Celebrating Three Decades of Town-Gown Vocalizing

The University of Missouri Choral Union will mark the 30th anniversary of the town-gown choir with a celebratory performance of 300 singers and four internationally acclaimed soloists on April 30. Members of Choral Union, a student and community choir, will join the University Singers, the Concert Chorale, the Chamber Singers and the Columbia Civic Orchestra to perform Giuseppi Verdi’s masterpiece, Requiem, at 8 p.m. in Jesse Auditorium.

Professor Paul Crabb Rob Hill photo

Paul Crabb, director of MU Choral Activities, will conduct. Crabb says the soloists lowered their standard fees for this rare mid-Missouri appearance. Three of the soloists appeared on the DVD of Franco Zeffirelli’s production of Aida: Soprano Adina Aaron, who sang the title role in Aida; bass Paolo Pecchioli, who sang the role of the King in Aida and performs regularly at major European opera houses; and tenor Scott Piper, who sang the role of Radames in Aida and is a rising opera star in North America. Mezzo-soprano Dorothy Byrne is a regular singer with Lyric Opera of Chicago.

Choral Union is a 200-member choir that serves as a vocal link between MU and the surrounding community. Students, faculty, members of the professions and blue-collar workers have populated Choral Union during its 30 years. MU students earn credit hours toward their degrees through the weekly rehearsals and appearances with Choral Union. The rest of the performers join simply for the opportunity to sing.

"These singers have a love for great choral music, work diligently to perform well and sing the best literature in Western European musical tradition," Crabb says.

He describes the opportunity to perform such music as exhilarating and a method of exploring the composer’s inner thoughts.

"The emotion in a work such as Verdi’s Requiem is not removed from people today," he says. "The thoughts of life and death, of the human struggle to understand and accept what it means, are the same today as in the 19th century. We have the opportunity to hear what Verdi had to say about these complex issues through his music."

Betty Wilson, a local attorney and charter member of Choral Union, appreciates the opportunity to perform great music. She joined the group in spring 1974 to continue her interest in vocal music. Wilson has been singing since childhood, in high school and through her college years at the University of Michigan.

"Choral Union has been wonderful as a rich resource for acquaintances," Wilson says. "We share a similar interest, and we all love to sing. It’s one of the few organizations that I know of where the community at large interacts and collaborates on a single endeavor."

A varied repertoire of music from such composers as Beethoven, Brahms, Berlioz, John Rutter and Leonard Bernstein has inspired and sometimes tested the singers. Although Wilson has enjoyed performing with impressive guest soloists throughout the years, she remembers with particular fondness the performances and rehearsals when John Rutter and Robert Shaw worked with the Choral Union. Rutter conducted his own music.

"Having the composer here to conduct is stimulating and energizing," Wilson says. "It’s their own music, so you feel like you’re getting a first-hand interpretation of how the composer wanted it."

Wilson remembers some of the more humorous moments as well, including the rehearsal with Robert Shaw when the entire bass section disappeared from sight as the bleachers collapsed.

Ira "Rocky" Powell was the first conductor of Choral Union, which attracted numerous faculty and visiting conductors: Otto Werner-Mueller, Gerhardt Zimmerman, Margaret Hillis, Duncan Couch, Robert Shaw, John Rutter, Sir David Willcocks, Paul Drummond, Greg Fuller, Ann Howard Jones, William McGlaughlin and David Rayl.

Marilyn Cheetham, a Choral Union singer for 29 years, says the group provides a pleasurable service to the community and contributes to the cultural lives of its citizens. "We have had the privilege of hearing some wonderful soloists and of singing with orchestras such as the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra and the Kansas City Symphony, as well as our own University Philharmonic. I have enjoyed everything about my time in Choral Union."

Tickets for the performance are available through the University Concert Series at 573-882-3875 or online at concertseries.org/performances.

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Links:

Paul Crabb
School of Music
University Choral Union

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