The Camerata Singers, The University of Tampa’s newest auditioned choral ensemble, will give its debut performance in a joint concert with UT’s Chamber Singers on Thursday, May 2, at 7:30 p.m. in the Sykes Chapel and Center for Faith and Values. The choirs will perform a second concert at St. Thomas Episcopal Church in St. Petersburg on Friday, May 10, at 7 p.m. Both concerts are free and open to the public.
For their portion of the concert, the 15-voice Camerata Singers will perform “classics” for women's voices such as "Lift Thine Eyes" from Elijah by Felix Mendlessohn and “Suscepit Israel” from Magnificat by Johann Sebastian Bach. They will also sing a popular jazz arrangement of “Over the Rainbow, At Last” and a piece from the Czech Republic called Hoj, Hura Hoj, sung in Czech.
The Chambers Singers, UT’s premiere, touring vocal ensemble, is made up 36 of the University’s finest singers. They will open their portion of the program with two Baroque masterpieces by Henry Purcell and Johann Pachelbel. They will also sing a very modern piece called The Path of the Just by Norwegian composer, Knut Nystedt.
"This work is extremely difficult in that it often moves to as many as 16 different vocal parts, and there are portions of the piece where different sections of the ensemble have to sing at different tempos,” said Ryan Hebert, assistant professor of music and director of choral studies.