Have Harmony, Will Travel
Wesleyan Singers prepare varied program for series of January tour dates along the East Coast
December 8, 2010
(NORFOLK/VIRGINIA BEACH, VA) Fresh off their holiday concert, which delighted sold-out audiences at Hofheimer Theater December 3-5, The Wesleyan Singers are preparing to hit the road.
The Wesleyan Singers will perform a varied program on tour in January, 2011, featuring chamber literature for chorus including madrigals, motets, masses, and modern works for a small ensemble, as well as hymns, spirituals, jazz, and lighter pieces.
“In a typical concert you're as likely to find an excerpt from a Renaissance mass as you are a familiar Gershwin tune,” notes Dr. David Clayton, conductor. “Such varied programming ensures something familiar for each member of the audience, while often introducing new works that are destined to become choral classics." The Wesleyan Singers have earned accolades regionally as well as on tour, performing in churches and schools and even at such venues as the National Cathedral in Washington, D. C., St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York City and Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida.
Repertory for the January, 2011 concerts includes J. S. Bach’s cantata Der Herr denket an uns (BWV 196) and Five Hebrew Love Songs by Eric Whitacre; spirituals: A City Called Heaven by Paul Carey, Moses Hogan’s arrangement of Ain’t That Good News, Jonah by Rollo Dilworth, and Nothin’ Gonna Stumble My Feet by Greg Gilpin; hymn arrangements on Amazing Grace by Jackson Berkey and O How Happy are They by Edwin Childs; and works by Eugene Butler, Eleanor Daley, Hans Leo Hassler, Rene Clausen, Stephen Foster, and George Gershwin.
The tour includes several regional stops as well as trips to Delaware, New York and Vermont. Dates are as follows:
Sun., Jan. 9: Shady Grove UMC, Glen Allen, VA
Mon., Jan. 10: Newark UMC, Newark, DE
Tues., Jan. 11, Broad Street UMC, Norwich, NY
Wed., Jan. 12, Vermont Academy, Saxtons River, VT
Thurs., Jan. 13, Park Avenue UMC, NYC
Sun., Jan. 16, Bethany UMC, Gloucester Point, VA (George Nelson Memorial Concert Series)
Wed., Jan.19, Centenary UMC, Portsmouth, VA
For more information contact 757.455.2101 or concerts@vwu.edu.