The Alma Choir
60 Voices (SSAATTBB)
Rehearsals: M-Th 5:00 pm - 6:15 pm, and Fridays at 4 pm. The Alma Choir rehearses in the College chapel. Rehearsals are open to the public and visitors are always welcome.
Getting read for Winter Tour 2009
(brrrr . . . . why can't we go to Florida every year?)
Alma Choir at the 2008 Festival of Carols
Alma Choir getting ready for Florida Tour 08
Alma Choir members are drawn primarily from the junior and senior classes. The singers have all earned their way into the Alma Choir through membership in the College Chorale and/or the Women's Glee Club.
The Choir's reputation continues to grow with each new concert season and the release of each new CD recording. No other college choir in Michigan maintains the performing, touring and recording calendar that the Alma Choir enjoys.
Concert tours are taken both nationally and internationally. The annual February tour has taken the Choir to concerts in virtually every major North American city from Toronto to Miami. The Choir has made five week-long tours through Florida and has traveled the snowy route around Lake Michigan. The 2008 Florida tour included performances in St. Petersburg, Naples, Ft. Myers, The Villages and West Palm Beach.
A 2009 tour is planned to the East Coast with return concerts in Philadelphia and Washington DC (at the National Cathedral). In December of each year the Choir, along with the Chorale and Glee Club, presents the popular FESTIVAL OF CAROLS to standing-room-only audiences.
Sopranos in Edinburgh, Scotland (2006)
Overseas tours, taken every second year, provide a valuable cultural experience for Alma Choir members. In May 2008, the Alma Choir took up residence in Rome, Italy for a series of concerts with choral colleagues in the Coro Polifonica Roma Tre. Previous tours have taken the Choir to Poland, the Czech Republic, France, Belgium and two tours of Scotland and the British Isles. The 2010 overseas tour will take the choir back to the Highlands of Scotland.
The Choir has accepted prestigious invitations to perform for conferences of the American Choral Directors Association in 1988 (Stravinsky Mass), 1994 (Brahms Requiem), and again in 1996. The Alma Choir has sung for the Michigan Music Education Conference three times (1988, 1995, and 2003) and performed for the conference again in January 2007 in collaboration with the College Percussion Ensemble. These invitations reflect the high regard in which professional music educators hold the Alma Choir.
Auditions:
-- Current Alma students should call (or e-mail)
Dr. Nichols at 7221 to set-up a
membership
audition.
-- High school students should contact Dr. Nichols to discuss the audition process and arrange an audition time. Phone (989) 463-7221 / email nichols@alma.edu
Students enroll for 1 upper level credit: MUS 351
It was lucky for the city of Pisa that Carly was on tour with the Alma Choir!
