A List
11/29/04

LAURENTIAN SINGERS HOLD CONCERTS IN CANTON, PIERREPONT

CANTON – The Laurentian Singers' Fifth Annual Christmas Concert and Carol 
Sing will be held on Friday, December 3, at 7:30 p.m. in the Free Association 
Church of Pierrepont (on Route 68, 10 miles south of Canton), and on Sunday, 
December 5, at 7 p.m. in Gunnison Memorial Chapel at St. Lawrence University. 
Both events are open to the public, free of charge.
	The concert will feature many well-known carols of the season, 
including "Good King Wenceslas," "O Holy Night," "The Huron Carol" and 
"Coventry Carol." The Laurentian women will be featured in Benjamin Britten's 
Christmas classic, "A Ceremony of Carols." The then-28-year-old Britten 
composed this timeless setting of medieval carol texts for treble voices 
and harp on a return voyage from the U.S. to England in 1942. The harpist 
will be Jessica Suchy-Pilalis, professor of harp and music theory at the 
Crane School of Music.
	The Laurentian men will sing a Randall Thompson setting of Robert 
Frost's Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening and a rousing Nigerian carol, 
"Betelehemu," accompanied by West African percussion. In a lighter vein, 
the Singers will perform "The Twelve Days After Christmas," a light-hearted 
parody of the famous carol, and Irving Berlin's classic "White Christmas." 
As in past years, St. Lawrence music professor Michael Farley will join the 
Laurentians on tenor sax on "White Christmas" and other popular carols 
during a carol sing at the conclusion of the program.
	The Laurentian Singers have won wide acclaim since the ensemble was 
founded in 1946. In addition to their many performances on the St. Lawrence 
campus, they have toured extensively throughout the eastern United States, 
Canada, Europe, and Central and South America. The Laurentian Singers are 
all undergraduate students, representing a wide range of academic minors 
and interests at St. Lawrence University.
	Barry Torres is the director of the Laurentian Singers; Barbara 
Phillips-Farley is the accompanist.

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