The Emmy-nominated Nebraska Wesleyan University Choir will perform a concert of classic choral literature during its upcoming winter tour.
The choir tour begins January 4 and will conclude with a final performance at O’Donnell Auditorium on the Nebraska Wesleyan University campus on January 16. The tour includes performances in Kansas, Texas, Oklahoma, Missouri and Nebraska.
The 90-minute program will include many classical styles including music by Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, Morten Lauridsen, Johannes Brahms and Eric Whitacre. The program will also include spirituals by Moses Hogan and Jester Hairston, Lithuanian children’s stories set to music by Jonas Tamulionis, and Scandinavian ballads by Wilhelm Stenhammar.
The choir will open the concert with a seven-part processional, A Pentatonic Alleluia, composed by Ross Whitney and sung in surround sound using movement throughout the audience. The concert will close with the choir’s signature piece, Sir Malcolm Sargent’s Silent Night, which has been performed for 36 consecutive years.
The Nebraska Wesleyan University Choir is a select 55-voice ensemble. Since 1977, the choir has undertaken seven foreign concert tours and two choral residencies in Hawaii in addition to annual concert tours throughout the United States. In May, the choir will launch its eighth international tour that will include numerous performances in Sweden and Estonia.
The choir has been recognized with several honors including: the first American choir to perform in universities and conservatories in Romania, the first American choir invited to participate in the St. Peterburg, Russia International Choral Festival. They were the first collegiate choir from Nebraska selected to perform at the American Choral Directors Association National Convention, and have appeared as the featured collegiate ensemble at the Nebraska Music Educators Association Convention. Last spring, the Choir performed Beethoven’s Ode to Joy with Lincoln’s Symphony Orchestra.
The choir is under the direction of William A. Wyman who is in his 36th year at Nebraska Wesleyan. He has served as a clinician or guest conductor throughout the country. In 1996, the Nebraska Choral Directors Association selected Wyman as the “Outstanding Choral Director of the Year.” He received a Fulbright Scholar appointment at Seoul National University in Korea. In 2004, he was inducted into the Nebraska Music Educators Association Hall of Fame and in 2009 he made his Carnegie Hall conducting debut.
The following is the choir’s tour schedule:
Tuesday, January 4, 7:30 p.m. — Beatrice Centenary United Methodist Church, 608 Elk Street, Beatrice, Neb., free-will offering
Wednesday January 5, 7:30 p.m. — Trinity Heights United Methodist Church, 1200 West Boyd Newton, Kan., free-will offering
Thursday, January 6, 7:30 p.m. — Canyon Creek Presbyterian Church, 3901 North Star, Richardson, Texas, free-will offering
Friday, January 7, 7:30 p.m. — Alamo Heights United Methodist Church, 825 East Basse Road, San Antonio, Texas, free-will offering
Sunday, January 9 - morning services at 9:30 & 11 a.m. — Alamo Heights United Methodist Church, 825 East Basse Road, San Antonio, Texas, love offering
Sunday, January 9, 6:30 p.m. — Saint Paul United Methodist Church, 5501 Main Street, Houston, Texas, free-will offering
Monday, January 10, 7:30 p.m. — Saint Martin’s Lutheran Church, 605 West 15th Street, Austin, Texas, free-will offering
Tuesday, January 11 at 7:30 p.m. — University Park United Methodist Church, 4024 Caruth Boulevard, University Park, Texas, free-will offering
Wednesday, January 12, 7:30 p.m. — Messiah Lutheran Church, 3600 NW Expressway, Oklahoma City, Okla., free-will offering
Thursday, January 13, 7:30 p.m. — Liberty United Methodist Church, 1001 Sunset Avenue, Liberty, Mo., free-will offering
Friday, January 14 at 7:30 p.m. — Saint Paul’s United Methodist Church, 324 South Jackson Street, Papillion, free-will offering
Sunday, January 16 - morning services at 9 & 10:30 a.m. — First Plymouth Congregational Church, 2000 “D” Street, Lincoln, love offering
Sunday, January 16 at 7:30 p.m. — Home Concert, O’Donnell Auditorium, 50th Street and Huntington Ave., Lincoln, free admission