Open and free to the community, the spring concert will take place at Midway Church of Christ on Route 460 in Bluefield, West Virginia, as BC takes its college-community chorus on the road and into the community.
The “Celebration of Andrew Lloyd Webber” will feature excerpts from the composer’s hauntingly beautiful “Requiem,” which follows the Latin text taken from the Catholic mass for the dead. The work combines varying musical features, including dissonant, harsh sounds to depict the judgment of the Day of Wrath to the ethereally tranquil sounds of the Pie Jesu.
The program will also feature a medley of tunes from Webber’s Broadway production “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat,” as well as an assortment of some the composer’s most popular show tunes, including “Cats,” “Song and Dance,” and “Phantom of the Opera.”
“The concert will provide a satisfying mix of sacred and secular and will cover the gamut of challenging art music to light pops fare,” said Dr. Barbara Hudson, associate professor of music and director of Masterworks Chorale. “The ‘Requiem’ is very reverent, but the theatre medleys are fun, humorous, and colorful.”
The spring Masterworks concert will also feature a small ensemble of instrumentalists, including harpist Laurel Thompson and pianist Lisa Moxley.
Bluefield College’s Masterworks Chorale is a large vocal ensemble comprised of BC students, faculty, staff, and voices from the community. The group presents a minimum of two concerts per year, studying and performing a repertoire that includes major choral works, sacred and secular pieces, and special-themed concerts.
While admission to the “Celebration of Andrew Lloyd Webber” on April 12 is free, donations are encouraged. For more information, please contact the BC Office of Public Relations by e-mail at [email protected] or by phone at 276-326-4212.