THE CHORAL WORKSHOP

In the first years of activity the Sarah Sheppard Spirituals Association started a Choral Workshop made up of a certain number of people who had joined the Association in order to learn singing. Their purpose was to practice choral activity and, eventually, to sing in the Sarah Sheppard Choir. They were instructed by Sergio Turra (Music Director) and Oreste Palamara (Artistic Director). The Choral Workshop took advantage of the talents of some of its members, or of external qualified consultants, in order to hold collective music seminars which were part of the normal workshop activity. Among these the American singers Candace Smith and Laverne Jackson (in the photo).

REHEARSALS

Group rehearsals and other activities take place at the Sala Diana Franceschi, in Villa Aldrovandi Mazzacorati (Via Toscana 19, Bologna) which is run by the Comune of Bologna.

THE ARTISTIC DIRECTION
PROFESSIONAL AND ARTISTIC BACKGROUND

The Musical Director of the group studied at the G.B.Martini Conservatory of Bologna.  He holds a diploma in Pianoforte having studied under Luigi Mostacci, another one in Choral Music and Conducting, under Tito Gotti, and a certificate in Jazz Music, under Ettore Ballotta.  Maestro Turra gives concerts as a soloist and in various groups, and works as an arranger, writing music for instrumental and vocal groups.  He has collaborated as composer and performer in the making of some recordings at the RAI (Italian National Radio) and in 1989 he obtained the 1st prize in a national competition of composition of children's music (Kinder-oper) at Sasso Marconi.  He is a member of "Euridice", a choral association in Bologna and contributes both as a performer and a teaching assistant.

He began to study singing at the Sigismondo d'India Reneissance Music School in Palermo, directed by Wolfgang Fromme and Gabriel Garrido.  In Bologna, having studied under Cristina Miatello and Paride Venturi, he sang in various groups as a soloist ("Ensemble Einrich Schütz", "Collegium Musicum Almae Matris", "Gruppo Perti").  In 1995 Oreste Palamara founded, together with Sergio Turra, the Sarah Sheppard Spirituals Vocal and Instrumental Ensemble.  He is the person in charge of movement and choreography, which is always performed with the music, and also for organisation, publicity and the image of the group.  He is graduate in Foreign Languages and Literature, and took part in various courses and stages of anglosaxon civilization, language and culture in London, Oxford, Cambridge, Bournemouth (England), Edinburgh (Scotland), Rhode Island (USA) and Sydney (Australia).