University of Iowa News Release

April 24, 2008

UI Women's Chorale and University Choir share May 9 concert

The Women's Chorale and University Choir, two of the major choral ensembles of the University of Iowa School of Music, will share a concert program at 8 p.m. Friday, May 9, in Clapp Recital Hall on the UI campus.

The free concert will represent the final performances of the 2007-08 season for both groups.

The program for both ensembles will represent a mix of styles and genres, from sacred music of the Renaissance and Baroque to folk songs and operatic excerpts. The Women's Chorale and conductor Travis Sletta, a graduate student in the choral conducting program of the UI School of Music, will perform the first half of the concert.

Works on the program of the Women's Chorale will be:

--"Salut printemps" (Welcome spring) by Claude Debussy.
--"He's Gone Away" from "Three Mountain Ballads," a collection of Appalachian folk music arranged by Ron Nelson.
--"O Pastorelle, addio" (Goodbye, shepherds) from the opera "Andrea Chénier" by Umberto Giordano.
--Choruses from Cantata No. 78 and the "Magnificat" by J.S. Bach.
--"Alleluia" from "Uns ist ein Kind" (To us a child) by Johann Kuhnau.
--"Tantum ergo," op. 65 no. 2, by Gabriel Fauré.
--Psalm 150 by Ernani Aguiar.
--"Ave Maria" by Johannes Brahms.
--Missa Brevis by Benjamin Britten.

Accompaniment of the Women's Chorale will be performed on piano and organ by graduate students Dan Mattix and David Crean.

After intermission, Timothy Staler, director of choral activities at the School of Music, will lead the University Choir.

The program for the University Choir will be:

--"Ascendit Deus" by Peter Philips.
--Psalm 96 by Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck.
--Selections from "Sechs Lieder im Freien zu singen" (Six songs to be sung in the open air), op. 59, by Felix Mendelssohn.
--"Dorchester Canticles" by Tarik O'Regan.
--"Under the Greenwood Tree" by Robert Baksa.
--"When Shall We Three Meet Again"` by Stefan Kalmer.
--"Scatter 1" and "Scatter 2 " from "2 Moves and a Slow Scat" by Dennis Kam.
--"Such a Pretty Bird" from "Impressions" by Thomas Fredrickson.
--"Camptown Races" by Stephen Foster, edited and arranged by Alice Parker and Robert Shaw.
--Finale from "The Gondoliers" by Sir Arthur Sullivan.

Accompaniment will be by Mattix and graduate student Julia Howell, organ. Pamela Weest-Carrasco, harp, and Ginny Armstrong, percussion, will join the ensemble in the performance of the "Dorchester Canticles."

Stalter joined the UI faculty as director of choral activities in 1999. An active member of the American Choral Directors Association, he frequently presents clinics and workshops in choral conducting around the United States. He is also active as a tenor soloist who is known in the United States and Europe for his performances as the Evangelist in the Passions of J.S. Bach and Heinrich Schuetz. For more information on Stalter, see http://www.uiowa.edu/~music/bios/CONDstalter.htm.

The School of Music is part of the Division of Performing Arts in the UI College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. Visit the UI School of Music Web site at http://www.uiowa.edu/~music/.

For UI arts information and calendar updates, visit http://www.uiowa.edu/artsiowa. To receive UI arts news by e-mail, go to http://list.uiowa.edu/archives/acr-news.html, click the link "Join or leave the list (or change settings)" and follow the instructions.

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STORY SOURCE: University of Iowa Arts Center Relations, 300 Plaza Centre One, Suite 351, Iowa City, IA 52242-2500

MEDIA CONTACT: Peter Alexander, Arts Center Relations, 319-384-0072 (office), 319-541-2846 (cell), peter-alexander@uiowa.edu