The Fred Fox School of Music’s two premier choral ensembles, UA Symphonic Choir and Arizona Choir, team up for a majestic performance at Grace St. Paul’s Episcopal Church (2331 East Adams Street) on Sunday, October 22, 2017. The free-admission concert, titled “Here I Stand,” begins at 3:00 p.m.
Arizona Choir and Symphonic Choir present music in celebration of the 500th anniversary of the Reformation. Under the direction of Dr. Bruce Chamberlain and Dr. Elizabeth Schauer, the program will include J.S. Bach’s poignant “Christ lag in Todesbanden” BWV 4 and Samuel Scheidt’s mellifluous “Nun Komm, der Heiden Heiland.” Settings of the well known Reformation chorale “Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott” by Martin Luther and Hans Leo Hassler are also included. The concert also features works from traditions that arose in response to the Lutheran Reformation, including Calvinism, Anglicanism, and the Counter-Reformation.
The Arizona Choir is the premier graduate choral ensemble at the University of Arizona Fred Fox School of Music. Internationally, the Arizona Choir has performed with the Budapest Chamber Orchestra at the famed Liszt Academy, the City of Prague Philharmonic in Vienna’s Musikverein and Prague’s Dvořák Hall. Convention appearances include ACDA, AGO, and AMEA. The Arizona Choir has partnered with professional touring groups including the Kronos Quartet and Ethel for performances on UA Presents concerts, with Tucson’s own Artifact Dance Project for a Tucson premiere of Menotti’s “The Unicorn, the Gorgon and the Manticore” and with True Concord for a performance of the Frank Martin Mass for Double Chorus, as well as Stravinsky’s “Les Noces” with the University of Arizona School of Dance.
Symphonic Choir, the select undergraduate ensemble at the University of Arizona, carries on a sixty six-year tradition of choral excellence. In addition to performing formal concerts on campus, on Tucson-area concert series, and on tours throughout the Southwest, the choir collaborates with university and professional ensembles, including on performances of Bach “Matthäuspassion” and Brahms “Ein deutsches Requiem” (University of Arizona), Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 (Tucson Symphony Orchestra and Chorus) and Mozart Requiem (University Community Chorus and Orchestra). Students represent a broad variety of disciplines and hail from throughout the United States. The group’s repertoire embraces music from many cultures and from every historical period up to and including premières of new works and those commissioned especially for the choir. The ensemble was recently honored to perform for the 2014 and 2010 Western Divisional Conferences of American Choral Directors Association, the 2012 Pacific-Southwest Regional Conference of College Music Society and the 2011 Annual Conference of Arizona Music Educators Association. In 2011, the ensemble also was awarded third place in the American Prize Choral Competition for the college/university division. Dr. Elizabeth Schauer, associate professor of music and associate director of choral activities, is in her fourteenth year as conductor of Symphonic Choir.