'American Dream' is Theme for Choir's Ford Hall Concert

As part of its five-state spring tour, the Ithaca College Choir will perform "The American Dream" --- a program of 11 works that depict the struggles and ideals upon which the United States was founded --- on Saturday, March 24, at 8:15 p.m. in Ford Hall. The concert is free and open to the public.

"The American dream is the notion that democracy as a form of governing be allowed to work," says Lawrence Doebler, the choir’s conductor, and he used that frame of reference in choosing the program’s diverse repertoire. Jacob Handl’s musical rendering of Psalm 47, for example, depicts the early settlers giving thanks to the Almighty for safe passage to a new land, where freedom of religious expression is allowed. When performing the piece, choir members encircle the audience, providing a "surround sound" arrangement that lets the singers and the listeners interact intimately with each other.

Other pieces include Whispers of heavenly death, by René Clausen; Robert Beadell’s Trilogy; Maurice Duruflé’s Quatre Motets; Brahms’s Psalm 51; Copland’s Lark; and arrangements of Shenandoah and other folk songs and spirituals. The choir will also perform a composition by Dana Wilson, the Charles A. Dana Professor of Music Theory, History, and Composition, that sets Martin Luther King Jr.’s "I have a dream" speech to music.

In addition to extensive tours of the Midwest and East Coast, the Ithaca College Choir has presented concerts at the American Choral Directors Association Convention and the Music Educators National Conference, as well as such venues as Carnegie Hall, St. Patrick’s Cathedral, and Alice Tully Hall in the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. Although it has a long tradition of a cappella singing, the choir has performed with the Cayuga Chamber Orchestra; the Ithaca College Orchestra, Chamber Orchestra, and Wind Ensemble; and numerous professional ensembles.

For more information call Alex Dippold in the School of Music at 274-3717 or visit the choir website at www.ithaca.edu/music/choir.