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Furman Singers 2009 concert tour, marking the sixty-third anniversary season, will take the Singers through South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida. Recognized as one of America’s premier collegiate choirs, the Singers tour annually in the Southeast and biennially in Europe. The 18th summer tour in 2008 included Lucerne, Salzburg, Vienna, and Budapest.
The concert program will begin “in the round” as the Singers surround the audience and sing Randall Thompson’s “Ye shall have a song” from The Peaceable Kingdom. In the same formation, Edwin Fissinger’s beautiful “Lux Aeterna” will feature student soloists Cara Cavenaugh, soprano (sophomore, Houston TX) and David Weigel, baritone (junior, Asheville NC).
Student conductor Emily Brown will conduct Robert Powell’s “Let not your heart be troubled” with Paul Thomas, Singers accompanist, as organist, and Megan Smith, flute.
Other selections will include “Agnus Dei” by Samuel Barber (choral setting of “Adagio for Strings”), “Kyrie eleison” from the Requiem by Maurice Duruflé, “Exultate Deo” by Francis Poulenc, and a group of American spirituals and folksong settings.
The featured work on the program is a newly commissioned work by Furman composer Mark Kilstofte. “To Music” based on a text by Rainer Maria Rilke was commissioned by Furman Singers and will be premiered on this tour. Kilstofte is internationally acclaimed as a composer, having won many prizes and awards for his work, including the 2002-2003 Prix de Rome.
Following intermission, the Singers present several love-songs and humorous settings. Barbershop quartets – the Honeybees and the Mosquitoes – will liven up the program with traditional antics. Concluding the program will be “Jabberwocky,” a setting of a nonsense story by Lewis Carroll (Alice in Wonderland) set to music and various strange instruments by Sam Pottle.
Furman Singers is under the direction of Bingham Vick, Jr., conductor of Singers since 1970. Now in his 39th year, Dr. Vick has led the Singers to national and international acclaim. The Furman Singers has performed for two national conventions of the American Choral Directors Association, and many Southern Division conventions. They have been invited to perform for inaugurations of three governors of South Carolina. The repertoire of the Singers includes not only the variety of great choral music performed on tour, but twice annually performances of oratorios and other choral-orchestral music with the Furman Symphony Orchestra.
Dr. Vick, a native of Charlotte NC, earned degrees from Stetson University and Northwestern University. In addition to conducting Furman Singers, he teaches voice, conducting, and choral literature at Furman where he was named 1984 Furman Meritorious Teacher of the Year. He recently published a textbook on conducting, Conducting – What Matters Most. He retired in 2003 from his work as music director at Westminster Presbyterian Church after twenty-eight years. He is now in his 28th season as Artistic Director and Conductor of the Greenville Chorale (150-voice community chorus). He founded and directs the Chorale Chamber Ensemble (20 professional singers). In 2000 Vick was presented the Order of the Palmetto by the Governor of South Carolina for his service to the arts. In 2004 he was again honored with the Elizabeth O’Neil Verner Governor’s Award for his distinctive leadership and excellence in the arts. In 2005 he was awarded the Stetson University Distinguished Alumnus Award.
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"Any great work of art is great because it creates a special world of its own." - Leonard Bernstein
"Music is the voice of the spirit." - Robert Shaw
"Compelling performances result when each member of an ensemble feels responsible for learning his or her part and communicating it to the listener." - Nina Gilbert