As far as she knows, Denice Parkhurst just might be the longest tenured director of the Arts Center of the Ozarks Chorale. Parkhurst credits her success -- 10 years, more or less, of the Chorale's 24-year existence -- to her abiding passion for community choirs.
"I've always appreciated what community choirs stand for," says Parkhurst, who teaches at Helen Tyson Middle School in addition to private piano lessons. "These are people from different backgrounds, with different jobs, who come together because they love to sing."
FAQ
ACO Chorale:
‘Sounds of the Holiday Season’
WHEN — 7:30 p.m. Dec. 2
WHERE — Arts Center of the Ozarks in Springdale
COST — $5-$10
INFO — 751-5441
That's exactly how the Chorale came to be, remembers Harry Blundell, director of theater at the arts center for 40-plus years until he retired in 2016.
"It was started in 1993 to open the new ACO building," he says. "We wanted to allow the folks in our musicals the opportunity to sing in a group if they were not part of a church choir.
"We practiced for our first concert at Lee Elementary, as there was no building yet on our ACO grounds," Blundell goes on. "I believe we had somewhere between 35 to 45 folks present for our first season. Marsha McGowan was employed to carry it though several more years. Then Gail Hocott took over."
For Parkhurst, music has been a constant since she started piano lessons at the age of 5. Growing up in a Navy family, she moved around a lot, finally settling in Northwest Arkansas and earning an undergraduate degree in piano performance and music education at John Brown University and a master's degree in music education from the University of Arkansas. She moved back to Northwest Arkansas from Maine 12 years ago and says she sang with the Chorale for a couple of years before becoming director.
Today's Chorale, 48 members strong this year, will present its annual winter concert, "Sounds of the Holiday Season," at 7:30 p.m. Dec. 2 at the Springdale arts center. The program, says Parkhurst, "includes a diverse choral repertoire, including three sets from the International Carol Suites by Mark Hayes -- Carols of Western Europe, Carols of Eastern Europe and Carols of the British Isles. The suites include 20 carols from the areas in the title (and some in their native languages).
"Our hope," she adds, "is that audience members will experience a grander sense of Christmas as expressed through the universal language of music.
"The ACO Chorale always welcomes new members," she says. "We've kept a lot of tried-and-true members, but we're getting more new ones as people come into the community and are looking for something like this."
-- Becca Martin-Brown
NAN What's Up on 11/19/2017