Yavapai College News
First Choral Concert of the Season this Sunday!
Last updated: 10/8/2010 10:23:06 AM
YAVAPAI COLLEGE CHORAL CONCERT SET TO WOW
(PRESCOTT)--With the start of the academic year, Yavapai College Music Department is humming with classes and rehearsals for the new concert season; and the first event will be presented by the choirs of the Choral Union at 3:00 pm on Sunday, Oct. 10 in the Yavapai College Performance Hall.
The Vocal Ensemble, under the baton of Dr. Will Fisher, Director of Choral Activities, will perform three "old favorite" show tunes: Song Sung Blue, by Neil Diamond, The Music of the Night, by Andrew Lloyd Weber, and All of Me, by Seymour Simons.
Chamber Singers, made up of some of the top rank singers in the music program, will demonstrate their versatility, singing first a lively Pop song by Artie Resnick called Under the Boardwalk, followed by a Renaissance sacred piece, Sicut Cervus, by Palestrina. Lastly they will perform a sentimental contemporary ballad, Here's That Rainy Day, by Van Heusen.
The Master Chorale, under Mr. Darrell Rowader's direction, will perform a rarely heard choral work by Ralph Vaughan Williams, Serenade To Music. The composer wrote this piece to honor his friend, conductor Sir Henry Wood, marking the fiftieth anniversary of Woods' conducting debut. Vaughan Williams used text from Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice, Act V, where the characters are discussing the music of the spheres, and the great Sergei Rachmaninoff, who was in the audience at its premiere, was said to be so overcome with the beauty of the music that he wept openly. Soloists for this piece are yet to be announced.
After a short Intermission, the Community Chorale, also under Mr. Rowader's direction, will take the stage to sing a ballad by John Jacob Niles, Black is the Color of my True Love's Hair, followed by a song said to refer to the famed Underground Railway by which fugitive slaves escaped to safety, Follow the Drinkin' Gourd, arranged by John Horman, and featuring soloist Lauren Eynon. Lastly, this choir will sing an American spiritual, Ain't Got Time to Die! , with soloist Aron Crisp. The choir's accompanist is Barbara Knight.
Angelorum, the women's choir, with Dr. Fisher, will perform Oh, the Savior's Comin', Hallelu, by Uzee Brown, composer, arranger, performer and Music Chair at Morehouse College. Next they will presentSalve Regina, a new composition by YC's own music faculty member Dr. David Dolatowski. Their final song, for a marked change of pace, is a modern American madrigal, New York Girls, by Kirke Mechem.
The Chamber Choir, also under Dr. Fisher's direction, is a large group of mostly younger students, many of whom are just finding out the joys of choral singing. They will bring you a spirited performance of Choral Highlights from the Broadway show Wicked, by Stephen Schwartz, arranged by Mark Brymer.
Admission is $5, free for children 14 & under. Purchase tickets in the YC Art Gallery. For more information call 776-2031.