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Concert Choir
     
  Bradley Almquist, Conductor
 
   
Concert Choir Photograph

The MSU Concert Choir is the premier choral organization at Murray State University and enjoys an international reputation for excellence in choral music. Under the baton of Director of Choral Activities Dr. Bradley L. Almquist, the choir has sung invitational performances for the Kentucky Music Educators Association (1997, 2004); the Kentucky Choral Directors Association (1994,2000); the Southern Division Convention of the Music Educators National Conference (1997); the National Convention of the Music Educators National Conference (2002) and the Southern Division of the American Choral Directors Association (2002). They have toured England, Scotland and Wales (1995); Germany Austria, the Czech Republic and Hungary (1998); Italy (2001); and Ireland, Wales and England (2004).

Dedicated to the study and performance of choral masterworks of all musical epochs the choir frequently appears with regional orchestras performing major choral/orchestral repertory including Brahms Requiem (2001), Walton's Belshazzar's Feast (2002), Beethoven's Mass in C Major (2003), and Beethoven's Ninth Symphony (2004). In addition to standard repertory, the choir regularly commissions and/or premieres new music including Requiem da Camera (1996), Ave Maria, O Autrix Vitae (1998), and The Lamb (1999) from Buffalo composer Roland Martin; Charm Me Asleep: To Music (1998) by James Mulholland; Six Shakespearean Madrigals (1997) and Jubilate Deo by Joseph Baber (2003); and Veni, Sancte Spiritus by William Averitt (2001). During the biannual Athena Festival, celebrating music by women composers, a choral composition competition offers the choir another opportunity to perform and/or premiere new music. In 2001 the Concert Choir performed "Antiphon for a Virgin" by Tina Davidson; "Three Songs of Poems by Frederico Garcia Lorca" by Dina Smorgonskaya; and "Three e. e. cummings Poems" by Kristi McGarity. In 2003, the choir premiered "Sonnets Vanity, Loss and Rapture" by Stacy Garrop and "Shakespeare Suite" by Nancy Wertsch.

The Concert Choir is selected each fall by auditions and includes students from all of the academic colleges on campus. They regularly appear in concert on campus and frequently off campus fulfilling the university's responsibility of enhancing the cultural milieu of the entire region.

 
  MSU Concert Choir
Bradley Almquist, Conductor
535 Fine Arts
Murray State University
Murray, Kentucky 42071

Telephone: 270.809.6448
         
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