SU’s ‘Year of the American Composer’ to continue with The Syracuse University Singers April 26

SU’s ‘Year of the American Composer’ to continue with The Syracuse University Singers April 26April 14, 2005Jaime Winne Alvarez jlwinne@syr.edu

To celebrate the “Year of the American Composer,” the Rose, Jules R. and Stanford S. Setnor School of Music in Syracuse University’s College of Visual and Performing Arts will present the The SU Singers, April 26 at 8 p.m. The performance, “An American Choral Sampler,” is in the Rose and Jules R. Setnor Auditorium, located in Crouse College. It is free and open to the public. Parking is available in Irving Garage.

The Syracuse University Singers will appear under the direction of G. Burton Harbison. This will be his final performance, the last of more than 300 with the ensemble, before his retirement in May.

The program includes “Modern Music” by William Billings, America’s leading colonial composer; “Four American Portraits” by Earl George, former SU faculty member and founder of the SU Singers; “Lark” by Aaron Copland, one of America’s most famous composers; “Temperance Songs,” four songs written for the Women’s Christian Temperance Union and arranged by Ralph Hunter; “Psalm 67” by Charles Ives, one of the great innovators of early 20th-century American music; “Prelude for Voices” by William Schuman, former president of Lincoln Center and a leading 20th century composer; “Wayfarin’ Stranger,” an Appalachian folksong arranged by John Jacob Niles; “Johnny Comes Marching Home,” a Civil War era song arranged by Roy Harris; “Reincarnations,” a set of three songs based on Irish folk lore by Samuel Barber, considered to be America’s finest composer of the mid-20th century; “Lord I Don’t Feel Noways Tired,” a spiritual arranged by Jester Hairston, one of the leading African American composers and conductors; “Deep River,” a spiritual arranged by Rene Clausen; and “Witness,” a spiritual arranged by Jack Halloran.