Nearer the Sky – CWU Choir Concert

The CWU Choirs invite you to our winter quarter concert, “Nearer the Sky” on Sunday, February 26 at 4pm in the Hertz Concert Hall of the McIntyre Music building on the CWU campus. The event is ticketed and features performances by University Chorale, Wildcat Chorus, Vox Divina, and The CWU Chamber Choir.

University Chorale, conducted by Prof. Vijay Singh, is the largest mixed choral ensemble at CWU open to all students without audition. The ensemble builds musicianship, vocal technique, a commitment to excellence through varied programming. Chorale will present an arrangement of “Wondrous Love,” a setting of “If Music be the Food of Love,” and a movement from Mozart’s Solemn Vespers.

Vox Divina, the non-auditioned treble choir, creates beauty in community by performing music infused with expression to inspire the lives of all audience members. Conducted by Dr. Nicole Lamartine, the choir will present a selection of pieces by women composers and arrangers including a Sephardic Jewish song about uplifting sisterhood and a rousing piece called “Songbird” by Sarah Quartel.

The CWU Wildcat Chorus is an energetic non-auditioned group which fosters a team attitude and support for all tenors and basses in the ensemble. This is Dr. Scott Peterson’s eleventh year conducting the ensemble, and they will present movements of a Mass by Denis Bedard and Andrea Ramsey’s arrangement of “Tell My Father.” They will be joined by fellow music faculty member Dr. Bret Smith on banjo for Susan LaBarr’s “The River.”

The CWU Chamber Choir, under the leadership of Dr. Nicole Lamartine, is the flagship choir at CWU, representing excellence of member musicianship, vocal talent, and professionalism. The choir will present Eric Whitacre’s monumental a cappella choral work “Leonardo Dreams of His Flying Machine.” The choral scena depicts Leonardo da Vinci devising and drawing his plans for a flying machine that eventually takes off, musically, towards the sun.