The University of Nebraska-Lincoln Glenn Korff School of Music Evening of Choirs performance will take place April 28 at 7:30 p.m. in Kimball Recital Hall.
The University Chorale will sing a variety of well-known songs for women’s voices including those by Brahms and Mendelssohn, as well as several modern pieces for women’s choir. They will include the premiere of a piece by UNL Masters student, Scott Rieker, SELECTING A READER, with text by former U.S. Poet Laureate and UNL English Professor Emeritus, Ted Kooser. Chorale’s portion of the program will conclude with I DREAM A WORLD by Joan Symko, with text by African-American poet Langston Hughes.
The All-Collegiate Choir will perform music of the Americas, beginning with Credo No.9 in Bb by José Maurício Nunes Garcia. A Brazilian composer of that lived from 1767-1830, Garcia’s work is a wonderful example of South American music in the Classical Era. Influenced by Mozart and Haydn, Garcia’s oeuvre consists of over 240 surviving works. The choir will continue with Esto Les Digo, a beautiful contemporary choral work by Texas composer Kinley Lange. Finally, they will end their portion of the program with a twenty-first century version of El Grillo. With a text dating back to the 1500s, this 2008 setting by Pacific Northwest composer Dan Davison contains Latin rhythms and percussion which make it an exciting departure from the wonderful Renaissance setting by Josquin des Prez.
The Varsity Men’s Chorus will conclude with a brand new important work, a première and very significant work commemorating the anniversary of the end of the Civil War. This month commemorates the 150th anniversary of the end of that monumental U.S. conflict. Much of the music has been borrowed from one of America’s most influential and innovative composers. The moving text comes from Whitman, Dickinson, Melville, and others. The concert will conclude with a brand new setting for men’s chorus of the song Harriet Tubman made famous as she led countless African-Americans north via the Underground Railroad with her advice of “Wade in the Water” which aided the former slaves as they fled and avoided the bloodhounds that were following the scents of the humans as they fled north.
Tickets for the performance are General Admission $5; Student/Seniors $3.