Department of Music

In accordance with UVA's latest UVA COVID-19 policy this event is cancelled. 
Ticket holders to cancelled events will be contacted by e-mail.  
If you have questions, please contact the UVA Music Department at 434.924.3052 or e-mail music@virginia.edu.

The UVA Chamber Singers launch a sequence of three area concerts celebrating Beethoven’s 250^th birthday in 2020, in a program entitled “Beethoven and His World.”  Join us Friday, April 3rd, at 8:00 pm at St. Paul’s Memorial Church on the Corner for this special event.

The concert features music by Beethoven’s teachers, Johann Albrechtsberger and Joseph Haydn, several works by Beethoven himself – including Elegischer Gesang and an arrangement of “Auld Lang Syne” – as well as works by those he influenced, including Johannes Brahms.  The program closes with a performance of Jake Runestad’s powerful “A Silence Haunts Me,” which depicts Beethoven’s oncoming deafness.  This new work, given its world premiere in 2019 at the ACDA national convention, will also feature pianist Deke Polifka in music that echoes familiar Beethoven themes from the Moonlight Sonata and Ninth Symphony, and concludes in a dramatic, unforgettable fashion. 

The Beethoven at 250 celebration continues on April 17^th at Old Cabell Hall, as the University Singers perform Beethoven’s epic Missa Solemnis with orchestra and guest soloists.  And on May 22, the Oratorio Society of Virginia will also perform several of Beethoven’s major choral works, including the Choral Fantasy.  All three programs are led by conductor and UVA music professor Michael Slon. 

Tickets are available at the UVA Arts Box Office: www.artsboxoffice.virginia.edu or (434) 924-3376. 

Founded in 2005 and conducted by Michael Slon, the University of Virginia Chamber Singers is a select ensemble drawn from the University Singers and performs a wide variety of music for chamber choir ranging from early music to contemporary compositions.  In addition to their performance for the Governor and other distinguished guests at UVA’s 2017 Bicentennial Cornerstone Celebration, recent performances have included Britten’s Hymn to St. Cecilia, Byrd’s Mass for 5 voices, Vivaldi’s Magnificat, Purcell’s Dido & Aeneas, Copland’s In the Beginning, Allegri’s Miserere, Whitacre’s Five Hebrew Love Songs, Lauridsen’s Mid-Winter Songs, Glass’s Three Songs, Burtner’s Palladian Echoes, a program of choral music on film, and Bach’s Mass in B minor with the University Singers.  In addition, the group has performed popular standards by Harold Arlen, Jerome Kern, George Gershwin, and the Beatles, a spoof concert of P.D.Q. Bach, and new music by Meredith Monk (with the Meredith Monk Vocal Ensemble) and Eric Whitacre.  In 2010, the Chamber Singers made their first appearances at the Staunton Music Festival, including a performance with Grammy-award winning baritone Kevin McMillan, and have collaborated on multiple occasions with Three Notch’d Road, Charlottesville’s professional Baroque ensemble.  In 2012, they participated in a workshop with Peter Phillips, director of the world-famous Tallis Scholars.  In 2014, they were honored to perform for composer Philip Glass during his UVA Arts Board Residency, and in spring 2015 were heard on tour in Europe with the University Singers, including for Evensong with the Jesus College Choir at Cambridge University.  More recently, they have performed with the musicians of the Charlottesville Chamber Music Festival, and Victory Hall Opera (in a pioneering presentation of Poulenc opera scenes with deaf actors), and were heard in performances with the University Singers on their May 2019 Northeast U.S.-Canada concert tour. 

Tickets for the concerts are $10 general/ $9 UVA Faculty & Staff/ $5 students/ Free for UVA Students who reserve in advance and are available at the UVA Arts Box Office in the Culbreth building, online at http://tickets.artsboxoffice.virginia.edu or by calling (434) 924-3376.  Tickets will also be available at the door.

For more information visit us online:

http://music.virginia.edu/chamber-singers

http://music.virginia.edu/usingers

To make a gift to the UVA Choral Program visit:

forms.hoosonline.virginia.edu/usingers

All programs are subject to change.