* What: UTC Choir Benefit Concert.
* When: 7:30 p.m. Friday.
* Where: First Baptist Church, 401 Gateway Ave.
* Admission: Free, but donations accepted for the Glenn Draper Choral Scholarship.
* Phone: 425-4601.
Choral music lovers won't have another chance until 2015 to hear a concert like the one planned for Friday night.
"We are doing our every-three-year major-work concert combining the Chattanooga Singers and Chamber Singers with a visiting choir from Southwest Virginia Community College," said Kevin Ford, director of choral activities at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.
The UTC Chattanooga Singers and Chamber Singers will host the Southwest Virginia chorus, directed by Joseph Trivette, in a fundraising effort for the Glenn Draper Choral Scholarship. Draper was the director of choral activities at UTC for three decades.
"Their director, Joey Trivette, and I went to graduate school together at Florida State," said Ford. "Joey called back in September wanting to take his chorus somewhere this semester and asked if he could bring them down and join us for this concert.
"We already had the concert planned for Chattanooga Singers and Chamber Singers, so adding 40 more singers will make it that much more fun."
The director said the singers will be accompanied by organist David Friberg and an orchestra composed of musicians from the Chattanooga Symphony & Opera and UTC Symphony.
The Chamber Singers will open the concert with William Albright's "Chichester Mass."
"Albright was a creative musical master of great influence to American music," said Ford. "The Chichester Cathedral commissioned Albright to compose the mass to celebrate its ninth centenary."
The three choirs will combine to present Haydn's "Theresienmesse" and Vivaldi's "Gloria."
"Theresienmesse," a Mass in B flat, is believed to have been named for Maria Theresa, empress consort of Francis II, emperor of Austria, according to Ford. Legend has it that she sang the soprano solos in Haydn's oratorios "The Creation" and "The Seasons" when they were performed in the Viennese court.
Soloists for this presentation will be soprano Kala Cisson, alto Rebecca St. Goar, tenor Harv Wileman and bass Perry Ward.
Vivaldi's "Gloria" is perhaps the most familiar of the settings. It is believed to have been recorded about 100 times on CD and performed for cinematic use.
Soloists for the "Gloria" will be Leigh Wattenbarger, Sarah Chapman, Laura Wilkerson, Kasey Toth and Julie Drexler.
Contact Susan Pierce at spierce@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6284.
Susan Palmer Pierce is a reporter and columnist in the Life department. She began her journalism career as a summer employee 1972 for the News Free Press, typing bridal announcements and photo captions. She became a full-time employee in 1980, working her way up to feature writer, then special sections editor, then Lifestyle editor in 1995 until the merge of the NFP and Times in 1999. She was honored with the 2007 Chattanooga Woman of ...
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