EUGENE, Ore. (April 3, 2013)—Oregon fans disillusioned by the Ducks being knocked out of the NCAA Tournament after making it to the Sweet Sixteen may want to dust off their garb of green and gold. There’s another UO team that needs their support.
On May 4, the award-winning University of Oregon Chamber Choir, the most select ensemble in the university’s eight-choir choral arts program, will compete in the annual Fleischmann International Trophy Competition at the Cork International Choral Festival in Cork, Ireland.
The UO Chamber Choir is one of only eleven ensembles competing, from a field of thirty choirs (hailing from seventeen countries) that auditioned, and is the sole representative of the United States. Leading up to the competition, the Chamber Choir will present concerts in Dublin, Kells, and Loughrea.
Happily for hometown fans of choral music, the Chamber Choir will present their tour program in a public concert on April 25 at 8 p.m. in historic Beall Concert Hall on the UO campus. The one-hour performance features sacred and secular repertoire spanning 400 years, sung in seven languages, with styles as varied as Italian madrigals to bluegrass-influenced gospel, from composers including Monteverdi, Schütz, Debussy, Sydney Guilaume, and Eric William Barnum.
Tickets for the April 25 concert in Eugene are $7 general, $5 for students and seniors, available at the door or in advance from the UO Ticket Office in the Erb Memorial Union, 1222 E. 13th Avenue, 541-346-4363 or tickets.uoregon.edu.
The Ireland trip will be the Chamber Choir’s second international tour. In April of 2011 the ensemble toured Estonia and Finland, competing in the Tallinn International Choral Competition, where they took top honors in the Renaissance-Baroque and Chamber Choir categories.
“After the wonderful experience the Chamber Choir had singing in Estonia in 2011, I wanted a similar kind of opportunity for them to hear lots of good choirs from all over the world,” said UO Chamber Choir conductor, Professor Sharon Paul.
“The singers really bring their ‘A game’ when they know that they have auditioned into a competition, and that they will be getting feedback from an international panel of judges who are well respected choral musicians,” Paul continued.
“This is what I am most looking forward to—watching our students evolve through this process.”
