On Tuesday, March 11, the Drake Choir and Drake Chamber Choir will celebrate the start of their regional tour with a concert on Drake’s campus. The concert will begin at 7:30 p.m. in Sheslow Auditorium, 2507 University Ave.
The pre-tour concert, which is free and open to the public, will feature music by contemporary American, Latvian, and Irish composers, as well as works by Handel, Bruckner, Debussy, Finzi, and Victoria.
“Our tour music is eclectic, energetic, and engaging,” says Aimee Beckman-Collier, director of choral studies and professor of conducting. “We look forward to sharing it with audiences in Des Moines and across the Midwest.”
As part of their regional tour March 12–16, the groups will perform evening concerts in Dyersville, Iowa, LaGrange, Ill., and South Bend, Ind. The concerts are free and open to the public, but freewill donations will be accepted.
Concert locations are as follows:
Wednesday, March 12, 7:30 p.m.: Basilica of St. Francis Xavier, 104 Third St. SW, Dyersville, Iowa.
Thursday, March 13, 8 p.m.: Emmanuel Episcopal Church, 203 S. Kensington Ave., LaGrange, Ill.
Friday, March 14, 7:30 p.m.: Church of Our Lady of Loretto, Saint Mary’s College, Notre Dame, Ind.
For more information, contact Aimee Beckmann-Collier at aimee.beckmann-collier@drake.edu or 515-271-2841.
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About the Drake Choir
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 ensemble tours throughout the United States annually, and tours internationally every four years. In May 2012, the choir performed in Wales and Ireland. On previous tours, the group has appeared in major venues in Austria, Germany, Italy, and the Czech Republic. The group has collaborated on an on-going basis with the Des Moines Symphony, most recently in performances of the Beethoven Ninth Symphony and Orff’s Carmina Burana. 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. In May, the ensemble will sing Mozart’s Coronation Mass with a professional orchestra and soloists at Avery Fisher Hall, home of the New York Philharmonic, and one of America’s most prestigious concert venues.
About the Drake Chamber Choir
The Drake Chamber Choir is a select ensemble of singers drawn from the Drake Choir. The Chamber Choir is the featured ensemble for the annual madrigal dinners presented during the holiday season. The choir toured England in January 2014, performing at St. Martin-in-the-Fields and St. Paul’s Cathedral in London; at Oxford and Cambridge Universities; churches in Stratford-upon-Avon and Witham, Essex, as well as in the cathedrals of Ely and Coventry. Chosen by audition from among ninety choirs, the Chamber Choir performed for the conference of the American Choral Directors Association North Central Division conference in February 2012.