UA Fall Choral Festival To Be Held At Walton Arts Center

The University of Arkansas’s Third Annual Fall Choral Festival will present three nationally acclaimed choirs Thursday, Oct. 26, at 7 p.m. at the Walton Arts Center.

The choirs featured will be from West Memphis High School, West Plains High School in West Plains, Mo. and Bentonville High School; two of which have been invited to the American Choral Directors Association (ACDA) National Convention in San Antonio in March 2001.

"It’s exciting because we have three guest choirs coming," said David Saladino, associate professor of music. "I’m excited at the quality of this event in just three years running, so that makes this special."

Beginning the program will be West Memphis High School, directed by Doug Conwill. Conwill's choir has built a reputation as one of the finest ensembles on the high school level in the Memphis area. It will perform, among other works, "A Jubilant Song," by American composer Norman Dello Joio - a work that is among the finest of representative works from the Americana Period of choral composition in the 20th century repertoire.

The West Plains High School has been nationally recognized for its choir, directed by Arkansas native Kelly Dame. Dame’s choir sung at the ACDA Divisional Convention last year in Oklahoma City, and it has recently been invited to perform as a demonstration choir for the headliner clinician at the ACDA National next spring.

Bentonville High School's Chamber Choir, under the direction of Terry Hicks, which also sang at the Oklahoma City divisional convention, will perform third among the high school choirs at the festival program. Hick's choir has also received an invitation to perform at the ACDA National Convention in March based on a nation-wide blind audition tape competition that includes the top high school choruses from all 50 states. In San Antonio, they will occupy one of only four performance slots for the best high school choirs in America.

University of Arkansas students in the Schola Cantorum will pay a tribute to Aaron Copland, commemorating the centennial of his birthday on Nov. 14, 1900, by performing three numbers. The University will also recognize members of the classes of 1950 in attendance as well as the classes of 1945, 1940, 1935 and 1930 celebrating their Golden Tower Reunions.

Topping off the evening, high school choir students from Arkansas, Oklahoma and Missouri will form the festival chorus to sing works by di Lasso, Vincent Persichetti and Emma Lou Diemer.

Admission price is $1. For more information, call the UA music department at 575-5763 or 575-4701.