Choral Union Performs Tonight :)

It's been far too long since I've blogged, so to my regular readers, I apologize. I guess I've been busy with work and choir rehearsals in the evenings. Which leads me to the topic of this blog, tonight is the Choral Unions first concert. I have to leave home in about an hour and go warm up for the performance and look over my music, so I don't have too much time to blog. But I just wanted to say that I'm excited and nervous because our pieces aren't really ready, they are very tough and we didn't have enough time to practice them, still I hope they will be great. Also, Mark and a bunch of people from the department are coming to the performance. I hope they like it! Wish me luck!

Here is a copy of the press release, just to tell you a little about our music and the choir:

"The UW Choral Union and Chamber Orchestra join forces under the direction of Beverly Taylor on Saturday, November 22, at 8:00 p.m. and Sunday, November 23, at 7:30 p.m. in Mills Hall. The program presents three works: Nänie by Johannes Brahms, Flos campi by Ralph Vaughan Williams and Mass in C major by Ludwig van Beethoven. The soloist for Flos Campi is violist Sally Chisholm. The soloists for Mass in C major are sopranos Saira Frank, Merrin Guice and Kristin Schwecke; mezzo-sopranos Bridget Duffy and Jennifer Sams; tenor Ryan Veillet; and basses William Bremmer, Simon Lank and Gregory Schmidt.

Brahms composed the music for Nänie in 1881 as a tribute honoring his German artist friend Anselm Feuerbach, who had recently died. Nänie means -song of mourning- and laments the death of all things beautiful or perfect.

Flos Campi is a suite for solo viola, wordless chorus and chamber orchestra. The piece is divided into six movements, played without pause, each of which is headed by a verse from the Song of Solomon intended to be read by the listener but not actually sung by the choir.

Beethoven composed the Mass in C major on a commission from Prince Nicholas Esterházy II for his wife's name day in 1807. The first performance took place the same year but the mass was not published until 1812.

Chisholm is the violist for the Pro Arte Quartet and professor of viola at UW-Madison. She has been featured on more than 20 CDs in works by Mozart, Beethoven, Fauré, Schumann, Strauss, Mahler and Hindemith. She is a founding member of the Chamber Music Society of Minnesota and performs annually in the Festival der Zukunft in Ernen, Switzerland. Next summer, she will perform as senior faculty at Marlboro Music in Vermont.

Choral Union is a 150-voice auditioned ensemble with membership from both university and community. The highly selective Chamber Orchestra consists of 43 undergraduate and graduate students led by music director James Smith."