Shepherd vocal ensembles will gather to perform a concert featuring mainly contemporary vocal works on Friday, March 28 at 8 p.m. in the Frank Arts Center.
In a departure from the normal vocal literature, the annual spring choir concert entitled “Fields of Gold” will feature mainly contemporary songs, ranging from pieces originally performed by Queen to Sting.
Erik Jones, director of choral activities, and Rob Tudor, head of the music department and director of vocal activities, have programmed an impressive concert lineup featuring five of the Shepherd University vocal ensembles.
The Chamber Singers, directed by Jones, will perform a Swedish Chef (of The Muppet’s fame), influenced by Jaakko Mantyjarvi’s work titled “El Hambo.” Chamber Singers will also perform a vocal arrangement of the Sting hit “Fields of Gold”.
Women’s Camerata, also under the direction of Jones, will perform a modern mix of music, including Ola Gjeilo’s “Gloria” and Z. Randall Stroope’s “Song to the Moon.” Several of the songs will feature piano accompaniment from two student accompanists playing on two grand pianos simultaneously. The Men’s Choir, directed by Tudor, will perform a mixture of jazz and doo-wop traditional music for male vocal ensembles.
The Vocal Jazz Octet will perform Queen’s hit song “Bohemian Rhapsody” completely unaccompanied, with student voices imitating the famous instruments such as electric guitars and bass drums. Finally, the Concert Choir, a mixture of students combined from Chamber Singers, Women’s Camerata and Men’s Choir, will perform Toto’s vocal jazz arrangement of “Africa,” complete with beatboxing and vocal percussion.
All five vocal ensembles feature Shepherd students, including music majors and non-music majors. With the exception of the Vocal Jazz Octet, all of the choirs are composed of 10–35 singers and meet two or three times per week to rehearse for the choir concert every semester. For more information about the vocal ensembles, or if any students wish to audition for a vocal ensemble for the fall 2014 semester, please contact Erik Jones at ejones04@shepherd.edu.
Tickets for “Fields of Gold” are $10 for general admission, $5 for faculty, staff, Shepherd alumni, senior citizens and students 18 and under, and free for Shepherd University students and Friends of Music MAC cardholders. Admission and seating is on a first-come, first-serve basis and advance reservations are not accepted
“Fields of Gold,” the Choir Concert, is only one of many student concerts occurring in the music department for the spring 2014 semester. For more information about upcoming student performances including instrumental concerts and student senior vocal and instrumental recitals, please visit http://www.shepherd.edu/musicweb/