The Binghamton Downtown Singers and Orchestra are excited to announce that Robert J. Manners has been named their Interim Artistic Director following an extensive, months’ long search.

Marisa Crabb, widow of DTS co-founder Alan Crabb, stepped away from the Artistic Director post following the ensemble’s June 2023 concert to spend more time with family. Manners will make his DTS conducting debut Dec. 9 with the Downtown Singers and Orchestra’s annual performance of Handel’s Messiah.

A Binghamton-based choral conductor and music educator, Manners currently serves as the concert manager for the Binghamton University Music Department. He also is a general music teacher for St. Mary’s Catholic School in Cortland.

Manners received his bachelor of music in music theory from Nazareth College of Rochester (2014), his masters of music in composition from Florida State University (2016) and his masters of music in choral conducting from Binghamton University (2023). At BU, he studied with William Culverhouse.

While at BU, Manners was the assistant director of the Chamber Singers, Treble Choir and Harpur Chorale and founded a tenor/bass ensemble. A lyric baritone, he serves as section leader and substitute director for the United Presbyterian Church in Binghamton, as well as a regular cantor for many local churches.
 
When applying for the DTS position, Manners spoke of music’s ability to unite a community:
“I believe a community choir brings people together from unique and diverse backgrounds who are enthusiastic about music. I also believe that the music being performed can be enriching not only for the community but also for the performers in the choir. I can recall how the joy of performing large works such as Mendelssohn’s Elijah or Handel’s Messiah would inspire my own musical abilities, but how also being exposed to newer works such as Dan Forrest’s Requiem for the Living [which DTS performed last spring] or the suite Sing for the Cure can uplift a community.”

As Interim Artistic Director for DTS’s 2023-24 season, Manners will not only lead the traditional Messiah performance but will program the spring concert, which could feature music that, unlike Messiah, is not currently in the chorus members’ repertoire.

“I think this is one of the harder parts of being a choir director, to help the singer realize they have the ability and confidence to perform music that may be slightly above their comfort zone. I am always inspired by singers who rise to this challenge,” Manners said in his application.

After Manners’ appointment was announced, DTS Board Co-President Julie Drozdowski commented: “While the choir will greatly miss being led by someone with the name of Crabb, we are excited at the potential a new conductor and perspective brings. Mr. Manners has already shared new ideas and interpretations with the choir, as well as a potential spring concert piece, and  we are looking forward to the future and a fulfilling partnership.”

The Downtown Singers and Orchestra’s annual performance of Handel’s Messiah will be at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 9, at Sarah Jane Johnson Memorial United Methodist Church, 308 Main St., Johnson City. General admission tickets at $20 are now available at the DTS website, www.downtownsingers.org/tickets; by emailing tickets@downtownsingers.org, or calling 607-205-8741. One free student admission is allowed with each purchase of a ticket.

This project is made possible with public funds from the Statewide Community Regrants Program, a regrant program of the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature, and administered by The Earlville Opera House. Additional support for the Broome SCR Program graciously provided by the Stewart W. & Willma C. Hoyt Foundation. Funding is also provided by a project grant from The Ahearn Foundation.
 

The Binghamton Downtown Singers are pleased to announce that Marisa Crabb will continue her association with the choir as our Artistic Director Emeritus.  Using her unique knowledge and experience stemming from her long tenure, Marisa will support the ongoing mission and success of the choir.

Please open the attachment to read Marisa’s thoughts on her time as Artistic Director and her future with the choir.

The choir gratefully appreciates Marisa's continued and loving support.

The Downtown Singers are pleased to announce our soloists for this year's performance of Handel's Messiah.  An abbreviated biography for each soloist appears below.  You will find their full biographies in the program at our concert.

Martha Guth – Soprano Soloist - Juno nominated soprano Martha Guth’s recital and concert highlights include Wigmore Hall, Lincoln Center, The National Cathedral, St. John Smith Square, Oxford Song, Leeds Lieder, The Toronto Symphony Orchestra, The Chicago Philharmonic, Voices of Ascension, and many more. Her longtime recital and touring partners include Graham Johnson and Erika Switzer. Her recitals have been recorded and broadcast for the CBC Radio/Radio Canada, the BBC Radio in the U.K and the WDR in Germany and she is proud to have worked under the batons of Maestro’s Seiji Ozawa, Robert Spano, Helmut Rilling, John Nelson, Richard Bradshaw, and Alan Gilbert among many others.

Dawn Pierce -  Mezzo-soprano Soloist - Dawn is a native of Olean, New York, and currently an associate professor of voice at Ithaca College. She was recently a featured recitalist in the Middlebury Song Festival, and has performed Verdi Requiem, Beethoven’s Ninth and Messiah with symphonies throughout the country. On the operatic stage, she’s performed Béatrice in Beatrice et Bénédict with Asheville Lyric Opera, Charlotte in Werther with Mobile Opera, and Carmen in Carmen with Opera Ithaca. She is internationally recognized for her top-selling course, How to Sing with The Great Courses.

Vale Rideout - Tenor Soloist  - Val enjoys a career on the opera and concert stage. He has sung major roles with San Francisco Opera (Alfred in Die Fledermaus), Palm Beach Opera (Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni), Boston Lyric Opera (Quint in The Turn of the Screw), Kentucky Opera (Roméo in Roméo et Juliette), Central City Opera (Edgardo in Lucia di Lammermoor),
Tulsa Opera (Tamino in The Magic Flute), and Nashville Opera (Frank Shallard in Elmer Gantry). He has sung with major symphonies including the New York Philharmonic (Maazel/War Requiem), Los Angeles Philharmonic (War Requiem), Seattle Symphony (Messiah), Jacksonville Symphony (War Requiem), Nashville Symphony (Messiah), Detroit Symphony (Beethoven 9), Washington Chorus (Missa Solemnis), New Orleans Philharmonic (Messiah, Christmas Oratorio), Trinity Church Wall Street (Britten - Serenade, Stravinsky - Les Noces) and Toledo Symphony (Verdi Requiem). 

Steven Stull - Baritone Soloist -  Steven has lived and performed in Ithaca since 1986 and appears regularly with Cayuga Chamber Orchestra, Society for New Music, Rochester Philharmonic, and Opera Ithaca. He has been a soloist in sixty performances with Symphoria, Syracuse Symphony, and Syracuse Opera, and has sung nearly eighty performances with the West Virginia Symphony. In Binghamton, Steven appeared as Figaro in The Barber of Seville, Danilo in The Merry Widow, Eisenstein in Die Fledermaus, and the Captain in HMS Pinafore with Tri-Cities Opera, and as Lancelot in Camelot with BC Pops. A graduate of the Eastman School of Music and Oberlin College Conservatory, he has also appeared with Glimmerglass Opera, Artpark, BAM, Kyrgyz State Opera, Opera Theatre of Pittsburgh, American Modern Ensemble, Oswego Opera, Anchorage Festival of Music, Fredonia Bach and Beyond Festival, and orchestras in Buffalo, Erie, and Jacksonville.