Nebraska Wesleyan University’s award-winning University Choir has announced a tour schedule that will take the ensemble to Colorado, New Mexico and across Nebraska 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 17.
The 90-minute program will include music focused on sacred and secular poetry, music of the world, music of America, and music of the season. The program also includes the songs “VineaMeaElecta,” which was written for the choir by current choir member and student Andrew Miller; songs sung in Creole, Chinese and Cherokee; and “Rhythmic Carols,” by Nebraskan Jackson Berkey, which features familiar holiday music including “O, Come Emmanuel,” “The Good King” and “Deck the Hall.” The choir will conclude with its signature piece, Sir Malcolm Sargent’s “Silent Night,” which has been performed for 40 consecutive choir tours.
The Nebraska Wesleyan University Choir is a select 46-voice ensemble. Since 1977, the choir has undertaken nine foreign concert tours — including Ireland in May 2015 — and two choral residencies in Hawaii in addition to annual concert tours throughout the United States.
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. 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 is under the direction of William A. Wyman who is in his 41st 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. Last summer 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 unless otherwise noted.
The following is the choir’s tour schedule:
- January 6 — 7 p.m., First United Methodist Church, 815 Broad Street, Fremont, Neb.
- January 7 — 7:30 p.m., First United Methodist Church, 1600 W E Street, North Platte, Neb.
- January 8 — 7:30 p.m., Smoky Hill United Methodist Church, 19491 E. Smoky Hill Road, Centennial, Colo.
- January 9 — 7:30 p.m., St John’s United Methodist Church, 1200 Old Pecos Trail, Santa Fe, N.M.
- January 10 — 8:30 & 11 a.m., Participation in service at St John’s United Methodist Church, 1200 Old Pecos Trail, Santa Fe, N.M.
- January 10 — 7:30 p.m., First United Methodist Church, 314 Lead Ave SW, Albuquerque, N.M.
- January 12 — 7 p.m., First United Methodist Church, 420 North Nevada Ave., Colorado Springs, Colo.
- January 13 — 7:30 p.m., First United Methodist Church, 2622 11th Ave, Sidney, Neb.
- January 14 — 7:30 p.m., First United Methodist Church, 4500 Linden Drive, Kearney, Neb.
- January 15 — 7:30 p.m., Geneva City Auditorium, 162 N. 9th Street, Geneva, Neb. Sponsored by the Geneva Arts Council. Admission: $15 adults; free for 18 years and under; season tickets will be honored.
- January 17 — 10:30 a.m., Participation in service, Westminster Presbyterian Church service, 2110 Sheridan Blvd., Lincoln, Neb.
- January 17 — 7:30 p.m., O’Donnell Auditorium, 50th Street & Huntington Ave., Lincoln, Neb.