Nebraska Wesleyan University’s award-winning University Choir has announced a tour schedule that will take them to five states in January.
The choir begins its tour in Milford, Neb. on January 4 and will travel and perform for 10 days, concluding with a home concert in O’Donnell Auditorium on the Nebraska Wesleyan campus. They will also perform in Missouri, Tennessee, Arkansas, and Iowa.
The 90-minute concert includes an array of music sung in German, Italian, Latin, and Korean; songs including “With a Lily in Your Hand” by Eric Whitacre, “The Masque of Angels” by Dominick Argento, “The Lamb” by Kim André Arnesen, and “Joshua” arranged by Norman Luboff. The concert will conclude with music of the season including “Fantasia on Christmas Carols,” “O Holy Jesus,” “The Holly and the Ivy,” and Malcolm Sargent’s “Silent Night,” which has been performed during the choir’s tour for 41 consecutive years.
The Nebraska Wesleyan University Choir is a select 49-voice ensemble. Since 1977, the choir has undertaken nine foreign concert tours and two choral residencies in Hawaii in addition to annual concert tours throughout the United States.
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. Petersburg, Russia International Choral Festival. They have performed at Carnegie Music Hall in New York City three times in six years and twice in Avery Fisher Hall, Lincoln Center in New York.
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.
The choir is under the direction of William A. Wyman who is in his 42nd 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. In 2015, he appeared in the Festival of The Aegean in Greece where he served as Principal Guest Conductor.
All concerts on the winter tour are free-will offering.
The following is the choir’s tour schedule:
- January 4 — 7 p.m., Milford United Methodist Church, 610 2nd Street, Milford, Neb.
- January 5 — 7:30 p.m., Second Presbyterian Church, 318 E. 55th Street, Kansas City, Mo.
- January 6 — 7:30 p.m., First & Calvary Presbyterian Church, 820 E. Cherry Street, Springfield, Mo.
- January 7 — 7:30 p.m., Independent Presbyterian Church, 4738 Walnut Grove Road, Memphis, Tenn.
- January 8 — 8:30 a.m., participation in services at Independent Presbyterian Church, 4738 Walnut Grove Road, Memphis, Tenn.
- January 8 — 7 p.m., First United Methodist Church, 801 South Main Street, Jonesboro, Ark.
- January 9 — 7 p.m., Manchester United Methodist Church, 129 Woods Mill Road, Manchester, Mo.
- January 10 — 7 p.m., St. John’s United Methodist Church, 109 E 14th Street, Davenport, Iowa
- January 11 — 7 p.m., First United Methodist Church, 1656 Colfax Street, Blair, Neb.
- January 13 — 7 p.m., Saint John Lutheran Church, 633 Willow Ave., Council Bluffs, Iowa
- January 15 — 10:30 a.m., participation in service at Saint Paul United Methodist Church, 1144 M. Street, Lincoln, Neb.
- January 15 — 7:30 p.m., Home Concert, O’Donnell Auditorium, 50th Street and Huntington Ave., Lincoln, Neb.