The Pioneer Valley Symphony & Chorus has appointed Lisa Jablow as the organization's new chorus director. PVS Music Director Paul Phillips spoke warmly of the search committee's decision: "I am thrilled that Lisa Jablow is taking over as the Director of the Pioneer Valley Symphony Chorus, and look forward enormously to working with her. Lisa stood out among the 25 applicants for the position on the basis of her superb musical background as a conductor and singer, and she was the overwhelming choice of the members of the PVS Chorus who sang at her recent audition. In addition to her outstanding musical skills and accomplishments, Lisa has tremendous energy, a very engaging personality and a great sense of humor. Since the PVS Chorus is performing Puccini's "Messa di Gloria" on our opening concert this October, Lisa and I will be working closely together right away, which works out beautifully. As soon as singers in western Massachusetts and southern Vermont find out about Lisa, they will want to sing with her, so this is a very exciting time indeed for the PVS Chorus."

Ms. Jablow comes to the position with a wealth of experience and honors. Her credentials include a doctorate in choral conducting from the University of Wisconsin as well as stints at Aspen, Tanglewood, and the Westminster Choir College under such luminaries as Pierre Boulez, Robert Shaw, and Joseph Flummerfelt.  She’s been active in the musical life of northern Vermont as music director of the Montpelier Chamber Orchestra, conductor/guest conductor of several choruses in the Burlington area, and assistant conductor of the Green Mountain Opera Festival, a position she previously held with Opera Illinois.

A lyric soprano, Ms. Jablow has appeared onstage with the likes of  New York City Opera, Opera Orchestra of New York, New York Virtuoso Singers, Milwaukee Symphony, Boise Opera, and Skylight Opera.  Closer to home, she has music directed, sung and acted with Lost Nation Theater, Lamoille County Players, Opera Burlington, Vermont Philharmonic, Vermont Contemporary Music Ensemble, Warebrook Contemporary Music Festival, Burlington Choral Society, and Friends of Music at Guilford, where she sang the title role in Gustav Holst’s “Savitri” and The Neighbor in Stravinsky’s “Mavra” (in the newly published chamber scoring by PVS music director Paul Phillips).  In 2000 she created the leading role of Grace in Erik Nielson's opera,“A Fleeting Animal,” for Vermont Opera Theater, conducted by former PVS assistant conductor Anne Decker.

New and contemporary music are among Ms. Jablow’s specialties.  At the famed “Internationale Ferienkurse für Neue Musik” in Darmstadt, Germany, she was awarded top honors in the interpretation of new music.  For the Discovery Channel series “Women Who Kill,” she was recently seen performing an excerpt from the monodrama “Erszebet” by Vermont composer Dennis Bathory-Kitsz about his ancestor, the 16th-century “Vampire Countess” Erszebet Bathory.  And last fall she toured New England and the Midwest with the Missouri-based Esterhazy Quartet, performing Arnold Schoenberg’s formidable String Quartet #2.  Ms. Jablow is especially excited about the Pioneer Valley Symphony’s programming reputation. Upon her appointment she commented, "One of the things that attracted me to the Pioneer Valley Symphony and Chorus is the variety and adventurousness of the programming.  There seems to be a wonderful balance between serving the audience's taste for standard repertoire and challenging them and the musicians with fare that is perhaps less well-known but certainly no less worthy of being  heard."

A resident of Waterbury Center and Brattleboro VT, Ms. Jablow co-directs the Musical Theater program at Johnson State College, where she is the music department’s senior faculty member. She has also taken charge of music direction for shows by several theater companies in Vermont, including Lost Nation, Lamoille County, and Burlington’s Lyric Theater.  As a writer, Ms. Jablow has contributed feature articles to the Playbills of the New York City Opera, Metropolitan Opera, and Carnegie Hall.  She has also operated supertitles for the Green Mountain Opera Festival, Berkshire Opera, and Opera Illinois; this coming season she’ll be joining the supertitle staff at New York City Opera.

To all these accomplishments, Ms. Jablow now adds the PVS Chorus. In looking ahead to the coming year, in which the Chorus will join the PVS Orchestra in four of the season's six concerts, she shared her enthusiasm, "I am honored and tremendously excited to be a part of this well-established and highly respected organization.  In the very short time since I was offered the position I have been made to feel welcomed and valued; and I look forward to making great music with all of the dedicated and talented people in the Pioneer Valley Symphony and Chorus."

During the season, the PVS Chorus rehearses Tuesday evenings, from 7:30 - 9:30 PM, on The Bement School's campus in Deerfield. First rehearsal is Tuesday, September 4.  The Chorus will be performing with the Orchestra in four of the 2007 - 2008 six concerts, most notably Puccini's "Messa di Gloria" on October 27th and Vaughn Williams' "Sea Symphony" on May 17th. For more information on joining the PVS Chorus and the PVS upcoming season of "Youthful Visions," please visit www.pvso.org or call 413-773-3664.