Shenandoah Sings

Join the Conservatory Choir (Austin Thorpe, director), Shenandoah Chorus (Hillary Ridgley, director) and Shenandoah Voices (Jeffrey Marlatt, director) for a dynamic evening of music spanning a variety of choral traditions.

The Conservatory Choir performs The Gun Mass, a new choral work featuring music by Jamie Powe and text by Haley Hodges ’16 (Master of Music in Performance) that laments those who have perished in American school shootings. As an expression of deep mourning, the piece is a liturgical and artistic response to hatred and violence, and a human response to shattering loss of life. The ensemble will also perform a selection from This is How You Love and an arrangement of Thomas Dorsey’s Precious Lord.

The Shenandoah Chorus program centers on giving power to different voices through works by Andrea Ramsey, Charles Davidson and Alexandra Olsavsky, as well as a special arrangement of the traditional tune, In the Sweet By and By.

The Shenandoah Voices presents a variety of musical selections, including an African American spiritual, two Peruvian songs of differing backgrounds and two pieces that are more contemporary pop in origin.

Digital Program

View Digital Program

Shenandoah Conservatory uses digital programs for all performances. In addition to their engaging and accessible design, digital programs are cost effective, environmentally friendly and enable us to create and update our programs more efficiently, which means we can focus our resources on the performances you love! View our digital programs by clicking the button above, scanning the QR code in our venue or texting PROGRAM to (540) 307-2336 at the performance. [Note: Digital programs are best viewed on your mobile or tablet device.]

Lean In & Engage

Q: What are students learning or experiencing through this process?

“Shenandoah Voices students are preparing a variety of selections for our upcoming concert – an African American Spiritual, two Peruvian songs of differing backgrounds, and two pieces that are more contemporary pop in origin.

– Jeff Marlatt, Shenandoah Voices director

Q: What excites you about working on this project/program?

“Allowing students to understand pieces from the “outside in” always excites me. Beyond notes, rhythms and expressive choices, these pieces have a history to be shared.”

– Jeff Marlatt, Shenandoah Voices director

Shenandoah Voices Program Highlights

Music in the Air

The African American spiritual Over My Head dates from the nineteenth century and is of unknown authorship. Civil rights leader Bernice Johnson Reagon changed the traditional words of the song in 1961, to “Over my head / I see freedom in the air…”.

Hanacpachap cussicuinin

Hanacpachap cussicuinin is an anonymous Christian processional hymn composed before 1622. Written in adoration of the Virgin Mary in Quechuan, scholars consider this to be the first notated vocal polyphony in the Americas.

El Cóndor Pasa

Peruvian songwriter Daniel Alomía Robles composed El Cóndor Pasa in 1913. This evening’s rendition, adapted by ensemble member Maximiliano Fernandez Escalona, uses the original Spanish text written by Julio de La Paz (pseudonym of the Limenian dramatist Julio Baudouin).

Let the River Run

American singer-songwriter Carly Simon wrote, composed and performed Let the River Run as a hymn to New York with a contemporary beat under it, so as to juxtapose those opposites in a compelling way.

I Dreamed of Rain

January 2003: Ugly rumors were starting to circulate that there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, and the United States should wage a pre-emptive war on that desert nation and its people. Composer Jan Garrett draws inspiration from as she remembers thinking, “I just want peace to spread over the land!”

ACCESSIBILITY

Accommodations for disabilities may be arranged by contacting the Box Office at least three days prior to the performance.

Photos by Shenandoah University’s Office of Marketing & Communications