Nebraska Wesleyan University’s award-winning University Choir has announced a tour schedule that will take it to the southern United States in January.
The choir tour begins January 6 and will conclude with a final performance at O’Donnell Auditorium on the Nebraska Wesleyan University campus on January 18. The tour includes performances in Kansas, Texas, Oklahoma, Missouri, Iowa and Nebraska.
The 90-minute program will include music by composers Brian Tate, Morten Lauridsen, Francis Poulenc, Albert Alcaraz and Tom Trenney and Leonard Bernstein. The program also includes the songs “Famine Song,” “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot,” “Chichester Psalms” and “Go Down, Moses.” The choir will also perform “Clear Our Heart, O God,” which was written for the choir in honor of their choir director, William Wyman’s 40th anniversary with NWU. The choir will also perform an original piece, “The Children of Lir,” written by retired NWU music professor Jean Henderson.
The choir will conclude with its signature piece, Sir Malcolm Sargent’s “Silent Night,” which has been performed for 39 consecutive choir tours.
The Nebraska Wesleyan University Choir is a select 44-voice ensemble. Since 1977, the choir has undertaken eight foreign concert tours and two choral residencies in Hawaii in addition to annual concert tours throughout the United States. In May the choir will tour Ireland.
The choir has performed with the Munich Symphony Orchestra, the Omaha Symphony Orchestra, and was the first collegiate choir from Nebraska selected to perform at the American Choral Directors Association National Convention. They have also appeared as the featured collegiate ensemble at the Nebraska Music Educators Association Convention.
They were the first American choir to perform in universities and conservatories in Romania and the first American choir invited to participate in the St. Peterburg, Russia International Choral Festival. Last May they performed at Carnegie Music Hall in New York City for the third time in five years.
The choir is under the direction of William A. Wyman who is in his 40th year at Nebraska Wesleyan. He has served as a clinician or guest conductor throughout the country. His honors include the Nebraska Choral Directors Association’s “Outstanding Choral Director of the Year,” a Fulbright Scholar appointment at Seoul National University in Korea, and induction into the Nebraska Music Educators Association Hall of Fame. He has conducted performances at Carnegie Hall three times in recent years, and has received the Nebraska Choral Director’s Association highest honor — the Cornell Runestad Award, which honors professionals’ commitment to their singers and artistry.
All concerts on the winter tour are free-will offering.
The following is the choir’s tour schedule:
Tuesday, January 6, 7:30 p.m.
Centenary United Methodist Church, 608 Elk Street, Beatrice, Neb.
Wednesday, January 7, 7 p.m.
Aldersgate United Methodist Church, 7901 West 21st Street North, Wichita, Kan.
Thursday, January 8, 7:30 p.m.
Canyon Creek Presbyterian Church, 3901 North Star Road, Richardson, Texas
Friday, January 9, 7 p.m.
Alamo Heights United Methodist Church, 825 East Basse Road, San Antonio, Texas
Sunday, January 11, 9:30 a.m., 11 a.m.
Participation in service, Alamo Heights United Methodist Church, San Antonio, Texas
Sunday, January 11, 7:30 p.m.
Lakewood United Methodist Church, 11330 Louetta Road, Houston, Texas
Monday, January 12, 7 p.m.
Saint John’s Methodist Church, 2140 Allandale Road, Austin, Texas
Tuesday, January 13, 7 p.m.
First Presbyterian Church, 1001 NW 25th Street, Oklahoma City, Okla.
Wednesday, January 14, 7:30 p.m.
Trinity United Methodist Church, 901 E. Neal Ave., Salina, Kan.
Thursday, January 15, 7:30 p.m.
Liberty United Methodist Church, 1001 Sunset Avenue, Liberty, Mo.
Friday, January 16, 7:30 p.m.
Wilson Performing Arts Center, 300 Commerce Drive, Red Oak, Iowa
Sunday, January 18, 9 a.m.
Participation in service, St. Mark’s United Methodist Church, Lincoln
Sunday, January 18, 7:30 p.m.
Nebraska Wesleyan University Home Concert, O’Donnell Auditorium, 50th Street and Huntington Ave., Lincoln