The Berea College Concert Choir and Chamber Singers, conducted by Dr. Stephen Bolster, will present their annual fall concerts in Gray Auditorium on Saturday, October 22, at 8 p.m. and Sunday, October 23, at 3 p.m. Convocation credit is available to Berea College students for either performance. The public is invited to attend, and there is no charge for admission. The choirs will be accompanied by Lindsay Clavere on the piano, and her husband Javier Clavere, on the organ and the piano. The first half of the program consists of sacred music, including 20th-century anthems by William Mathias and René Clausen and it concludes with a section from Franz Joseph Haydn’s famous oratorio “The Creation.” That work will feature student soloists and faculty tenor Mark Calkins, and two of the most famous choral pieces of the era—“Awake the Harp” and “The Heavens Are Telling.”
The second half of the program consists mainly of folksongs arrangements. It begins with Latvian and American folksongs performed by the Concert Choir and Scottish Folksongs performed by the Chamber Singers. The Scottish and American folksongs are scored for 4-hand piano and choir, and feature music faculty duo-pianists Javier and Lindsay Clavere. The concert concludes with “Life’s Mirror,” a contemporary piece by Canadian composer Eleanor Daley, and African-American spirituals “My God is a rock” and “Rockin’ Jerusalem” arranged by Damon Dandridge.