Wooster Singers and Concert Band to hold joint concert

The College of Wooster’s Wooster Singers and Concert Band will hold a combined concert Wednesday, Nov. 15 at 7:30 p.m. in the Gault Recital Hall of Scheide Music Center (525 E. University Street).

Senior music education majors Emma Downing ’24, Dylan Garretson ’24, and Liam Kenehan ’24 will be featured as student conductors in the concert. Toni Shreve, staff collaborative pianist, will accompany the Wooster Singers.

The Wooster Singers is the College’s only all-treble ensemble, open to music majors and non-majors alike. Performances feature students participating in their first choral ensemble experience, as well as students who are studying toward a career in music. The Concert Band is comprised of both students and community members and is open to all student instrumentalists without audition.

The Wooster Singers will perform a wide variety of music, spanning nearly 700 years of choral writing. They will present music that focuses on the difficult roads that lead us to better places. The program includes traditional music, such as “Poor Wayfaring Stranger,” a meditative setting of the 13th-century Gregorian chant “Rorate Caeli Desuper,” and “How Can I Keep from Singing?” but also incorporates more modern musings, such as a choral arrangement of Jane Siberry’s “The Valley.” The Concert Band will feature works by Ralph Vaughan Williams, Edvard Grieg, Carol Brittin Chambers, Steven Bryant, Kelijah Dutton, as well as a holiday favorite by Leroy Anderson.

Victoria Peacock ’17 directs the Wooster Singers. An alumna of the College, Peacock earned a bachelor’s degree in music composition before going on to earn a master’s degree in choral conducting from the Boston Conservatory at Berklee. Peacock sings with the Cleveland Orchestra Chorus and Trinity Cathedral Choirs. She has a particular interest in conducting works by living composers and composers from underrepresented groups.

The Wooster Concert Band is conducted by Jeffrey D. Gershman, professor of music and director of bands at Wooster. Gershman also serves as conductor of the Scot Symphonic Band and the assistant director of the Scot Marching Band, along with teaching classes in conducting and music education. He received his Doctor in Musical Arts in Wind Conducting degree from The University of Texas at Austin and continues to maintain an active schedule as a guest conductor for bands throughout the country.

The concert is free and open to the public, and tickets are not required. For more information, contact the Department of Music at 330-263-2419 or mpuster@wooster.edu.

Posted in Event, News on November 10, 2023.