The Penn State Glee Club, Essence of Joy, and the Concordia Singers of the Nittany Valley Children's Choir will perform a joint concert at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 4, in the Worship Hall of the Pasquerilla Spiritual Center on the University Park campus of Penn State. Admission is free.
The performance serves as a send-off concert, celebrating the choirs' appearances at the American Choral Directors Association (ACDA) Eastern Division conference in Baltimore, Md., Feb. 6-8. The conductor of Concordia Singers is Lou Ann Shafer. The Penn State Glee Club is conducted by Christopher Kiver. Essence of Joy is conducted by Anthony Leach.
The American Choral Directors Association (ACDA) promotes excellence in choral music through performance, composition, publication, research, and teaching. Membership consists of choral directors representing more than one million singers across the United States. The Eastern Division includes approximately 2,500 choral directors from twelve states. These outstanding choirs from the State College area are three of only sixteen choirs, chosen by a rigorous audition process, to perform at this prestigious conference.
The Nittany Valley Children’s Choir is a community arts organization located in State College, Pa., founded in 1997 to fill a need in the Centre County region and to enrich the artistic life of the community. The Choir serves over 120 children in three levels of choirs. The Concordia Singers is an auditioned ensemble of the Nittany Valley Children's Choir and includes children ages 8-18. This select ensemble consists of advanced singers who have demonstrated outstanding singing ability, positive attitude, and commitment to excellence in performance. Pianist Timothy Shafer is a piano faculty member at Penn State. For more information about the Nittany Valley Children's Choir, visit their website.
Essence of Joy was created in 1991 by Anthony Leach. The choir performs sacred and secular music from the African and African American choral traditions. Annual campus events include fall and spring concerts, as well as the African American Music Festival (February) and Our Gift in Song (December). The choir involves undergraduate and graduate students from all academic programs at Penn State, and has performed throughout the United States. The choir has released four compact discs, and made its first European tour in June 2001 with concert performances in Kracow, Poland, and Prague, Czech Republic. It has also toured South Africa and the Pacific Rim. For more information, visit the Essence of Joy website.
The Penn State Glee Club was founded in December of 1888, and is Penn State's oldest student organization. Since its first spring tour in March of 1889, the Glee Club has performed throughout the United States and abroad, with recent tours to Wales, Trinidad and Tobago, France, and New Zealand. They have sung for state and regional conventions of the Pennsylvania Music Educator's Association (2007, 2013), the Intercollegiate Men's Choruses (2008, 2014), the National Association for Music Education (MENC, 2009), and the American Choral Directors Association (2010, 2014). Glee Club members hail from all colleges and schools on the University Park campus. Find out more information about the Penn State Glee Club at www.pennstategleeclub.com.