Lebanon Valley College Concert Choir to Commence 76th Annual Spring Tour

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The LVC Concert Choir performs at a recent event on the Lebanon Valley College campus.

ANNVILLE, PA (03/02/2012)(readMedia)-- The 76th Annual Spring Tour of the Lebanon Valley College Concert Choir will be Thursday, March 22 through Sunday, March 25, concluding with a home Ccncert on Sunday, April 1 at 3 p.m. in LVC's Miller Chapel. There is no admission charge, although a free-will offering may be collected in support of the host churches' music ministry.

This year's program is titled "Hope There Is," named for Clare Maclean's setting of an Oodgeroo Nunuccal Australian aboriginal poem. Hope is a major theme throughout the concert, which has a distinctly international flavor.

Other works include "Enite ton Kyrion" in an arrangement by Frank Desby, Richard Puanaki's treatment of "Ka Waiata ki a Maria," and Sergei Rachmaninoff's "Bogoróditse Dévo." The men of the choir will sing Peter Sozio's arrangement of "El Yivneh Hagalil" and the women will perform Ola Gjeilo's "Tundra," an evocation of his native Norway, which is accompanied by piano and string quartet.

Latin works include Victoria's motet, "O Quam Gloriosum", a double-choir motet by Vodnansky, "Rorando Coeli," and Edwin Fissinger's striking setting of "Lux aeterna." From Lloyd Pfautsch's "Triptych," the choir will perform "Musik's Empire" and "Consecrate the Place and Day" setting of poems by English masters Andrew Marvell and Joseph Addison, respectively.

Additional concert programming includes holdovers from the holiday season and a set of love songs. The program will conclude with William Dawson's African-American spiritual arrangement, "In His Care-O," and the Concert Choir's traditional benediction, "The Lord Bless You and Keep You" by Peter Lutkin. The 20-voice select LVC Chamber Choir will also contribute at least one selection at every concert.

In addition to the four tour performances and home concert, the choir will also conduct choir exchanges at Kingston High School, N.Y., where Lawrence Lohman is the choral music educator, and at Matawan Regional High School, N.J., where the choral program is directed by Andre Baldasserini.

The 81-voice Lebanon Valley College Concert Choir is directed by Mark Mecham, Clark and Edna Carmean Distinguished Professor of Music and chair of the Music Department.

Tour sites:

Thursday, March 22, 7 p.m.

Redeemer Lutheran Church

104 Wurts Street

Kingston, N.Y. 12401

Friday, March 23, 7 p.m.

St. John's United Methodist Church

2000 Florence Avenue

Hazlet, N.J. 07730

Saturday, March 24, 7 p.m.

Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church

19 South Fifth Street

Perkasie, Pa. 18944

Sunday, March 25, 3 p.m.

Red Lion Zion United Methodist Church

1155 Felton Road

Red Lion, Pa. 17356

Home Concert

Sunday, April 1, 3 p.m.

Miller Chapel, Lebanon Valley College

101 N. College Ave.

Annville, Pa. 17003

The Concert Choir has toured each year since 1936. In addition, the choir has been heard on more than 30 NBC national radio broadcasts including National Radio Pulpit and Great Choirs in America. The choir has performed with the Harrisburg Symphony orchestra and holds a standing invitation to appear at the National Cathedral, Washington, D.C., and the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine, New York City. The choir has toured internationally to the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, Great Britain , Italy, Central Europe: the Czech Republic, Austria, and Hungary, and Scandinavia: Norway and Denmark. Plans are underway for an LVC Sesquicentennial Choir Tour to New Zealand in 2016.

Mecham has been chair of the LVC Music Department since 1990. He received the Thomas Rhys Vickroy Distinguished Teaching Award in 1998. As director of choral activities he conducts the LVC Concert and Chamber Choirs. In August 1992, he appeared as guest conductor of the Salt Lake Mormon Tabernacle Choir, and from 1993–2002 served as the musical director of the Lebanon County Choral Society.

Professor Mecham graduated from the University of Utah with degrees in music education and choral conducting. He completed his Doctorate in Musical Arts in Choral Music at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Dr. Mecham has taught at Southern Utah University, the University of Texas at Tyler, and the University of Mary in Bismarck, North Dakota.