Illinois Wesleyan Collegiate Choir In Concert

Sunday, March 14 at 3:00pm

STA Church

The Collegiate Choir from Illinois Wesleyan University in Bloomington, Ill., will present a concert at St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Church on Sunday, March 14 at 3:00 pm. 

This concert is one of eight appearances the choir will make during its 2010 spring concert tour. The tour itinerary includes performances in Columbia, MO, Tulsa, OK, Dallas, TX, Houston, TX, New Orleans, LA, Tuscaloosa, AL, Memphis, TN, and St. Louis, MO.

The Illinois Wesleyan University Collegiate Choir has established a long history of excellence through its on-campus performances, annual tours and recordings. The choir also sponsors the IWU Choral Commission Series, which in its 59-year history has added many significant works to the choral repertoire and resulted in a number of important world premieres at IWU.

The 49-voice choir is composed of student musicians representing the School of Music and other areas of the University, and is dedicated to the performance of the finest sacred and secular choral music of the past five centuries. Students in the choir are selected by audition and maintain a rigorous rehearsal schedule in preparation for their concert tour and other engagements throughout the year.

Scott Ferguson

This year’s tour program includes literature from the Renaissance and contemporary eras. The program will begin with four compositions from the Renaissance by Gibbons, Dering, Ingegneri, and Vulpius. Featured in this segment is Ascendente Jesus in naviculam, by Melchior Vulpius. The Choir will then present this year’s commissioned work, Ego sum, by Sydney Guillaume. The first half of the program will conclude with The Lamentations of Jeremiah, by Alberto Ginastera.

The Choir will begin the second half of the program with The Reincarnations, Op. 16, by Samuel Barber. Then follow two Swedish works, Claviante Brilioso, from the Villarosa Sequences, by Thomas Jennefelt, and an arrangement of Vem Kan Segla Förutan Vind?, by John Rathbone. The program will conclude with The Slow Spring, by the Danish composer John Høybye, and Twa Tanbou, by Sydney Guillaume.

Illinois Wesleyan University Collegiate Choir

The Illinois Wesleyan University Collegiate Choir has established a long history of excellence through its on-campus performances, annual tours, and recordings. The Collegiate Choir is composed of student musicians representing the School of Music and other areas of the University, and is dedicated to the performance of the finest sacred and secular choral music spanning six centuries and a variety of languages. Students in the choir are selected by audition and maintain a rigorous rehearsal schedule in preparation for their annual spring concert tour and other engagements throughout the year. The Choir began touring internationally in 2000 and has presented concerts in Italy, Russia, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, and Spain. The Choir has appeared frequently at Illinois Music Educators Association (IMEA) and American Choral Directors Association (ACDA) conferences and festivals. Most recently, the Choir performed to critical acclaim at the 2008 ACDA Central Division Convention in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

The Collegiate Choir has received acclaim for the “breath-taking beauty and skill of the voices, the superb repertoire, and the awesome musicality.” Programs have been called “wonderfully well-selected, versatile, interesting, and musical.” An Estonian conductor praised the choir’s “clear intonation, beautiful and sound harmony, multifarious strokes, and broad dynamic scale.” A renowned Czech conductor noted, “I was overwhelmed by the great intonation, precise rhythm, beautiful work with dynamics, and incredible stylistic interpretation of compositions from all style periods and genres.”