to attend the first world Arabic-European Choral Festival in Limassol, Cyprus, which was funded entirely by Europa Cantat and the European Union, and hosted by Epilogi Choral Crossroads. It was an event I will never forget, because I heard world-class, inspiring choirs from Hungary, Estonia, Jordan, Lebannon, Serbia, Egypt and Greece, and our hosts from Cyprus were not only prize-winning singers, but superb hosts. We had very hot weather, but the activities were very cool! Meeting and speaking with the conductors of all these choirs was so interesting. I attended discussions on Arabic music and the challenges of the language and style when related to our European concept of choral singing. I picked up some great new music for my Ambrit choirs and for the MAIS Honor Choir, and shared some music I have with conductors from other countries. I was a panel member for the discussion of women in the world of conducting. Ten choirs sang for a packed house on the first two nights, and we were in heaven listening to the various styles and all the interesting music they had to offer, some of it very different from our own. The final night was a concert in the Kourion Roman amphitheater, where all choirs sang individually, and, jointly, a song called We Are Bridges,  by Steve Dobrogosz, commissioned by the Cyprus Epilog committee. Please see the video link to get a flavor of the event, scrolling down to the song on the composer's website.

This trip not only gave me loads of new music, new friends and colleagues, and a beautiful experience in Cyprus, but it also inspired me and reminded me that trips like this for our own students are such an important educational experience in growing up. I was indeed sorry when the Festival came to an end, and lucky to be one of the participants.