The Berea College Concert Choir and Chamber Singers, Stephen Bolster, conductor, invites the community to enjoy an evening or afternoon of joyful song. The Ensemble’s annual fall concerts are scheduled for Saturday, November 12 at 8:00 p.m. and Sunday, November 13 at 3:00 p.m. in Gray Auditorium on the Berea College Campus.

The choirs will be accompanied by Ryan Shirar on the piano, John Courter on the organ, and several student and professional instrumentalists.

The concert is open to the public and there is no admission charge.

The first half of the program will open with a powerful piece for brass instruments, tympani, and choir: Proclaim this Day for Music by Ron Nelson. Featured in the first half will be a group of songs about Mary, including settings of Ave Maria by Ferenc Farkas and R. Nathaniel Dett, and songs of praise throughout the ages, with selections by Claudio Monteverdi (Renaissance), Maurice Greene (Baroque), Michael Haydn (Classical), Felix Mendelssohn (Romantic), and David Brunner (Twentieth Century). The Haydn motet, Gloriosus Deus, will be accompanied by strings, trumpets, and organ, and is performed in honor of the 200th anniversary of the death of the composer.

Following intermission, the Chamber Singers will perform three anthems by English composer Thomas Tallis, in celebration of the 500th anniversary of his birth. The Chamber Singers will continue with settings of Shakespeare’s famous Twelfth Night text, “Come away, Death” by Ferenc Farkas and Ralph Vaughan Williams. The Farkas madrigal is performed in honor of the 100th Anniversary of the Hungarian composer’s birth. The choir will return to the stage with two pieces by American composer Z. Randall Stroope, and arrangements of two well-known spirituals, “My Lord, What a Mornin’” and “Ain’t Got Time to Die.”

The choir will conclude the concert with an arrangement of Harold Arlen’s classic song “Over the Rainbow,” in celebration of the 100th anniversary of the composer’s birth.