Choir's Big Apple Tour Will Climax in Carnegie Hall Performance
Concert Choir president Kathleen Cour '06 and Barratt Park '06 kid around at a choir photo shoot.
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1/3/2006
Contact: Bill Giduz 704/894-2244 or bigiduz@davidson.edu
by John Syme
For ticket and concert information, click here, or visit this site.
Question: “How do you get to Carnegie Hall?” Answer: “Practice, practice, practice!”
The Davidson College Concert Choir is taking this old saying to heart. On Sunday, Jan. 15, at 8:30 p.m., the sixty-voice choir will take the stage at Carnegie. Under the direction of Raymond Sprague, professor and chair of the Davidson College Department of Music, the choir will join three other groups and a professional orchestra to perform Morten Lauridsen's Lux Aeterna. The Davidson College Concert Choir will be joined by the Nyack College Chorale, Nyack, N.Y.; the Seahawk Voices, Myrtle Beach, S.C.; and Charleston County School of the Arts Chorale, North Charleston, S.C.
The choir members, only two of whom are music majors, have indeed practiced to earn this privilege. In addition to the regular twice-weekly, ninety-minute sessions, “there have been a lot of extra rehearsals, and some on Friday afternoon, but you can't miss them…” began Austin Reid ' 07 a baritone and physics major from Oak Ridge, Tenn., “…because it's Carnegie Hall!” finished Morgan Wright ' 07, a soprano and theatre major from Baltimore.
The New York trip will also include a solo concert for the Davidson College Concert Choir and Chamber Singers on Friday, Jan. 13, at 8 p.m., at St. James Episcopal Church, 865 Madison Avenue. That church's concert series, “Soaring Spirits, Singing Souls,” also features such luminaries as the American Boychoir and the Choir of Queens College, Oxford. The concert, open to the public, will include music by Johann Sebastian Bach, Handel, Palestrina, Conrad Susa, and others.
In addition, the singers' five-day New York residency will include a series of intensive rehearsals with the other choirs, as well as free time in the city. Choir members have already begun to procure tickets to Broadway shows, as well as a performance by the New York Philharmonic.
Davdison's choristers in their formal performance attire.
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Although choristers receive no academic credit for their participation, they have risen to the occasion, said Davidson College Concert Choir President Kathleen Cour ' 06, an alto and economics major from Chicago. From extra rehearsals to helping with budgets and fundraising with strong support from the college administration and alumni donors, enthusiasm and morale has been high in anticipation of the adventure.
“There's a lot of camaraderie around the trip,” noted Virginia Neisler ' 07, a soprano and history major from Kings Mountain, N.C. “It's great friends, great experiences -- and Carnegie Hall!”
“It's just a huge honor, and we're incredibly excited,” agreed Pete Benbow ' 07, a baritone and political science major from Concord, N.C. Benbow has already traveled to New York once before under the auspices of the college, as a trombone player in the Davidson College Jazz Ensemble.
One Davidson student was so enthusiastic that she rehearsed for the New York trip on her own, an ocean away from campus. Rachel Veto ' 07, a soprano and French major, learned the music and practiced it while studying in France during the fall semester. Earlier, she had helped make connections with a family friend in New York who offered St. James as a space for the choir to perform solo.
Because of the reputation he earned while at the University of New Orleans, Sprague made his Carnegie Hall debut in the fall of 1999 under the auspices of Mid-America Productions' Carnegie Hall Concert Series, the same year he joined the Davidson faculty.
“Although they wanted me to come back sooner, I decided the only way I'd do it again was if I could take the Davidson College choirs with me, because I wanted the kids to share the experience,” he said of the current invitation from Mid-America Productions. “Carnegie Hall is such a wonderful and historic showcase for the outstanding students who give so much to be part of this group.”
Davidson is a highly selective independent liberal arts college for 1,700 students. Since its establishment in 1837, the college has graduated 23 Rhodes Scholars and is consistently ranked in the top ten liberal arts colleges in the country by U.S. News and World Report magazine.
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