School of Music's A Cappella Singers to tour the Midwest Jan. 2-7
Tristan Brew |
Lipscomb University’s A Cappella Singers, under the direction of Gary P. Wilson, will travel throughout the Midwest on the ensemble’s winter tour Jan. 2-7, 2018.
The A Cappella Singers perform a broad range of choral literature, incorporating music from all periods including sacred and secular works. The ensemble is comprised of Lipscomb students who are music and non-majors. Each fall, the chorus prepares for its annual recruiting tour, which consists of concerts at churches and schools throughout the United States.
This year, the group will perform at Church of Christ congregations in Illinois, Kansas, Arkansas and Missouri.
Performance dates, locations and times include:
- Jan. 2 – Vaughan Hill Church of Christ; East Alton, Illinois; 7 p.m.
- Jan. 3 - Heartland Church of Christ; Kansas City, Missouri; 7 p.m.
- Jan. 4 - Westlink Church of Christ; Wichita, Kansas; 7 p.m.
- Jan. 5 - Robinson Avenue Church of Christ; Springdale, Arkansas; 7 p.m.
- Jan. 6 - Southwest Church of Christ; Jonesboro, Arkansas; performance Sunday morning
- Jan. 7 - TBD; Performance at 9:15 a.m.
The A Cappella Singers have been a feature of the Lipscomb University Department of Music since 1960, and have performed across the country and around the world, in venues ranging from the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, France and the City Hall in downtown Brisbane, Australia, to a small church building in rural Alabama. The group takes a tour in the winter every year and makes a trip overseas every other year.
The A Cappella Singers are among a variety ensembles available to students at Lipscomb. Others include the Wind Ensemble, Orchestra, Jazz Workshop, various chamber groups, contemporary program ensembles and Opera Workshop among others. The ensembles are housed in the School of Music that is part of Lipscomb’s George Shinn College of Entertainment & the Arts. The School of Music, which holds fully accredited membership in the National Association of Schools of Music, was recently named one of the top 25 in the country.
As director of choral activities, Wilson directs the A Cappella Singers, oversees the choral/vocal program and directing the Vocal Jazz Ensemble. Choirs under his leadership have performed at regional and state music conferences, in New York City's Carnegie Hall, and in venues throughout the United States and Europe. He is a frequent conductor and clinician for honor choirs and festival choirs, and ted the Arkansas All State Choir in 2007.
Wilson holds undergraduate and master’s degrees from Harding University and Baylor University, and is the first recipient of the doctorate in choral conducting from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, where he studied with Peter A. Eklund. His research on the choral music of American composer Edward MacDowell was published by Mellen Press in 2004, and was nominated for the American Choral Directors Association Julius Hereford award for outstanding doctoral dissertation in 2005.
Want to know more about the School of Music? Contact Marilyn Smith at 615.279.5929 or marilyn.smith [at] lipscomb.edu.
For more information about the A Cappella Singers, click here.