The Board of Directors of the Litchfield County Choral Union (LCCU) is delighted to have Dr. Gabriel Löfvall as the Music Director for the Union.
Dr. Löfvall was the assistant conductor for The Main Street Singers of New Britain. He currently serves as the Director of Music for St. Patrick-St. Anthony Church in downtown Hartford, Conn. A native of Argentina, he is a graduate of the Hartt School at the University of Hartford and of the Universidad Nacional de Cuyo, in Mendoza. Dr. Löfvall has a longstanding association with both the LCCU and the town of Norfolk – he sang with the Union and served as the Congregational Church’s organist and choir director early in his career in this country.
Dr. Löfvall will direct this season’s presentation in the 126th year of the Union’s founding. We shall be presenting the “Lord Nelson” Mass by Franz Joseph Haydn late this summer, 2025, because it is a mass written during troubled times – a time of the Napoleonic wars; it is appropriate to remember works of art written during times of strife and governmental conflict, as we are grappling with the spectre of dictatorship ourselves much in the same way Napoleon crowning himself ‘emperor’ and violating rules of engagement.
Rehearsals will commence on Monday May 19th. Rehearsals will occur each Monday evening from 7:00pm to 9:30pm in the Recital Room of Battell House on the Ellen Battell Stoeckel Estate in Norfolk – the venue and Main Office of the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival. There will be no rehearsal on Monday May 26th (Memorial Day).
Dr. Löfvall and rehearsal accompanist Elizabeth Allyn (an LCCU Board member) will host a season-opening meet-and-greet and initial rehearsal at Trinity Episcopal Church, 220 Prospect St., Torrington on Monday, May 20th, at 7:00pm. Please come and raise your voices with us, discover the joys and benefits of choral singing, and explore the beauties of these timeless works.