Concert April 27 to Feature all School of Music Choral Ensembles

The Illinois State University choral season will close at 7 p.m. Sunday, April 27, with Choral Collage, a concert featuring all the singing ensembles in the School of Music.  The concert, which will take place in the Center for the Performing Arts Concert Hall, also will feature the premiere of a work by composer Paul Carey, sung by the Concert Choir.

Tickets are $6, $5 and $4 and are available at the CPA box office from noon to 5 p.m. weekdays and before the concert.

Carey, who studied composition at the University of Illinois and did graduate work at Yale University, has won several composition competitions in New York, Boston and Illinois. His new work to be performed Sunday also includes a haunting cello part which will be performed by School of Music faculty member Adriana Ransom.  Carey will be in attendance at the concert.

The concert will include the Belle Voix performing a six-part, double choir version of “Ave Maria” by William Hawley, and a Middle Eastern-sounding folksong with oboe, flute and percussion.  Civic Chorale will perform several opera choruses under the direction of Arlene Siagian, graduate student in choral conducting.  They also will be joined by the Concert Choir to sing "Easter Hymn" by Leoncavallo.  The music, which is from “Cavalleria Rusticana,” is used in the final scene of “The Godfather III.”

Other choruses to perform include the Madrigal Singers, the Women’s Choir, Men’s Glee Club and Encore!  The last selection will be a rousing version of Leonard Bernstein's "Make Our Garden Grow," performed by all the singers.