Directed by Dr. Peter A. Eklund
MUDC 245 / 445 (Degree Credit) or Graduate Ensemble Credit
2011-2012:
M/W/F 1:30-2:20, T/Th 1:00-1:50
Room 130 in the Westbrook Music Building
University
Singers represent
the finest and most versatile choral singers in the entire
University. They perform music from the thirteenth century
through the present, including works written especially for
them. They have performed repeatedly for state conventions
of the Nebraska Choral Directors Association, the Nebraska
Music Educators Association, the North Central Division
Conventions of the American Choral Directors Association,
and the regional and national Music Educators
National Conference conventions in Illinois and Nashville
(2002) and the regional ACDA convention (also 2002).
In 2001 and 2008, the choir was featured on a prestigious
8 PM solo performance at Carnegie Hall.
They have performed with numerous orchestras and have worked under renowned composers, pedagogues, and conductors/artists/scholars/performers (reading like a Who’s Who): Dale Warland, René Clausen, Don V Moses, Lee Kjelsen, Joshua Rifkin, Jeremy Jackman, Weston Noble, Simon Carrington, Sir David Willcocks, William Hatcher, Malcolm Dalglish, Anton Armstrong, Ann Howard Jones, Phil Mattson, Bobby McFerrin, William Warfield, Mack Wilberg, Eph Ehly, André Thomas, the Swingle Singer, Doreen Rao, and the late Moses Hogan, Margaret Hillis, and Robert Shaw (at least four times), to name just a few.
University Singers performing at Fifth Avenue Presbyterian in NYC
Under the current conductor, Dr. Peter A. Eklund, recent and planned repertoire included/includes the Duruflé Requiem, Tallis’ 40-part motet Spem in Alium, Mendelssohn’s Psalm 42 and Elijah, Honegger’s King David, the Brahms Requiem (once in German and once in English), Orff's Carmina Burana, Bernstein's Chichester Psalms, the Fauré Requiem, the Mozart Requiem, Walton's Belshazzar’s Feast, Liszt’s Christus, Hindemith’s When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd, Bruckner’s Mass #2, Handel's Messiah, Beethoven's Mass in C, Puccini's Messa di Gloria, Haydn's Harmoniemesse and Lord Nelson Mass, Jongen's Mass Opus 130, Petr Eben's Prager Te Deum, the Bach B minor Mass, and the operas Elixir of Love and La Bohème.
While many of the singers are music majors, students from throughout the University participate and are encouraged to audition. The choir owns a rich list of distinguished alumni that have gone on to lead choirs and music departments at major universities and Schools of Music across the country over the last 130+ years (and at least two alums have gone on to be ACDA National Presidents).
Auditions: The University's
premier choral ensemble is open to students of sophomore
standing and above. Students should schedule an audition
time in the spring during dead week (the week before
finals week) or during finals week. Accommodations are made
for upperclassmen singers new to the campus in the fall.
Times for auditioning are posted outside rm203 in Westbrook
Music Building. The First Round of auditions consist of singers
performing a solo or choral piece that they have prepared
(need not be memorized –
singers may bring a pianist or they may sing a cappella).
A letter and info will be sent to the finalists during the
summer – singers will login to the UNL "Blackboard
site" and download audition music and prepare it for
the fall and Final Round of auditions that will occur
on the Sunday prior to the start of class or during the
first week of classes (depending on the voice part). During
the final round, singers will sing with other singers
of like-voice-part and be placed into a choral formation.
Rehearsals begin immediately after and performers supply/purchase
their own attire (men in black tux tails and ladies in
a velvet standard-issue performance dress).
