Centenary College Choir to offer preview of West Coast tour program

SHREVEPORT, LA — On Friday, April 22 at 4:00 p.m., the Centenary College Choir will preview a special program, A Life of Christ, in the College's Anderson Auditorium. In May the Choir will travel to California to perform A Life of Christ at the Ascending Voice Sacred Music Symposium held at Pepperdine University May 12-14, a conference which celebrates the sacred acapella choral tradition. Friday's preview concert is free and open to the public.

The Choir's concert program embraces a journey through Christ's life paralleled in the Christian Church Calendar and features a variety of styles. Selections such as David Ashley White's Comfort, Comfort Ye My People, Morten Lauridsen's O Nata Lux, and Bob Chilcott's Every Stone Shall Cry each serve as neo-renaissance styled anthems. The Choir will also sing its traditional Tenebrae by 16th Century composer Ingegneri and Russian Orthodox favorite Salvation is Created by Tschesnokoff. Rounding out the program are several robust spirituals including Ain't Got Time to Die, See Dat Babe, and Witness, as well as early American composer William Billings' energetic Easter Anthem. The program is artistically varied for the choral scholar, but linked in a meaningful narrative.

The Choir will also join with other college choirs in presenting a mass choral concert under the baton of former King Singer and renowned conductor, Simon Carrington. Students will also have the opportunity to attend different worship and interest sessions to learn more about music and worship arts. Following the symposium at Pepperdine, the Choir will travel to Portland, Oregon, to perform at the General Conference of the United Methodist Church on May 16.