CAROLING, CAROLING, A HOLIDAY CHORAL CONCERT
WHAT: It’s a joyous holiday songfest when the SUU Choirs join together for Caroling, Caroling, a Music Masterworks Series concert. Southern Utah University’s Department of Music presents this holiday concert featuring performances by SUU’s Concert Choir, Women’s Choir and Opus.
WHO: Southern Utah University, College of Performing and Visual Arts, Department of Music
WHEN: Friday, December 1, 2012
TIME: 7:30pm
WHERE: Heritage Center Theater, Cedar City, UT
TICKETS: $8 for Adults, $6 for SUU faculty and staff and $4 for youth, SUU students are free with a valid I.D. card.
SUU’s HOLIDAY CHORAL CONCERT
GOES “CAROLING, CAROLING”
DECEMBER 1, 2012
Southern Utah University, Cedar City, Utah: A joyous holiday songfest awaits as the SUU Choirs join together for Caroling, Caroling, a Music Masterworks Series concert. Southern Utah University’s Department of Music presents this holiday concert featuring 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 Saturday, December 1, 2012, the performance begins at 7:30pm at Cedar City’s Heritage Center Theater. After the concert, the audience is invited to join the choirs for an informal reception. Tickets are $8 for Adults, $6 for SUU faculty/staff and $4 for youth. SUU students are free with a valid I.D. card.
Caroling, Caroling will feature some wonderful and timeless favorites of the holiday season. The Concert Choir will be performing Benjamin Britten’s Ceremony of Carols; a standard of the season that is accompanied by Kendra Leavitt on the harp. The SUU chamber choir, Opus, will be performing a medley of the Alfred Burt Carols that were arranged by Mark Hayes. Hayes’ arrangements keep the original qualities of the Carols, while adding lush harmonies and demanding piano accompaniments. Cedar City native Jacob Lee will be featured at the piano. Rounding out the performance will be traditional favorites such as Go Tell it on the Mountain, White Christmas and We wish you a Merry Christmas.
The Women’s Choir, directed by Sara Guttenberg, has selected a festive program as well including Felix Mendelssohn’s Laudate pueri, Claudio Monteverdi’s Angelus ad pastores ait from Sacrae Cantiunculae No. 16 and Christus ist geborn by Franz Liszt. A special highlight of the Women’s Choir portion of the concert will be a performance of Christmas Dance of the Shepherds by Zoltán Kodály featuring Maureen Deckeron the piccolo.
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 Minorand 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.
Start off this holiday season by attending Caroling, Caroling. For more information on the SUU College of Performing and Visual Arts events, please call the Arts Hotline at (435) 865-8800, or visitwww.suu.edu/arts.
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