Annual Fall Choral Concert taking place Sunday, Oct. 13

ASHLAND, Ohio – Three choral ensembles—the Ashland University Chamber Singers, the Ashland Area Chorus and the Ashland University Choir—will perform during this coming Sunday’s (Oct. 13) annual Fall Choral Concert. The event, which is free and open to the public, will take place at Jack and Deb Miller Chapel starting at 4 p.m.

The concert will celebrate significant anniversaries of the birth of several composers: the 75th of Stephen Paulus, the 125th of Randall Thompson and William Dawson, the 150th of Charles Ives and the 200th of Anton Bruckner.

Rowland Blackley, director of choral activities and professor of music at AU, will conduct all three groups. Deborah Logan will serve as pianist for the Ashland Area Chorus and AU Choir.

The AU Chamber Singers, a select choir, will sing a three-piece set of Renaissance madrigals, each about an aspect of love. It will consist of a German song, “Nun Fanget An;” John Dowland’s “Wilt Thou, Unkind, Thus Reave Me;” and “If Music Be the Food of Love” by Henry Purcell.

The Ashland Area Chorus, a mix of students and community members, will perform “Locus Iste,” a Latin 19th century motet written by Anton Bruckner; “Pilgrims’ Hymn,” a popular work by Paulus that was sung at the funeral services of both President Gerald Ford and President Ronald Reagan; and “The Heavens are Telling,” the famous chorus from Joseph Haydn’s “The Creation.” The latter will feature soloists Wendy Allison (soprano), Tammy Higgins (alto) and John Shultz (bass).

The AU Choir, comprised of students selected via audition and representing numerous academic majors, will close the program with five pieces, including Thompson’s “Alleluia,” one of the most famous and noteworthy pieces in the choral canon. Ives’ 150th birthyear will be marked by the performance of “The Sixty-Seventh Psalm,” the American composer’s piece which is in two different keys simultaneously. The 125th anniversary of Dawson’s birth will be recognized with “Ev’ry Time I Feel the Spirit,” a classic arrangement of a traditional spiritual. Also to be performed are Christopher Tin’s “Hope Is the Thing with Feathers” and “Flight Song” by Kim André Arnesen.