A List
4/22/02

UNIVERSITY CHORUS SPRING CONCERT PLANNED

CANTON - The St. Lawrence University Chorus presents its spring 
concerts, entitled "Victoriana: Cathedral and Countryside," on Saturday, 
April 27, at 8 p.m. and Sunday, April 28, at 4 p.m. in Gunnison 
Memorial Chapel on campus. Both events are open to the public, free of 
charge.
	The concert is a program of anthems and partsongs from Victorian 
and Edwardian England. The music, for the church choirs and the civic 
choral singing societies which proliferated in 19th century England, 
was written for both the listening and performing pleasure of the music 
consuming public. It was a time when music-making was as much, or even 
more so, an activity to be engaged in, rather than listened to, by 
ordinary folk. It was music that could be enjoyed equally well when 
sung at home with family and friends or in public at church or concert 
hall. Unabashedly sentimental in their content yet pragmatic in their 
formal design, these choral songs represent the Victorian ideal of 
balance between reason and sentiment in expression. Music to be heard 
will include folk song arrangements, settings of texts by Shakespeare, 
Shelley and Tennyson, along with well-known Biblical verses, by 
composers such as Charles Villiers Stanford, Arthur Sullivan (of Gilbert 
and Sullivan fame), Edward Elgar, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Gustav Holst, 
C. Hubert Parry and others.
	Joining the University Chorus on the chapel's pipe organ will be 
guest artist Karen Robards from Lake Placid. Robards is a graduate of 
Vassar College and did her graduate work at Union Theological Seminary 
in New York City. She is currently organist and hand-bell choir director 
at the Church of St. Luke the Physician Episcopal Church in Saranac 
Lake. She is also the sales representative for the Schulmerich Hand 
Bell Company for Northern New York and Germany.  
	Founded in 1970, the University Chorus, under the direction of 
Barry Torres, is a community-based choir sponsored by the music 
department at St. Lawrence University. It draws its membership from 
the student body, faculty and staff of St. Lawrence as well as from 
throughout the North Country area. Although major choral-orchestral 
works from the 18th to the 20th Century form the core repertoire, the 
chorus also sings smaller and lighter fare. Past performances have 
included semi-staged productions of Gilbert and Sullivan. More recently, 
the University Chorus has ventured into the world of early and world 
musics, presenting works by 17th century composers Heinrich Schütz and 
Giacomo Carrisimi, and singing traditional songs in Swahili and 
Croatian. The 40-voice ensemble is featured in the annual Candlelight 
Service at Gunnison Memorial Chapel as well as its own fall and 
spring concerts. 

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