Monmouth Chorale

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MONMOUTH, Ill. — The Monmouth College Chorale, Monmouth College’s most advanced and only auditioned choral ensemble, will give a Palm Sunday performance on March 16 at Monmouth’s Faith United Presbyterian Church as the final stop on the group’s spring concert tour. The tour marks the 10th consecutive year the choir has performed for audiences throughout the United States and abroad.

Free and open to the public, the concert will be held at 7 p.m. in the sanctuary of the church, which is located at 200 S. Eighth St.

Conducted by Dr. Sarah J. Graham, MC’s director of choral activities, the Chorale is a select 28-voice chamber ensemble composed of undergraduate students from a wide variety of academic disciplines. Following a 30-year hiatus, the group was reestablished in the fall of 1998. Since that time, the Chorale has delighted audiences with highly successful concert tours throughout the country.

According to Graham, this year’s tour repertoire is centered around the theme “Lux,” which is Latin for “light.” To that end, the concert program is divided into five sections that have light as their themes, including a section, Light of the World, that leads the listener from Palm Sunday through the Passion Week to Easter. The other sections include Joyful Light, the Light of Faithfulness, Light in Trial and Transformation and Knowledge as Light.

The styles of music range from Renaissance to what Graham describes as atonal, 20th-century music, to a collection of spirituals. Each section of the concert will feature solo performances.

In addition to the tour finale, the Chorale is scheduled to perform other Illinois concerts in Schaumburg, Joliet, Dixon and Illinois City, as well as Phoenix and Scottsdale in Arizona.

Touring during spring break since 1999, the Chorale has visited nearly half the states in the country, performing at such notable venues as the Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove, Calif., and Atlanta’s Peachtree Presbyterian Church. In 2005, the ensemble retraced the college’s Presbyterian heritage in a performance tour of Scotland.

The choral tradition at Monmouth College has a long and varied history, dating back 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 throughout the Midwest. Since the merger of the Monmouth Conservatory of Music with Monmouth College in the 1930s, various choral organizations have continued to tour the United States and abroad.

Graham, who is in her third year at Monmouth, received a bachelor of arts degree in secondary choral music education and church music from Whitworth College in Spokane, Wash., and a master of arts degree in classroom teaching and English from Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, Wash. She subsequently taught secondary choral music in Washington public schools for seven years before moving to Michigan, where she later received master of music and doctor of musical arts degrees in choral conducting at Michigan State University (MSU).

While at MSU, Graham was nominated as a finalist for the Somers Teaching Award. She conducted the MSU Women’s Glee Club for two years and served as the assistant conductor for the MSU Men’s Glee Club, conductor of the MSU Chamber Choir and as assistant conductor for the MSU Choral Union.

Released by the Office of College Communications
Barry McNamara, Associate Director of College Communications
Phone: 309-457-2117
Fax: 309-457-2330