Annual Berea College Concert Choir Spring Concert Saturday, May 1

4/21/10

The annual Spring Concert by the Berea College Concert Choir and Chamber Singers, Stephen Bolster, conductor, will take place Saturday, May 1 at 8 p.m. inGray Auditorium of Presser Hall on the Berea campus. The choral concert will be accompanied by Ryan Shirar on the piano. There is no admission charge.

The first half of the concert consists of selections from Johannes Brahms’ Ein deutsches Requiem, featuring recent Berea graduate Jessica French as soprano soloist.The choir recently performed the requiem in Danville and Lexington with orchestra and the combined choirs of Center College and Asbury and Transylvania Universities.

The second half of the concert opens with several songs by American composer Samuel Barber, in celebration of the 100th anniversary of his birth, performed by the Concert Choir and the Chamber Singers. This group of pieces includes some of the famous “Reincarnations,” “Sure on this shining night,” and “Under the Willow Tree.” The Chamber Singers also will perform selections from Music for Awhile by jazz piano legend George Shearing. An ensemble of graduating seniors from the choir will sing a couple of selections with student conductors. The concert will conclude with two pieces of contemporary social commentary: an arrangement of a Stephen Foster song, “Hard Times,” followed by a rousing performance of the title song “Anything Goes” from Cole Porter’s musical by the same name.