(Posted October 27, 2008)

HUNTINGDON, Pa. -- The Juniata College Concert Choir will perform the soaring vocal harmonies of Handel's chorus from "Solomon," "Music, Spread Thy Voice Around," and spread its own talents around to other selections by Brahms and Mendelssohn at its fall concert at 3 p.m., Sunday, Nov. 9 in Rosenberger Auditorium in the Halbritter Center for the Performing Arts on the Juniata campus.

The concert is free and open to the public.

The concert opens with the famous chorus from "Solomon" by Georg Frederic Handel, "Music, Spread Thy Voice Around." The selection comes from the composer's often-performed English oratorios, all written around biblical themes.

The concert opens with the famous chorus from "Solomon" by Georg Frederic Handel, "Music, Spread Thy Voice Around." The selection comes from the composer's often-performed English oratorios, all written around biblical themes. Handel was court composer to King George I of Great Britain and composed most of his famous works while living in London.

The soloist for "Music" is Dessie Schwentner, a sophomore from St. Marys, Pa.

The choir will transition into international music with "Yo Paso las Noches," a traditional Mexican folk song and then performs "Can You Hear" from "Sounds of a Better World" by Jim Papoulis. Juniata student soloists are: Sara Holtzinger, a freshman from York, Pa.; Wylie Earnhart, a senior from Mercer Pa.; and Bridget DuBrey, a senior from Plattsburgh, N.Y.

Next on the program is "Schicksalslied," by Johannes Brahms using text from the poem "Hyperions Schicksalslied." "I Am Not Yours" by David N. Childs, a composer from New Zealand and an associate professor of music at Vanderbilt University.

The program continues with "Dirge for Two Veterans," from "Dona Nobis Pacem" by Ralph Vaughn Williams. The selection was written in 1936 as a plea for peace after World War I and amid fears of a coming war. The text for "Dirge" is taken from a Walt Whitman poem of the same name. Vaughn Williams used three Whitman poems in composing "Dona Nobis Pacem."

The choir will also perform "The Dream Keeper," which uses a poem by Langston Hughes set to music by Andrea Ramsey, and "There Shall a Star Come out of Jacob" from Felix Mendelssohn's "Christus."

The concert will build to a finish by performing "Blue Tango," arranged by David Giardiniere, "Galbally Farmer," a traditional Irish folk song, and "El Cielo Canta Alegria" by Pablo Sosa.

The Juniata Concert Choir is one of three choirs performing at the college. The 50-person choir tours every spring semester, focusing its program on historical sacred music. Juniata choirs have performed at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City, the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C., and St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York City. The choir also tours internationally almost every year. Past tours have taken the ensemble to Trinidad and, Mexico, and Brazil.




Contact April Feagley at feaglea@juniata.edu or (814) 641-3131 for more information.