The annual Spring Concert by the Berea College Concert Choir and Chamber Singers, conducted by Dr. Stephen Bolster, will be held on Saturday, April 5, at 8 p.m. and Sunday, April 6, at 3 p.m. in Gray Auditorium on the Berea College campus. The choral concert will be accompanied by Lindsay Clavere on the piano and organ. There is no admission charge.
The first half of the concert consists of sacred music, mostly by living American composers, with a focus on music for the Lenten season in preparation for Easter later in the month. The Chamber Singers will perform sacred works by Spanish composers Pablo Casals and Javier Busto, pieces that will be featured on the choirs’ international trip to Spain and Portugal in May. Many of the pieces will be performed as part of Masses in Spanish and Portuguese Cathedrals.
The second half of the concert features secular music plus a group of African-American spirituals. The Chamber Singers men will begin with two South African songs, “Tschotsoloza” and “Kapanlogo.” The Concert Choir will sing “Four Pastorales” by Colorado composer Cecil Effinger, accompanied by senior Wendy Danniels on the oboe.
The Concert Choir will then perform world premieres of two pieces by Indianapolis composer James Quitman Mulholland, commissioned especially for the choir, with the composer in attendance. The works, “Dear Friends,” “Farewell” and “Sour Wood Mountain,” are published by Colla Voce as part of the Berea College Appalachian Music Series, with musical materials drawn from the Hutchins Library Special Collections.
Following two works by contemporary American composer Eric William Barnum, the concert will end with three rousing spirituals, “I’ve Been in the Storm So Long,” “Somebody Talkin ‘bout Jesus” and “Little David, Play on Your Harp.”