Choir Previews Winter Break Concert Tour
The Alma College Choir will preview music it will perform during its 2010 Winter Break Tour, featuring a range of work from Bach to S.M. Denton.
The Choir will perform at 8 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 25 in the Remick Heritage Center. Admission is free and open to the public. No ticket is required.
The 52-member Alma College Choir travels throughout Michigan and Illinois Feb. 27 through March 4.
The Choir toured Rome during Spring Term in 2008, with a stop at the Coliseum. Its tour through Illinois and Michigan during Winter Break will be followed by a Spring Term 2010 trip to Scotland.
"During the tour we will stop at First Presbyterian in Chicago, which is one of the largest Presbyterian churches in the Midwest with an audience of about 2,000 people,” says Will Nichols, professor of music and director of choirs.
"The stop in Chicago is the inspiration for many of the works we will perform, including ‘Laudate Nomen,’ in which the choir will be accompanied by an organ,” he says.
The concert at Alma College will open with “Sure on this Shining Night” by James Agee and Morten Lauridsen.
"It is a lovely piece set to a wonderful poem by James Agee,” says Nichols.” It will be a wonderful opening because it is appropriately sung at night."
A piece by Bach, titled “Bach (Again),” will be performed in repeated motives.
"We will perform Bach's notes but with an individual tempo prescribed to each singer," explains Nichols. "Performed this way, the piece could last anywhere from three to 25 minutes. Our hope is that it will be different every time it is performed."
Another piece, titled “McKay” by S.M Denton and arranged by Carol Barnett, also will feature repeated motives. It is a modeled after traditional American pieces from the Smoky and Appalachian mountains.
"It has this raw energy that you might associate with the American frontier," says Nichols.
Pianist Tony Patterson will accompany the choir.
Posted: Thu, February 18th, 2010 at 3:29PM
