CHOIRS
AUDITION INFORMATION
Choir Auditions for Spring 2008
Glee Club, Oriana Singers, University Choir, Women’s Chorale
Monday, January 14-Thursday, January 17
9:30am – 12:00pm, 1:00 – 4:30pm
Please report to 107 Music Building I any time during the hours above and you will be directed to an audition room.
You do not need to prepare anything in advance for your audition. Your vocal range will be tested, and your sight singing and tonal memory skills will be assessed.
There are no openings in Concert Choir, Chamber Singers, or Essence of Joy for the Spring 2008 semester.
CONCERT CHOIR
Under the direction of Lynn E. Drafall, the Penn State Concert Choir was founded in 1975 by its previous conductor, Professor Emeritus D. Douglas Miller. It is composed of student musicians representing the School of Music as well as other areas of study throughout the University. In addition to presenting several concerts each semester on the University Park campus, the Choir has toured extensively within the Pennsylvania Commonwealth, the mid-Atlantic region, and the South. The Choir has also toured Europe, performing in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and Italy in the past, and will be returning to Germany and Austria in June 2004. In past years the Penn State Concert Choir has performed with the Pittsburgh Symphony and Philadelphia Symphony Orchestras as well as with Michael Tilson Thomas and the New World Symphony. The Concert Choir also frequently collaborates with other Penn State instrumental ensembles, most recently joining with the Penn State Chamber Orchestra to present performances of the Vivaldi Magnificat and the Mozart Requiem. In the Fall of 2003, the Choir performed Anton Bruckner's Mass in E minor with members of the Symphonic Wind Ensemble. The ensemble maintains a rigorous rehearsal schedule to present the finest of sacred and secular choral music composed within the past five centuries as well as new contemporary works.
CHAMBER SINGERS
Chamber Singers, under the direction of Christopher Kiver, is composed of twenty singers. Specializing in repertoire from the Renaissance and Baroque periods as well as new music, the Chamber Singers give performances both on and off campus. Enrollment is by audition with the conductor.
ESSENCE OF JOY
Essence of Joy is one of twelve choral ensembles in the School of Music. Organized in November 1991 by Anthony Leach, the choir performs sacred and secular music from the African/African American traditions. Annual campus events include fall and spring concerts, as well as A Celebration of African American Spirituals (February) and Our Gift in Song (December). The choir involves undergraduate and graduate students from many academic and music programs at Penn State. Essence has performed throughout Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland, Virginia, Washington, D.C., Georgia, Mississippi, Tennessee, Ohio, Illinois, and New York City.
Essence has performed for the Pennsylvania Music Educators Association Conference (1995, 1997, 2003), the Eastern Division of the Music Educators National Conference (1997), the Eastern Division of the American Choral Directors Association (2002), the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (2000), the Schomburg Museum of Black American Culture in New York City (1998, 1999, 2001), and the American Choral Directors Association National Conventions (1999, 2003).
The choir has released four compact disc projects: The Soul and Spirit of Essence (April 1998); Essence "Live" (April 2000); and Lift Every Voice and Sing and The Light, which were released during the 2002-03 academic year. The choir made its first European tour in June 2001 with concert performances in Kracow, Poland, and Prague, Czech Republic. Essence II, The Second Edition was organized in August 1999 to provide an additional opportunity for Penn State students and residents of Central Pennsylvania to perform African American choral music.
GLEE CLUB
The Penn State Glee Club was founded in December of 1888, and is Penn State's oldest student organization on campus. Since its first spring tour in March of 1889, the Glee Club has toured throughout the United States and abroad, with recent tours to Wales, Trinidad and Tobago, France, and California. In recent years, the Glee Club has sung at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C., the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City, and Notre-Dame de Paris. They have sung for conventions of the American Choral Directors Association, the Pennsylvania Music Educator's Association and the Intercollegiate Men's Choruses. Conducted by Christopher Kiver, the seventy voice Glee Club presents the Homecoming Concert and Blue and White Concert on campus each year, and appear frequently at a variety of events both on campus and in the local community. The Glee Club perform a wide range of repertoire from music of the Renaissance through to multicultural and new music. In April 2005 the Glee Club performed Ein deutsches Requiem by Johannes Brahms with the Penn State Concert Choir, Oriana Singers and Philharmonia Orchestra. Membership in the Glee Club is open to all undergraduate and graduate students at University Park. Enrollment is by audition with the conductor. You can find out more information about the Penn State Glee Club at www.clubs.psu.edu/up/gleeclub/.
The Hi-Lo's, a male chamber ensemble of sixteen voices is composed of members from the Glee Club. Renowned for their entertaining and energetic performances, the Hi-Lo's enjoy an active schedule performing at special events on the University Park campus and in the State College community. Enrollment is by audition with the conductor and current membership.
ORIANA SINGERS
The Oriana Singers, conducted by Lynn Drafall, is composed of sixty women representing a wide variety of majors at University Park. Repertoire includes music written for treble voices from the sixteenth to the twentieth century: madrigals, motets, part-songs, folk songs, musical theatre and music by female composers. The choir presents three campus performances each year. Enrollment is by audition with the conductor.
Discantus, a female chamber choir of eight to fourteen voices, is composed of members of the Oriana Singers. The repertoire includes Renaissance madrigals arranged for treble voices as well as folk songs, spirituals and popular songs. Enrollment is by audition with the conductor and current membership.
UNIVERSITY CHOIR
The University Choir is a eighty-voice mixed choral ensemble that includes students from many colleges and departments at University Park. Conducted by Christopher Kiver, the choir performs a variety of literature representing every musical period and genre in its two major campus concerts per year. Founded in 1948, the University Choir holds a long-standing and distinguished place within the School of Music. Performances with regional and community-based orchestras include the Johnstown Symphony, Harisburg Symphony, Northeastern Philharmonic, Pittsburgh Symphony, St. Louis symphony, as well as the Penn State Philharmonic. Significant off-campus events include tours of Pennsylvania and performances for the Pennsylvania Music Educators Conference and the Eastern Division of the Music Educators National Conference. University Choir has also toured Montreal and Ottawa, Canada, and in 2000, toured Poland, Hungary, Austria, Germany, and the Czech Republic.
Sine Nomine, composed of fourteen to eighteen University Choir members, is a chamber choir conducted by undergraduate choral music education students. The choir performs music written for chamber vocal ensembles at many campus events. Most notable is the 2002 collaboration with the Penn State Opera Theatre in a fully-staged presentation of Purcell's Dido and Aeneas.
WOMEN'S CHORALE
The seventy-five voice Women's Chorale, under the direction of Jayne Glocke, is composed of women representing nearly every major at University Park. The Chorale performs choral literature from the medieval to modern eras. In addition to its annual fall and spring concerts, the Women's Choral appears on the Winterfest program at Eisenhower Auditorium. Enrollment is by audition with the conductor.
Cantate is a small ensemble selected out of the Women's Choral membership. The group consists of sixteen to twenty-five singers and focuses on chamber literature. The group performs at all Women's Chorale concerts as well as at selected campus events. Enrollment is by audition with the conductor.