BLOOMINGTON, Ill. –– The Collegiate Choir from Illinois Wesleyan University in Bloomington, Illinois, will present a freewill concert at Asbury United Methodist Church, 196 South Harrison Avenue, Kankakee, Illinois, on Tuesday, March 3 at 7:30 p.m.
This
concert is one of six appearances the choir will make during its 2020 spring
concert tour. The itinerary includes performances in Illinois and South Africa.
In South Africa the choir will present a joint concert with the University of
Stellenbosch Chamber Choir at the renowned Woordfees cultural arts festival in
Stellenbosch. This festival is the largest of its kind in the country and
includes music, visual arts, theatre, writers’ and film festivals, among other
offerings. The Collegiate Choir is the first American choir to be invited to
perform at Woordfees. The choir will present additional concerts in the Cape
Town and Stellenbosch areas, including a performance at a rural township
school.
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 69-year history has added many significant works to the choral repertoire
and resulted in a number of important world premieres at Illinois Wesleyan
University.
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. Members are selected by audition and maintain a rigorous
rehearsal schedule in preparation for their concert tour and other engagements
throughout the year.
The Choir, under the direction of J. Scott Ferguson, Director of Choral
Activities at Illinois Wesleyan University, 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.”
This year’s tour program includes sacred and secular music from the Romantic
period to the contemporary era by Johannes Brahms, François Poulenc, Gabriel
Jackson, Jake Runestad, Hendrik Hofmeyr, Pärt Uusberg, Ērik Ešenvalds, and
Vaclovas Augustinas, and arrangements of American folk hymns and Afro-American
spirituals by Shawn Kirchner, Robert Fountain, and Stacey Gibbs.
Featured works on the program include the motet Schaffe in mir, Gott, ein rein
Herz (Create in me a clean heart, O God), Op. 29 No. 2 by Johannes Brahms and
the most recent addition to the Illinois Wesleyan University Collegiate Choir
Commission Series, The wicked are like the troubled sea by the renowned South
African composer Hendrik Hofmeyr. This dramatic motet for eight-part choir
juxtaposes texts from the Old Testament regarding the evils of violent
oppression with ones from the Gospel according to St. Matthew concerning the
virtues of peaceful forbearance.
