Ernest Green

The Annapolis Chorale and Chamber Orchestra's dynamic music director, J. Ernest Green, is busier than ever. He's in his third season as music director of the Falls Church Chamber Orchestra, and works with 150 members of the chorale's subgroups, which include the chamber chorus and recently re-established youth chorus. In November, he began serving as a stand-in or "cover" conductor with the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington, D.C. And, in addition to serving as music director at St. Anne's Episcopal Church in Annapolis, Green has acted as music director of the Young Victorian Theatre Company for the past 14 summers, bringing Gilbert and Sullivan to Baltimore.

Four days after the 12 days of Christmas, two area high schools are joining forces to celebrate the holidays.It may seem an odd time to do Handel's "Messiah," says Carole Frederick, choir director at Severna Park High School, but the weeks before Christmas were "too hectic, with all the other concerts we have to do.""Besides, I wanted it to be set apart and special," she says. "And it's close enough to Twelfth Night [Jan. 6] to count."So she and Jane Daugherty, choir director at Broadneck High School, are combining their best ensembles, each with 62 voices, with the 12-member Maryland Hall Chamber Orchestra, seven soloists and choral alumni of the two schools to do the Christmas portion of "Messiah."

Some would call J. Ernest Green a force of nature.While most people work 9 to 5 jobs and maybe dabble in something on the side, Green directs the Annapolis Chorale and three subgroups -- the chamber orchestra, chamber chorus and the Youth Performing Arts project -- while he serves as music director at St. Anne's Episcopal Church in Annapolis.He is principal guest conductor of the Boston Aria Guild, conductor of the International School of Performing Arts, a summer opera festival in Pennsylvania and just completed a four-country tour of Europe conducting Teatro Lirico di Milano in Verdi's La Traviata.

Ernest Green, the talented conductor of vocal music who has put the Annapolis Chorale on the map in recent years, is very much in demand as a guest conductor outside Annapolis.Last season, Green conducted a production of Verdi's "Rigoletto" with the Hawaii Opera Theatre, one of the Pacific Rim's premier artistic ensembles.Those performances paid dividends for local concertgoers June 7 when the young women of the Hawaiian Youth Opera Chorus, heard by Green during his rehearsals in Honolulu, brought an extraordinary mix of Hawaiian songs and classical repertoire to St. Martin's Church in Annapolis for a wonderful concert.

Nothing attracts friends like success, and when J. Ernest Green and his Carnegie-approved Annapolis Chorale take the Maryland Hall stage tonight and tomorrow, talented colleagues will abound.At these concerts -- the third in this season's Pops Series, the chorale will be joined by Maryland's first lady of song, Ethel Ennis, in a stylishly conceived program of new tunes and well-loved standards.Accompanying Ms. Ennis at these "Evenings With Ethel" will be the Annapolis Chamber Orchestra and a jazz trio consisting of drummer Paul Heldner, bass fiddler Keter Betts (Ella Fitzgerald's bassist of choice)

With hits to his credit like "Phantom of the Opera," "Cats," "Evita" and "Jesus Christ, Superstar," Andrew Lloyd Webber has probably sold more tickets than anyone else in the history of Broadway.But a decade ago, Mr. Lloyd Webber decided to set aside being a show-biz tunesmith for a time. Saddened by both the death of his father and by murderous events in Cambodia, he chose to broaden his artistic horizons and compose a Requiem, a musical setting of the Roman Catholic liturgy for the burial of dead.

Anyone who's ever sweated through a May concert at Maryland Hall knows the old, poorly ventilated structure is no place to take in a concert during the summer.Acoustics -- don't even ask. The fraction of musical sound that makes it off the cavernous stage seems to head immediately for the nearest velour curtain to die. "Singing in Maryland Hall," conductor Ernest Green once told me, "is like singing into your sock."But the good news is that those who know and love the hall best -- its administrators and the talented performers who play, sing and dance there regularly -- are committed to its improvement.

For more than a century, Carnegie Hall, more than any other concert venue in America, has signaled that an artist has arrived. That's why the news about the Annapolis Chorale's invitation to perform at Carnegie in New York next year is so significant."

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. -- This city's time in the sun is fading fast. The man who brought it unusual fame and fortune -- President-elect Bill Clinton -- is about to leave for a capital more familiar with both.Not since Plains, Ga., became the unlikely focus of national attention when Jimmy Carter was elected president in 1976 has a city like Little Rock been on such a roller coaster ride."We have seen a government formed right here. Yes, sir, right here in Little Rock," said a taxi driver, born and bred here and still amazed at what has been happening before his very eyes.