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Throughout July SUNY Fredonia is hosting two programs in The New York State Summer School of the Arts (NYSSSA): Choral Studies and Visual Arts. Both offer high school students from around the state intensive, pre-professional training with internationally acclaimed artists. Four public concerts and two art exhibits are planned. The nearly 200 participating students, who were selected competitively, are living on campus.
Recognized nationwide as one of the finest of its kind, NYSSSA is sponsored and supported by the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature, and administered by the State Education Department. This summer marks its 42nd year of operation, which includes six other programs: Dance, Media Arts, Orchestra, Theatre, Ballet and Jazz Studies (not held this summer).
NYSSSA School of Choral Studies
The School of Choral Studies offers daily instruction in choral singing and comprehensive musicianship under the direction of Hugh Ferguson Floyd, a nationally acclaimed choral conductor. The 67 students selected for the program are receiving private voice lessons and have the opportunity to participate in musical theater and opera scenes, small ensembles and voice recitals.
The students will perform Sunday, July 24 at 2:30 p.m. in the Amphitheater at the Chautauqua Institution. They will also perform on campus on Friday, July 29, beginning with an Honors Recital at 4:30 p.m. in Rosch Recital Hall, followed by a Scenes Recital at 7:30 p.m. in Diers Recital Hall (both housed within the School of Music’s Mason Hall). There will also be a concert on the program’s last day, Saturday, July 30, at 1:30 p.m. in Rosch Recital Hall.
In addition to a rigorous program in choral studies, students are enjoying cultural activities, including concerts, opera and theater performances at the Chautauqua Institution, and workshops by guest artists. Director Floyd is Professor of Music at Furman University and coordinator of the renowned Furman Singers.
NYSSSA School of Visual Arts
The School of Visual Arts is emphasizing art experiences that cannot normally be undertaken during a 45-minute school period. The 79 students accepted are working in the studio with drawing, painting, printmaking, sculpture, mixed media, figure, and interdisciplinary arts under the direction of noted exhibiting artists and educators. They are also taking trips to farms and lakes in the area for subject matter, and are involved in welding, casting, carving, modeling life-size objects in clay, and experimenting with a variety of printmaking techniques.
The students will mount the largest community exhibition in NYSSSA’s history from July 22 through the 26 in the Village of Fredonia, when artwork from all the classes will be displayed at 10 locations throughout the village. The Landscape Drawing & Painting studio class is mounting a particularly dramatic series of large paintings between the columns on the façade of the historic White Inn at 52 East Main Street in Fredonia.
Students will have a final on-campus presentation of artwork from each of their classes on Friday, July 29, at 1 p.m. in Marvel Theater and continuing in Rockefeller Fine Arts Center and the Natatorium.
The School of Visual Arts Artistic Director Randy Williams is a visual artist and Professor of Studio Art and Art Education at Manhattanville College. He has been on the faculty of the School of Visual Arts since its inception in 1976.
