Bluefield University invites the community to its biennial Alumni Concert featuring band and choral ensembles comprised of current and former BU students. The concert will be held on Saturday, April 13, 2024, at 7:30 p.m. in Harman Chapel on the BU campus, and admission is free.
Dr. Charles Priest will serve as the guest conductor of our alumni band. He was BU’s Assistant Professor of Music and Music Department Chair from 2014 until 2021. The band portion of the concert will feature the following pieces:
- The Black Horse Troop, arr. by Sousa
- Thundersnow, arr. by Priest
- On a Hymnsong of Phillip Bliss, arr. by Holsinger
- Winter on Emerald Bay, arr. by Silvestri
Additionally, the alumni band will perform pieces composed by current BU students Garrett Leland and Jay Harris.
Guest conductor Bryant Moxley will direct the alumni choir. Moxley served as BU’s Assistant Professor of Music and Music Department Chair from 2002 until 2014. Joining him for the choral portion of the concert will be music students from Mercer Christian Academy, where Alandra Brannon, a former student of Moxley’s, serves as choir director. The theme of this portion of the concert is American Hymnody, featuring the following arrangements of folk melodies:
- Simple Gifts, arr. by Ryan Murphy
- There is a Fountain, arr. by Dan Forrest
- Hark, I Hear the Harps Eternal, arr. by Alice Parker
- When I Can Read My Title Clear, arr. by Bryant Moxley
- Come, Thou Fount, arr. by Mack Wilberg
- Bound for the Promised Land, arr. by Mack Wilberg
For performing alumni, the Music Alumni Reunion Weekend begins on Friday, April 12, with check-in at 6:00 p.m. followed by rehearsal at 7:00 p.m. Registration is $25, and alumni can register to perform at: https://www.bluefield.edu/alumni/alumni-events-services/music-alumni-reunion-weekend/
Following this event, Bryant Moxley will direct a choral residency at Carnegie Hall in New York featuring the same arrangements from his portion of the alumni concert. At this residency in May, BU students and alumni will perform alongside members of Moxley’s current choir at Wake Forest Baptist Church and choral ensembles directed by his former students, including the Mercer Christian Academy choir directed by Alandra Brannon, the Beale Memorial Baptist Church choir directed by Marcus Vaughan, the Magna Vista High School choir directed by Tehillah Munye, and the Cave Spring High School choir directed by Bradley Stump.
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