MONMOUTH, Ill. — The Monmouth Chorale, Monmouth
College’s most highly auditioned choral ensemble, will perform March 15 in
the college’s Dahl Chapel and Auditorium as the final stop on the group’s
annual spring concert tour. This year’s seven-state tour marks the sixth
consecutive year the choir has performed for audiences throughout the
United States.
The concert, which is free and open to the public,
begins at 7:30 p.m.
According to Perry White, director of the Chorale
and chair of the music department at Monmouth College, the performance
will include four sets, beginning with music of the late Renaissance,
interspersed with the harmonization of Gregorian chant.
The second and third sets will feature choral
music of the 19th and 20th centuries, including Sergei Rachmaninov’s
“All-Night Vigil, No. 6,” sung in Russian, as well as literature from
Felix Mendelssohn, Georg Schumann, F. Melius Christiansen and Healey
Willan.
The Chorale’s final set will feature traditional
African-American spiritual music and other selections such as “Gloria”
from Paul Basler’s “Missa Kenya” and Uzee Brown Jr.’s “Dide ta Deo.”
Prior to the home concert, the Chorale will
perform March 5-13 in Ladue, Mo.; Tulsa, Okla.; Santa Fe, N.M.; Estes
Park, Colo.; McCook, Neb.; Manhattan and Prairie Village, Kan., and Rock
Island, Ill.
Since 1999, the Chorale has visited 18 states,
performing at such notable venues as the Crystal Cathedral in Garden
Grove, Calif., and Atlanta’s Peachtree Presbyterian Church. In the spring
of 2005, the ensemble will retrace the college’s Presbyterian heritage as
it performs before audiences in Scotland.
The Chorale is a select 42-member a cappella
ensemble composed of undergraduate students from a wide variety of
academic disciplines. The choral tradition at Monmouth College has a long
and varied history, dating to the 1890s. Following a precedent set by
instrumental groups such as the mandolin and guitar ensembles, Monmouth’s
men’s and women’s glee clubs began touring the Midwest during the 1920s.
Since the merger of the Monmouth Conservatory
of Music with Monmouth College in the 1930s,
choral organizations have toured widely throughout the United States and
abroad.
White holds a doctor of musical arts degree from
the University of Oklahoma and a master’s degree in music from the
Conservatory at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. He earned his
bachelor’s degree in vocal music education from Luther College, where he
studied under the renowned Weston Noble. A member of the American Choral
Directors Association and Music Educators National Conference, he has
received many acknowledgements for his work in choral music
