Felix Mendelssohn and Maurice Duruflé will be the featured composers for the University of Lynchburg Choral Union’s concert on Saturday, April 24, at 7:30 p.m. in Snidow Chapel.
The 70-voice choir will perform Mendelssohn’s Te Deum (To God) and Hymn Hör mein Bitten, Herr (Hear My Prayer, O Lord) and Duruflé’s Requiem, Op. 9.The choir is under the direction of Dr. Jong H. Kim, professor of music and director of choral activities and graduate studies in music. Rose M. Peak and F. Johnson Scott III will accompany on organ.
Concert tickets are available at the University of Lynchburg Bookstore, Givens Books, and Aylor’s Farm and Garden. Ticket prices are $12 for adults and $6 for students.
Soloists for Te Deum will be Amanda Brandt, Sara Veazey, and David Caldwell, University of Lynchburg undergraduate students; and Melanie Braxton Coleman, a 2006 LC graduate, and Yo Won Jung, graduate choral conducting students in the College’s master of arts in music program.
Dr. Mi Yeoun Jung will be soprano soloist for Hymn Hör mein Bitten, Herr. Dr. Jung, who joined the Choral Union this spring, performed in numerous concerts and opera workshops in her native Korea and sang the leading role in the contemporary opera Magic Telepathy. Recently, she appeared as a soloist in Mozart and Bach Festivals and performed with the featured contemporary composer Jake Heggie in “The Complete Recitalist.” She sang the role of Mrs. Splinter in Tenderland and appeared in The Furies.
The Duruflé Requiem is a personal favorite of Dr. Kim’s. He says, “It is a calm and humble prayer for peace for those departed, but, musically, it offers intensively expressive melodic and harmonic movements. Unlike traditional musical settings of the mass for the dead which emphasize the darkness of death, especially in the ‘Dies irae’ (fear of judgment day) movement, this requiem emphasizes the tender, even comforting, aspect of death as peaceful, eternal rest. Duruflé incorporated Gregorian chants melodies into the compositional framework, thus the entire work has a prayerful tone.”
The University of Lynchburg Choral Union, which was established by Dr. Kim in 2002, is made up of LC faculty, staff, students, and alumni as well as community singers. The Choral Union is dedicated to presenting performances of great choral masterworks. The group performs Handel’s Messiahannually in the fall, as well as another choral and orchestral work in the spring. Works performed by the chorus have included Mozart’s Coronation Mass and Requiem, Haydn’s Mass in Time of War, Beethoven’s Mass in C Major, Robert Ray’s Gospel Mass, Mendelssohn’s Elijah, Orff’s Carmina Burana, and Handel’s Judas Maccabaeus.
For concert information, call the University of Lynchburg Music Department office, 434.544.8344.
