Nebraska Wesleyan University’s award-winning University Choir has announced a tour schedule that will take them to four states in January.
The choir begins its tour in York, Neb. on January 3 and will travel and perform for 9 days, concluding with a home concert in O’Donnell Auditorium on the Nebraska Wesleyan campus. They will also perform in Iowa, Minnesota, and South Dakota.
The 90-minute program includes an array of music representing early European, South African, early American, French, British, Native American, Scandinavian, and Lithuanian cultures.
The choir will perform excerpts from major works including J.S. Bach’s “Magnificat,” Ralph Vaughan-Williams’ “Serenade to Music,” and Francis Poulenc’s “Gloria.” The program will also include nontraditional pieces like “Numerations,” a complex composition by Jonas Tamulionis, and “Horizons,” a piece based on the suffering of an indigenous tribe in South Africa. The concert will conclude with Malcolm Sargent’s “Silent Night,” which has been performed during the choir’s tour for 42 consecutive years.
The Nebraska Wesleyan University Choir is a select 52-voice ensemble. Since 1977, the choir has undertaken nine foreign concert tours and two choral residencies in Hawaii in addition to annual concert tours throughout the United States.
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. Petersburg, 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 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.
In December, the choir performed two concerts with the Omaha Symphony Orchestra, and will perform two concerts with the Lincoln Symphony Orchestra in April. They will conclude the academic year with a performance at Carnegie Hall in New York where they will perform with the New England Chamber Orchestra.
The choir is under the direction of William A. Wyman who is in his 43rd 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 another one in May, and has received the Nebraska Choral Director’s Association highest honor — the Cornell Runestad Award, which honors professionals’ commitment to their singers and artistry. In 2015, 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.
The following is the choir’s tour schedule:
- January 3 — 7 p.m., First United Methodist Church, 309 E. 7th St., York, Neb.
- January 4 — 7 p.m., Westminster Presbyterian Church, 4114 Allison Ave., Des Moines, Iowa
- January 5 — 7 p.m., Christ United Methodist Church, 400 5th Ave. SW, Rochester, Minn.
- January 6 — 7 p.m., Hennipen Avenue United Methodist Church, 511 Groveland Ave., Minneapolis, Minn.
- January 7 — 8:30 a.m. and 10 a.m. church service at Hennipen Avenue United Methodist Church, 511 Groveland Ave., Minneapolis, Minn.
- January 8 — 7 p.m., First Lutheran Church, 1114 W Traverse Rd., St. Peter, Minn.
- January 9 — 7 p.m., First United Methodist Church, 401 S Spring Ave., Sioux Falls, S.D.
- January 10 — 7 p.m., Grace United Methodist Church, 1735 Morningside Ave., Sioux City, Iowa
- January 12 — 7 p.m., First United Methodist Church, 7020 Cass St., Omaha, Neb.
- January 14 — 9 a.m. and 10:30 a.m. service at First Plymouth Congregational Church, 2000 D Street, Lincoln, Neb.
- January 14 — 7:30 p.m., Home Concert, O’Donnell Auditorium, 50th Street and Huntington Ave., Lincoln, Neb.