UTC Choral Music Department Presents Fall Concert
The UTC Choral Music Department will be presenting their fall concert on Thursday night, November 29, at 7:30 pm in the Roland Hayes Concert Hall in the Fine Arts Center at UTC. The concert will feature performances by the Chattanooga Singers directed by Dr. Kevin Ford, the Men’s Chorus directed by Dr. Roland Carter, and the Women’s Chorale directed by Dr. Lee Harris, and will include a variety of traditional and holiday choral selections. The concert is free and open to the public.
The music to be performed demonstrates a variety of styles and traditions. The Chattanooga Singers will be performing two traditional choral texts – the Lord’s Prayer and Psalm 96 (“Sing to the Lord a new song”) as well as settings of folk songs from Andalusia, Argentina and the Hebrides Islands. The Women’s Chorus will continue a focus on African-American composer Nathaniel Dett singing two of his settings of spirituals, as well as the traditional “Gloria in Excelsis Deo” (Glory to God in the Highest). The Men’s Chorus repertoire will feature “Betelehemu”, a Nigerian Nativity Hymn in the Yoruba dialect. All three groups will feature student soloists and accompanists. A wide variety of holiday music featuring old favorites as well as newer pieces will complete the evening.
The Chattanooga Singers, Men’s Chorus, and Women’s Chorale are made up of a cross-section of the UTC student body, joined together by their love of singing to explore the wide variety of choral music that exists for men’s, women’s and mixed voices. The Chattanooga Singers carry on a tradition that dates back to their founding in 1969 and have an international reputation of excellence after their many performance tours to Australia, England, and other international destinations. The Men’s Chorus was reformed by Dr. Roland Carter, internationally-known Ruth Holmberg Professor of American Music , but its tradition dates back to the earliest days of the University of Chattanooga. The Women’s Chorus is one of the newest ensembles at UTC, but they present a vital and important section of the worldwide choral repertoire ranging from the works of Hildegard of Bingen to such great composers as Franz Schubert and Johannes Brahms.
For more information regarding this performance please contact the UTC Choral Activities Dept. at (423) 425-4612 or email chorus@utc.edu.
UTC Chamber Singers and Master Chorale Performance
The UTC Chamber Singers and University Master Chorale will present their final performance for fall semester on Friday, November 30, at 7 p.m. at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, 305 W. 7th St.,, Chattanooga. The groups will be conducted by Dr. Kevin Ford and graduate student Charity Palmer. The performance will feature several African-American Spirituals arranged by UTC Professor Dr. Roland Carter. The concert is open to the public and no admission will be charged.
The UTC Chambers Singers are the primary vocal performance group at UTC. They recently returned from a tour of Austria where they performed in several significant performance venues. The chorus is composed of undergraduate and graduate students who wish to perform the highest caliber of choral music written for small ensembles from all the major historical periods through contemporary choral works. The students represent a variety of majors ranging from music majors to pre-med.
The University Master Chorale was originally instituted as a summer performance ensemble to meet the requirement of an ensemble for graduate students during the summer term. Beginning in 2004 the group expanded to allow the students to interact and perform with non-university singers from the Chattanooga area. Members of several Chattanooga choral organizations including the Chattanooga Bach Choir, Chattanooga Choral Arts, Chattanooga Symphony Chorus as well as singers from local church choirs combine to perform either a major choral work or several smaller choral works of significance in the summer. The group’s success was such that the members requested that they reform during the regular academic year to have another chance to perform their summer repertoire, thus their appearance on this concert.
Among the repertoire to be presented in the concert are two well-known spiritual arrangements, “Little Innocent Lamb” by Bartholomew and “Ain’-a That Good News” by Dawson in addition to other works. The Chamber Singers will join the Master Chorale to perform Eric Whitacre’s “Sleep,” a contemporary choral masterpiece with an interesting history. The composer originally wrote the piece using Robert Frost’s poem, “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening,” but when the poet’s estate would not release the rights to the poem, an entirely new text had to be written to accommodate the structure of the original.
The Chattanooga community is very fortunate to have Dr. Roland Carter, an internationally known composer, arranger, and conductor on the UTC faculty, said Dr. Lee Harris, head of the UTC Music Department. “Roland Carter is one of Chattanooga’s finest musical gifts to the world. His work has touched the lives of countless singers and audiences,” Harris said. “His settings of African-American spirituals are definitive in their authenticity of style and expression while being at the same time eminently singable and enjoyable to hear. The Chamber Singers will be recording these settings in the spring of 2008 and will include several of them in this performance.”
For more information regarding this performance please contact the UTC Choral Activities Dept. at (423) 425-4612 or email chorus@utc.edu.
