UT’s Choral Ensembles Finish out Performance Season with Concerts April 30 and May 1

The University of Tampa’s Men’s and Women’s Glee Clubs will give their final concert of the academic year on Sunday, April 30. Then on Monday, May 1, the University’s Chamber Singers and Camerata Singers will perform. Both concerts begin at 7:30 p.m. in the Sykes Chapel and Center for Faith and Values and are free and open to the public.

All the ensembles will perform wide-ranging programs of advanced choral repertoire.

“This is probably one of the most eclectic programs we’ve done in recent memory,” said Ryan Hebert, UT’s director of choral studies, who will conduct along with fellow music faculty member Rodney Shores. “These concerts are sure to inspire and transform.”

Women’s Glee will open their concert on Sunday with a performance of a Kenyan folk song, “Wana Baraka,” and later perform the American folk song “How Can I Keep from Singing.” The two choirs will combine on selections from “Missa Brevis Sancti Joannis de Deo” by Franz Joseph Haydn. During their set, Men’s Glee will perform the gospel tune “There Has to Be a Song,” the popular “Stand By Me,” and close with “You Raise Me Up,” which was made popular by Josh Groban.

A highlight of the Camerata Singers program on Monday is a piece by Ola Gjielo called “Northern Lights,” as well as a rip-roaring, foot-stomping gospel tune called “Ain’t No Grave Can Keep Me Down.” Then the Chamber Singers will perform a mostly contemporary program, but this year a student conductor, graduating senior Coleman Flentge, will conduct a piece by Felix Mendelssohn.

The concerts are sponsored by the UT College of Arts and Letters Department of Music. For more information, contact Hebert at rhebert@ut.edu.