Department of Music

• Friday, April 24th, 2009
• Old Cabell Hall
• 8:00pm
• $15 / $5 students / 5 ARTS$

The UVa University Singers present their Spring 2009 concert at 8 pm on Friday April 24th, in Old Cabell Hall. The ensemble will present a diverse program of a cappella and accompanied works featuring composers from Brahms and Elgar to Thompson and Bárdos.

The April 24th program will include four selections from Johannes Brahms ’s Zigeunerlieder (Gypsy Songs) that explore several themes of love, including joy, flirtation, loyalty, and betrayal. Three English Romantic partsongs will also be featured, including Edward Elgar’s charming “O Happy Eyes” and C.V. Stanford’s haunting “The Bluebird” and playful “Quick! We Have But a Second.” Rutter’s “It Was a Lover and His Lass” and Bárdos’s “Cantemus” will also be heard, along with Mulholland’s “A Red, Red, Rose” and Thompson’s “The Lord is My Shepherd” – all favorites in the choral repertoire. The program will close with three classic African American spirituals by prominent arrangers Robert De Cormier, Robert Shaw and Alice Parker, and Jester Hairston. The UVa Chamber Singers (a select subset of the University Singers) will also sing “Not, Celia, That I Juster Am” and “Who is Silvia,” two 20th century choral works with Elizabethan texts. At the concert’s conclusion, alumni will join the Singers on stage for the traditional UVa songs.

Led by UVa faculty conductor Michael Slon, and directed this semester by visiting faculty conductor Dirk Johnson, the University Singers is the premier mixed-voice chorus at UVa, and recently gave several sold-out performances of Carmina Burana with the Charlottesville and University Symphony Orchestra. Founded in 1957, the group performs a cappella and accompanied choral literature ranging from medieval chant to major choral-orchestral works, and the works of contemporary composers. Past repertoire has included Handel's Messiah, the Brahms Requiem, Bernstein's Chichester Psalms, and Mozart's Mass in C minor, as well as shorter pieces by Bruckner, Whitacre, Rachmaninoff, and Britten. Recent trips have taken the group to Atlanta, Charlotte, Charleston, New York City, Philadelphia, Virginia Beach, Cincinnati, Chicago, Buffalo, Pittsburgh, and the National Cathedral in Washington D.C., as well as the campuses of other American universities for collaborative concerts. The group has also been heard on European tours in England, Italy, Belgium, Germany, and Switzerland. In conjunction with the 50th anniversary, the Singers have released a new CD, My Spirit Sang All Day. Additional recent highlights have included performances with CUSO, concerts and workshops with Bobby McFerrin and Meredith Monk, and performances for Senator Hillary Clinton, and the President’s Convocation.

For more information about University Singers you can visit www.virginia.edu/music/usingers