Berea College Concert Choir Spring Concert this Sunday, May 4, will include special performance with Black Music Ensemble

4/28/08

The concert in Gray Auditorium, located in Presser Music Hall, is scheduled for 8 p.m.  Admission is free.

Professor Kathy Bullock, also of Berea’s music department, will conduct the combined Concert Choir and Black Music Ensemble in a performance of Diane White-Clayton’s “Clap Praise.” The jubilant gospel-style work features a soprano soloist and intricate polyphonic rhythmic clapping by the choir.  Dr. White-Clayton, who is Bullock’s sister, is an accomplished vocalist and composer of works ranging from atonal classical pieces to contemporary gospel.

The choral concert will be accompanied by Ryan Shirar on the piano, and John Courter on the organ.

On the first half of the program will be works by contemporary composers Daniel Gawthrop, Randall Alan Bass, Olivier Messiaen, Benjamin Britten, and John Rutter.  The featured composition is Britten’s  Rejoice in the Lamb, Op. 30 for choir, and organ to the poetry of Christopher Smart.

Following intermission, the Chamber Singers begin the second part of the concert with several secular pieces in German by Johannes Brahms, followed by a humorous staged piece called “A Chorister’s Covert Concert,” by George Mabry.  Next, the Concert Choir will sing two choral dances, one by Latvian composer Juris Karlsons, the other by Finnish composer Jaako Mäntyjärvi, and three African-American spirituals.  The 125-voice combined choir/ensemble will conclude the program by making a powerful and joyful noise to the Lord by performing “Clap Praise.”