Autumn Choral Concert @ Heritage Center Theater (Cedar City, October 17)

WHAT:              Autumn is in air and the air is filled with glorious song when Southern Utah University´s Department of Music presents An Autumn Choral Concert. The program features performances by SUU´s Concert Choir, Women´s Choir and Opus. Dr. Kevin L. Baker conducts the Concert Choir and Opus and Professor Sara Guttenberg conducts the Women´s Choir.

WHO:               Southern Utah University, College of Performing and Visual Arts, Department of Music

WHEN:             October 17, 2012

TIME:               7:30pm            

WHERE:           Heritage Center Theater, Cedar City, UT

TICKETS:         $6 for Adults, $4 for SUU faculty and staff and $3 for youth

                        SUU students are free with a valid I.D. card. 

PURCHASE:     (435) 586-7872, M-F, 8am-4:30pm, www.suu.edu/arts or may be purchased at the door.

SUU´s DEPARTMENT OF MUSIC PRESENTS

AN AUTUMN CHORAL CONCERT

OCTOBER 17, 2012

Southern Utah University, Cedar City, Utah: Autumn is in air and the air is filled with glorious song when Southern Utah University´s Department of Music presents An Autumn Choral Concert. The program features performances by SUU´s Concert Choir, Women´s Choir and Opus. Dr. Kevin L. Baker conducts the Concert Choir and Opus and Professor Sara Guttenberg conducts the Women´s Choir. Scheduled for Wednesday, October 17^th, the performance begins at 7:30pm at Cedar City´s Heritage Center Theater. Tickets are $6 for Adults, $4 for SUU faculty/staff and $3 for youth. SUU students are free with a valid I.D. card. 

An Autumn Choral Concert will be an interesting mix of styles and genres of choral music.  From the infectious rhythms of African music set for two choirs to classics like Brahms´ "How Lovely is Thy Dwelling Place" from his Requiem and works by Handel and Mendelssohn, there will be something for every choral fan´s musical palate. Two interesting works will be Egil Hovland´s "Saul", which uses narrator and a chorus and György Orbán´s "Daemon Irrepit Callidus. The first work uses unique sounds and dissonances to tell the story of God´s confrontation of Saul as a persecutor of Christians. The work by Orbán discusses the devil´s attempts to influence human behavior. The concert ends with a look at another universality of the human experience - love.  Robert Young´s rich setting of Rossetti´s beautiful poetry is lush and interesting and Vaughan Williams "See the Chariot" is a wedding chorus from his opera Sir John In Love.

Kevin L. Baker, Ph.D., joined the faculty at Southern Utah University as Director of Choral Activities in the fall of 2011. He directs the Concert Choir and Opus as well as teaches choral conducting, choral techniques and studio voice. He was previously Associate Professor of Music and Director of Choral Activities at Culver-Stockton College, Canton, Missouri. His responsibilities there included directing the choral program consisting of the Concert, Chamber, and Collegiate Choir, teaching studio voice, conducting, choral techniques, choral repertoire, and choral arranging. Prior to his appointment at Culver-Stockton College, he was a tenured member of the music department at St. Norbert College, De Pere, Wisconsin, a position he assumed in the fall of 2001. There he served as the choral director and as Director of the Music Department from 2005 - 2007. A native of Missouri, he received his Bachelor´s degree from Southwest Baptist University and earned a Master´s degree in Choral Conducting and the Ph.D. from the University of Missouri - Columbia. He has studied conducting with Dr. David Rayl, Dr. Duncan Couch, and Mr. Edward Dolbashian; voice with Dr. Lee Snook; and has performed master classes with or sung under Sir David Willcocks, John Rutter, Dr. Douglas McEwen, Mr. Rodney Eichenberger and Dr. Charlene Archebeque. His teaching career has encompassed nearly every educational level from elementary through junior high and high school and to two-year colleges and universities. He has served as Minister of Music for churches in Missouri and conducted community choirs as well. As Director of the Choral Arts Singers, a St. Louis, Missouri community-based adult group, he performed major choral/orchestral works on a recurring basis, which often included members of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra. He was also the conductor and artistic director for the Green Bay Chamber Choir, a position he assumed in the fall of 2004. He is in demand as a clinician and adjudicator, and has lectured at the Missouri Choral Directors Association state convention presenting a workshop on "The Care and Feeding of the Adult Amateur Voice." He has adjudicated for the Six Flags over America Corporation, judged contests across the state of Missouri at both the district and state level, and worked with numerous all-conference, district, and local choral groups in festivals and clinics in Wisconsin, Missouri and Utah.

Highly sought after as both a soloist and chamber artist, soprano Sara Guttenberg is a current member of the critically acclaimed chamber choir Seraphic Fire (Miami), Spire Chamber Ensemble (Kansas City) and the Oregon Bach Festival chorus. She has performed and recorded music of multiple vocal genres.  As an oratorio soloist, she has received praise for her performances of Handel´s Messiah, Bach´s Mass in B Minor and St. John Passion, Mendelssohn´s Elijah, and the Monteverdi Vespers. She is a featured ensemble soloist on the Naxos recordings of William Bolcom´s Songs of Innocence and of Experience, which received three Grammys. Ms. Guttenberg has sung under the batons of Nicholas McGegan, Michael Tilson Thomas, John Nelson, Leonard Slatkin, and Helmuth Rilling. She is also a champion of new music, having participated in workshop and premiere performances of works of Bright Sheng, Kristin Kuster, and Shawn Crouch, among others. Originally from Wisconsin, Ms. Guttenberg received her bachelor´s degree in music education and vocal performance from the University of Wisconsin-Madison where she studied with Ilona Kombrink, and masters´ degrees in vocal performance and choral conducting from the University of Michigan, where she studied with Carmen Pelton and Jerry Blackstone. At Southern Utah University, Sara Guttenberg is currently an adjunct Voice Instructor as well as Director and Choral Conductor of SUU´s Women´s Choir. 

Enjoy a wonderful evening of music by attending An Autumn Choral Concert. For more information on the SUU College of Performing and Visual Arts events, please call the Arts Hotline at (435) 865-8800, or visit www.suu.edu/arts.