Portsmouth
Pro Musica is
dedicated to providing an enriching musical experience
to both our members and the community through the scholarship
and presentation of professional, quality, diverse
choral repertoire. The Chorus is well-known in the
Seacoast area and regional choral venues for its unique
sound and skilled performances of sacred and secular
works gleaned from centuries of choral music. Priscilla
Stevens-French, founding director and conductor, provides
weekly choral voice coaching and insight for musical
interpretation. The chorus draws its voices from the
Greater Seacoast area, including New Hampshire, Southern
Maine and northern Massachusetts. We thank you for
your contining support and invite you to come sing
with us or attend our performances, you will truly
be enriched, as we are, by sharing this wonderful music
program.
Priscilla
Stevens French, founding
director of Portsmouth Women's Chorus for 21 years,
led the transformation of Portsmouth Women's Chorus
into a new mixed chorus, Portsmouth Pro Musica, in
the spring of 2006. Priscilla earned a B.A. from
Beloit College and received her Master's degree in
Choral Conducting from the New England Conservatory
of Music. She spent her junior year abroad in Oxford
studying organ and musicology. Prior
to moving to New Hampshire in 1985, Priscilla was
chair of the Music department at Spence School in
New York City. She is past president of the NH chapter
of the American Choral Directors Association and
past Eastern Division chair for women's choirs. Currently,
she is a member of the board of youth Organist Collaborative
(YOC), Portsmouth and Arts in Reach(AIR), a non-profit
organization that partners teenage girls with professional
artists based in Dover. Priscilla lives with her
family in Portsmouth.
Robert
Littlefield,
accompanist, is a prominent figure in the North Shore
music world. Mr. Littlefield has taught piano and
organ for over 40 years and has been accompanying
Chorus North Shore since 1983. Mr. Littlefield holds
a Bachelor and Master in Music degree from the New
England Conservatory of Music, with focus on harpsichord
and organ performance as well as choral conducting.
Mr. Littlefield also serves as Music Director and
organist at the First Parish Unitarian Universalist
Church in Beverly, Massachusetts. He frequently surprises
auditioning soloists with his musical genius by playing
strictly from memory the piano accompaniment to arias
they have chosen for their auditions!