Building Bridges through Song



Jane Ramseyer Miller, John Sorlien and Elizabeth Alexander rehearse with the Academy Choir from Community of Peace Academy.
About Community of Peace Academy Community of Peace Academy charter school, located in East St. Paul, has received many accolades in its ten years of educating students. In 2003, it became the first charter school to be selected as a National School of Character by the Character Education Partnership in Washington, DC, and, in 2004, was one of seven schools chosen by the U.S. Department of Education for inclusion in the publication “Successful Charter Schools.” CPA’s mission, “to educate the whole person - mind, body and will - for fullness of life for all,” extends beyond the classroom to involve the students in community projects such as Habitat for Humanity. The Academy Choir, made up of students in grades 9-12, seeks to continue this message of peace through music. This is the choir’s second collaboration. The choir is excited to be joining OVMC for this concert as a fellow organization dedicated to supporting the ideas of peace and equality. For more information on Community of Peace Academy, visit our website. About Composer Elizabeth Alexander Elizabeth Alexander’s music has been performed by the Charleston Symphony Orchestra, Central Wisconsin Symphony Orchestra, Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, and Wooster Symphony Orchestra; by chamber ensembles such as North/South Consonance, Syracuse Society for New Music, Sounds New, Music Fix, and Women’s Works; and by hundreds of choirs, including Elmer Iseler Singers, Gregg Smith Singers and Plymouth Music Series (VocalEssence). She received her bachelor’s degree from The College of Wooster and her doctoral degree from Cornell University, studying composition with Steven Stucky, Karel Husa, Jack Gallagher and Yehudi Wyner. She has written over twenty-five commissioned works for choirs, orchestras, chamber ensembles and solo musicians. Alexander has received grants, awards and fellowships from the Jerome Foundation, New York Council on the Arts, Wisconsin Arts Board, National Orchestral Association, Meet the Composer, International League of Women Composers, National Federation of Music Clubs, Cornell Council on the Arts, and ASCAP. In the past five years, her choral music has won the Swan Composers Prize, Ithaca College Choral Composition Competition, Brookline Chorus Composition Contest, Euphonia Vocal Composition Competition, and KidSing 2000 Composers Competition, as well as receiving Highest Honors in the Waging Peace for Singing Project

Building Bridges through Song

Concert Order