Ashland University Spring Choral Concert Slated for Sunday, March 3
2/19/13 ASHLAND, Ohio - Ashland University’s Spring Choral Concert will feature three University vocal ensembles including the Ashland University Choir, Chamber Singers and Women’s Chorus. The spring concert will be held Sunday, March 3, at 4 p.m. at the Jack and Deb Miller Chapel. The performance is free and open to the public.
Conductor Dr. Rowland Blackley, professor of music and director of choral activities, will collaborate with Adam Sarata, adjunct instructor of guitar, for the Chamber Singers' performance. The Chamber Singers will present a multi-movement work that will include "A Procession Winding Around Me" by Jeffrey Van, a living American composer. This is a highly expressive piece for chorus and guitar that is based on four Civil War poems written by Walt Whitman.
Dr. Blackley also will conduct the Ashland University Choir performing pieces designed for their tour of Italy this March. While traveling in Rome, Lucca, Parma, Florence and Milan, the choir will perform evening concerts and sing for several masses including a mass at St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. For this spring concert, the University Choir will present two Renaissance motets: “Christus factus est” by Felice Anerio and “Sicut cervus” by Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina. The choir will also perform “Sing unto the Lord” by James Brauer, Jack Halloran's spirited arrangement of Stephen Foster's “Nelly Bly,” and “Leonardo Dreams of His Flying Machine” by Eric Whitacre. “Leonardo Dreams” is an extended, dramatic piece in which varied musical styles are combined to suggest what might happen inside the mind of a genius.
The Ashland University Women's Chorus conducted by Dr. Marla Butke, associate professor and coordinator of music education, will present pieces with the theme “Love Songs.” Mike Metcalf will be featured on the French horn during the Women’s Chorus’ performance of “Set Me as a Seal.”
For more information about the Spring Choral Concert or for a spring schedule of music department events, visit www.ashland.edu/music or contact Tricia Applegate, coordinator of performing arts publicity and events, at 419.289.5950 or tapplega@ashland.edu.
Ashland University, ranked in the top 200 colleges and universities in U.S. News and World Report’s National Universities category for 2013, is a mid-sized, private university conveniently located a short distance from Akron, Cleveland and Columbus, Ohio. Ashland University (www.ashland.edu) values the individual student and offers a unique educational experience that combines the challenge of strong, applied academic programs with a faculty and staff who build nurturing relationships with their students.
