This May, The Putney School Madrigals and an expanded Putney Community Orchestra joined the Germantown Concert Chorus (from Philadelphia, PA), the Bennington County Choral Society (VT), and the Keene Chorale (NH) in a special concert project to mark the 15th anniversary of Putney’s Director of Music, Cailin Marcel Manson, as a professional choral-orchestral conductor. They were also joined by a number of Putney School Alumni and alumni of the Germantown Institute for the Vocal Arts and the Montgomery County Youth Orchestra (PA), which Cailin directed before coming to Putney.

The combined chorus numbered more than 200 voices and was joined by four world-class soloists: Elisabeth Stevens, (soprano), Amy Yovanovich (mezzo-soprano), Luke Grooms, (tenor), and Rocky Sellers, (bass-baritone).

The project culminated in two performances of the iconic Messa da Requiem by Giuseppe Verdi: one in Bennington, Vermont on Saturday, May 19 at 2pm at Greenwall Auditorium at Bennington College, and the other on Sunday, May 20 at 3pm at the 1894 Auditorium of the Moody Center in Northfield, Massachusetts.