Drake choirs will tour Minnesota

The Drake University Choir and Chamber Choir will tour Minnesota March 14-18, with evening concerts in Winona, Collegeville and Richfield, MN. The choirs’ tour repertoire includes music by Gabrieli, Brahms, Bruckner, Palestrina and Minnesota composer Stephen Paulus, as well as folksongs and works by contemporary American and Mongolian composers. The events are free and open to the public, but a freewill offering will be taken. The two choirs will also present a pre-tour concert on March 13 at 7:30 p.m. in Sheslow Auditorium. Concert schedule is as follows:

March 14, 7:30 p.m.

Chapel of St. Mary of the Angels

Corner of West 7th and Vila Streets

Winona, MN

507-453-5053

March 15, 7:30 p.m.

The Great Hall

Saint John’s University

Collegeville, MN

320-363-2558

March 16, 7:30 p.m.

Woodlake Lutheran Church

7525 Oliver Avenue South

Richfield, MN

612-866-8449

The Drake Choir is Drake University’s select touring ensemble and is one of four choruses that provide singing opportunities for more than 250 students at Drake.  The choir tours throughout the United States annually and internationally every four years. In May 2012, the choir will tour Wales and Ireland. On previous tours it has appeared at major venues in Austria, Germany, Italy and the Czech Republic. The ensemble, which presents four on-campus concerts each year, has collaborated on an ongoing basis with the Des Moines Symphony, most recently in performances of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. The Drake Choir has sung in Carnegie Hall on two occasions and has been featured on the conference program of the American Choral Directors Association North Central Division.

Drake’s Chamber Choir is a select ensemble of 29 singers drawn from the Drake Choir. The Chamber Choir is the featured ensemble for the annual madrigal dinners presented during the Christmas season. The choir tours England every four years and in January 2010 performed at St. Martin-in-the-Fields and St. James Piccadilly in London; in the chapel of St. John’s College, Cambridge University; Ely Cathedral; and St. George’s Chapel in Windsor Castle. Chosen by audition from among 90 choirs, the Chamber Choir performed for the conference of the American Choral Directors Association North Central Division conference in February 2012.