Christmas concert brings together ESU, Community
By Bobbi Mlynar (Contact)
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
Community and campus musicians have pooled their talents Sunday afternoon for a concert almost guaranteed to usher in the spirit of the season.
The concert will feature the 45-voice Emporia State University A Cappella Choir, the ESU orchestra and the 90-voice ESU Community Chorus.
It will begin at 3 p.m. Sunday in Albert Taylor hall. The cost is $5 for regular admission and $4 for senior citizens and students.
The musicians will present a program of Christmas carols sung by the community chorus; a suite of Christmas carols by Leroy Anderson, performed by the orchestra and directed by ESU professor James Starr; and an arrangement of “O Holy Night,” sung by the A Capella Choir. Terry Barham, ESU’s director of choral activities and coordinator for the event, described the latter piece as “quite thrilling.”
“It’ll kind of lift you out of your seat,” Barham said.
Steven Brown, Dean of the School of Liberal Arts and Sciences, will be a guest conductor, as will ESU professor Kate Bergman, who will conduct the flute choir and the A Cappella choir together in a piece.
“Then we conclude the whole thing with a famous work by Antonio Vivaldi,” Barham said. “The piece is called ‘Gloria,’ with orchestra, five different soloists, and the whole 140 singers from the A Cappella Choir and Community Chorus.”
Emporian Emilia Chiroy is one of five soloists scheduled to perform in the Vivaldi piece. Other soloists are Amanda Mayer of Hutchinson, Dion Johnson of Kansas City, Allison Enneking of Topeka and Takako Iyadomi, who transferred to ESU from Tokyo this year.
Barham is enthusiastic about the upcoming concert and the opportunity to showcase community and campus talent together at one venue.
The ESU Community Choir is made up of approximately one-third ESU students and two-thirds community members.
“A lot of people drive in from towns a way from us a bit,” Barham said. “They meet Monday night.”
The A Cappella choir is a select group that has performed six times in Europe and recorded a CD in concert last May at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine.
In the process, the choir also spent two hours with clinician Judith Clurman, former professor at Julliard School of Music and currently music director for “Sesame Street.”
“She told me, ‘My Goodness, what a fine bunch of singers,’” Barham said.
“The A Cappella choir is the premier mixed chorus of Kansas. ... It’s a pleasure to go to rehearsal. These are very, very smart, talented and focused kids. I love ’em. It’s a privilege.”
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