North Park University Choir Tours, Performs in New England March 10-12

CHICAGO, Feb. 27, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The 45-member North Park University Choir from Chicago will tour and perform in New England March 10-12, with the theme, "Towards a Peaceable Kingdom: Songs of Faith, Inspiration and Community." The University Choir, including the University Chamber Singers, will perform in congregations of the Evangelical Covenant Church (ECC), sing in worship at Boston's historic Trinity Church, and lead a workshop with area high school choirs during a stop in Massachusetts.

Four performances are planned, and each is free and open to the public:

• March 10, 6:30 p.m. Bethany Covenant Church, Berlin, Conn.
• March 11, 11:15 a.m. (during worship), Trinity Church, Boston
• March 11, 6 p.m., Bethany Covenant Church, Bedford, N.H.
• March 12, 7:30 p.m., The Covenant Church of Quincy, Quincy, Mass.

Concerts will include traditional and lesser-known choral repertoire, and will highlight some contemporary Chicago-area composers and arrangers, said Dr. Julia Davids, the Stephen J. Hendrickson Endowed Chair of Choral Activities, North Park University School of Music. Concert-goers will hear music from Christian and other perspectives, sung in English, Latin, French, Spanish and Hebrew, she said.

The tour's theme is derived from "The Peaceable Kingdom," a composition written by Randall Thompson, a professor of music who studied and taught at colleges and universities in the Eastern United States. "We're doing just a couple of the movements from it," Davids said. "I think it holds with the focus of North Park University -- that we're part of a peaceful and knowledgeable co-existence with our urban location, with a diversity of students. We're a very outward-looking institution. That's what this program is hoping to showcase."

Each concert will conclude with the traditional Swedish hymn, "Children of the Heavenly Father." Alumni will be invited to sing with the choir, in both Swedish and in English, a tribute to the University's history, Davids said. The University is affiliated with the Chicago-based ECC, formed by Swedish immigrants.

Davids and the University Choir and Chamber Singers will also lead a workshop March 12 with two high school choirs at Braintree High School, Braintree, Mass. The high school students will learn singing techniques, and work on a specific choral repertoire, she said. North Park students will also share their student experiences with the high school students.

Tour information is at http://www.northpark.edu/News/Featured-Events/University-Choir-New-England-Tour on the Web.

SOURCE North Park University