A top Brevard County singing group has chosen Vero Beach’s Ryan Kasten as its new artistic director, and that move has reaped yet another resident ensemble performing at Vero’s Community Church.
The inaugural series begins Sunday, when the Indialantic Chamber Singers performs its summer concert led by Kasten, Community Church’s associate music director. The new appointment is in addition to his duties at the church.
Kasten, who holds master’s degrees in both organ performance and choral directing and is currently working on his doctoral degree at Florida State University, ranked tops in performance reviews given by his Indialantic choristers among three finalists for the post of artistic director. He and the others auditioned last year by conducting the group through rehearsals and a performance.
He becomes only the second director of the chorus, which was founded by retiring artistic director David Vogeding. It’s the 15th anniversary of the chorus, made up of auditioned singers, most of them music professionals.
“There is an extensive audition process. They have to be able to read whatever music’s thrown at them and they have to have a certain timbre and style that will blend with the ensemble,” says Kasten.
“They’re the premier choral group in Brevard County.”
The chamber ensemble numbers 25 singers for the June concert, and 47 singers in season, including a handful of singers from Vero Beach.
The chorus will mingle with the audience post-concert in the church’s courtyard. “You’ll soon want to get to know these people,” Kasten says, praising their musical backgrounds.
The chamber chorus performs four concerts a year ranging from the more popular music of its upcoming summer concert, “A Portrait of America in Song,” to an ambitious spring concert that includes a chamber orchestra.
“The great thing is I have a wonderful working board. They’re taking care of all the logistics and I really get to be artistic director and musical director,” he says.
The Indialantic Chamber Singers perform at two churches in Viera in northern Brevard County, and Eastminster Presbyterian Church in Indialantic, the town on the barrier island across Melbourne’s S.R. 192 causeway. Rehearsals are at Eastminster.
The new venture is in addition to his roles at Community Church, which include directing the Atlantic Ringers community handbell choir, which Kasten founded in 2010, and assisting with the Atlantic Children’s Chorale. For the past two years, he also directed Mannerchor, an all-male chorus that was the only one of its kind between Melbourne and Stuart, but that group has disbanded. “I’ve given up the men’s ensemble. I’ve tried hard to get the guys to go, but there just didn’t seem to be enough interest.”
Like several of the groups Kasten works with that are based at but not affiliated with Community Church, Indialantic Chamber Singers is an independent 501-c-3 and is funded strictly by donation. Sunday’s 4 p.m. concert at Community Church, with accompanist Lori Jahn, has no admission charge, only a free will offering.
