High School Honor Choir to Join EIU Choral Ensembles for 'Songs of Love'
Feb-01-2010
Eastern Illinois University's Choral Ensembles will join forces with other musicians, including outstanding area high school students, to present more than a dozen "Songs of Love" on Valentine's Day.
The concert, featuring EIU's Concert Choir, Camerata Singers and University Mixed Chorus, as well as the EIU Honor Choir Festival Singers, will begin at 5 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 14, in the Doudna Fine Arts Center's Dvorak Concert Hall.
The EIU Honor Choir Festival Singers will be comprised of 37 students from five high schools: Fairfield, Hillsboro, Lincolnwood (in Raymond), Maroa-Forsyth and Villa Grove.
Guest artists Julia Jamieson (harp) and EIU faculty member Katherine McBain (horn) will accompany the concert choir women in a special performance of Johannes Brahms' "Vier Gesänge für Fraunchor, Op. 17."
Jamieson is a national-award-winning harpist who performs with several orchestras and choirs, as well as performing as a free-lance harpist. She is president of the Roslyn Rensch Central Illinois Chapter of the American Harp Society, and is a founding member of the quartet HarpCore 4, which innovatively arranges and performs popular '80s music. In 2009, Jamieson was awarded the University of Illinois' highest teaching honor, the Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching.
McBain has vast professional experience performing in various orchestras, wind ensembles and opera orchestras, as well as performing as a chamber musician. She is currently completing a DMA degree in Horn Performance and Literature at the Eastman School of Music, where she earned a Master of Music degree. She received her Bachelor of Arts in Music from the University of Houston.
The EIU Concert Choir and Camerata Singers are directed by Richard Robert Rossi. Two of his graduate students will conduct some pieces in the program. The University Mixed Chorus is conducted by Adam Stich.
The "Songs of Love" concert is sponsored in part by a gift from Christine Gordon.
Tickets for general-admission seating are $5 for the general public and $3 for seniors, EIU employees and students. For tickets and information, or to arrange accommodations for persons with special needs, contact Doudna Fine Arts Patron Services (217-581-3110 or doudnatix@eiu.edu) or visit the Doudna Fine Arts Center Box Office.
The Doudna Fine Arts Center is a division of the EIU College of Arts and Humanities. For more information, please see http://www.eiu.edu/doudna.
