William Green conducts the Lee University Festival Choir Thursday at the Conn Center at Lee University. The group will be performing at the presidential inauguration.
CHOIR ON STAGE* Where: Upper West Terrace, U.S. Capitol, Washington, D.C.* When: Monday between 9:30 and 10 a.m. (estimate)
CLEVELAND, Tenn. – Lee University’s Festival Choir gave local listeners a taste of its planned Inauguration Day performance for President Barack Obama as part of its official sendoff to the U.S. Capitol.
On Thursday evening at the campus’ Conn Center, the 200-member student choir — with support from the university’s Wind Ensemble — performed nine songs members have practiced together since the first weekend in January. Their repertoire — a mixture of patriotic, spiritual and regional music — is fitting for the 2013 Inauguration Day theme of “Faith in America’s Future.”
“I was told by someone from D.C. that there are approximately 10,000 college choirs in America and only one is singing at the Inauguration,” Dr. Paul Conn, the president of Lee University, said to a long round of cheers and applause.
While the audience responded well to all the tunes the choir performed, “God Bless America” and a swing-infused “Chattanooga Choo Choo” seemed to be favorites.