The Texas Tech University School of Music will host a concert featuring the Matador Singers (Men’s Chorale) and the University Singers at 3:00 p.m. Sunday (Oct. 22) in Hemmle Recital Hall. The concert will be entirely conducted by graduate student conductors from the Choral Area of the School of Music, with collaborative keyboard performed by choral graduate assistant David Warren.
Leading off the program is a timely ode to the transformative and comforting power of making music: Franz Schubert’s “An die Musik,” containing references in the text to being “transported into a better world.” Following this introduction by the Matador Singers, the University Singers will perform their half of the program.
Graduate conductors Minji Kim and Justin Nelson will respectively conduct the University Singers for the percussion-driven Zulu song “Jabula Jesu” and a shimmering rendition of the Eucharistic hymn “Ave verum corpus” by time-honored British composer Edward Elgar, complete with a small string section of students from the University Symphony Orchestra. Additionally, early American vocal harmony will be represented by William Billings’ “David’s Lamentation.” Further American influence arrives with a choral rendition of a song made famous by Johnny Cash: the old Western gospel classic “Poor Wayfarin’ Stranger.”
In a nod to the October 24 performance to be given by the School of Music’s Concert Band, the University Singers will perform an arrangement of the popular Korean folk song “Arirang,” which includes student flute soloist Diana Kim. Finally, student cello soloist Christine Kralik will collaboratively assist the University Singers with noted choral composer Craig Hella Johnson’s take on the Scottish folk song “The Water Is Wide,” featuring guest faculty soloist Jeannie Barrick.
Graduate conductors Jonathon Barranco and Justin Nelson will lead the mighty sound of the Matador Singers. Percussionists Excel Haonga and Masimbi Hussein will join the all-male choir for a rendition of a rousing folk song called “Tshotsholoza,” originally from Zimbabwe but popularized in South Africa. Sixteenth-century composer Jacob Handl’s reflective “Confirma Hoc Deus” and a contemporary setting by Dan Forrest of the timeless Irish hymn called “Be Thou My Vision” will also be performed.
Ever the entertainers, the Matador Singers will also include some popular selections in their part of the program, closing the entire concert with Billy Joel’s hymn-like and pensive “And So It Goes,” followed by the romping barbershop quartet classic “Hello! Ma Baby.”
The concert is free and open to the public.
