Baldwin schools host annual Choral Festival

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The Baldwin School District recently held its annual Choral Festival, featuring the highly esteemed Shoshana Hershkowitz as a guest conductor, on Feb. 13.

Performances included Baldwin High School’s Concert Choir and Women’s Choir, the Bruin Singers from the middle school, as well as the special choirs of Brookside and Lenox elementary schools.

The event culminated with a performance of “Shine On Me,” arranged by Rollo A. Dilworth, by all of the choral groups combined and conducted by Hershkowitz.

Leading up to the festival, teachers trained with Herschkowitz for additional professional development.

Hershkowitz holds degrees in music education and vocal performance from the Crane School of Music at SUNY Potsdam. She is an artist in residence at Stony Brook University, where she conducts the Stony Brook Chorale and Camerata Singers, and prepares choirs for the opera productions.

Hershkowitz is the founding conductor of the Metropolitan Youth Orchestra’s Suffolk Symphonic Choir, a county-wide high school ensemble.

For ten years, Hershkowitz taught at Commack High School, where she directed mixed and women’s choirs. As a guest conductor, she has conducted choirs of all age levels for NYSSMA, Vermont American Choral Directors Association, Vermont Music Educators Association, Nassau Music Educators Association, Suffolk County Music Educators Association, and the Hamptons Music Educators Association.

As a clinician, Hershkowitz has presented workshops for NYSCAME, SCMEA, the Society for Ethics in Education, and the Balanced Mind Conference, as well as with school choirs and choral directors across Long Island. She is a proud member of the eVoco Voice Collective, a semi-professional chamber choir.