FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
(Tuscaloosa, AL) – The University of Alabama College of Arts & Sciences School of Music presents the University Singers in concert on Monday, April 19, 2010 at 7:30 p.m. in the Concert Hall of the Moody Music Building on the campus of The University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, AL. The program will include “Rejoice in the Lamb, Op. 30” by Benjamin Britten, and “Requiem, Op. 9” by Maurice Duruflé. UA Professor of Organ Dr. Faythe Freese will be featured on Duruflé’s Requiem, and UA Instructor of Piano Kevin Chance is the collaborative pianist. Dr. John Ratledge, UA Professor of Choral Conducting Dr. John Ratledge is the conductor. This performance will prepare the choir for the upcoming trip to Carnegie Hall in New York, where they will be performing a solo recital on May 2 at 8:30 p.m. In addition, the ensemble will be the Chorus in Residence for the National Festival Chorus held at the prestigious venue that weekend. This concert is FREE and open to the public.
University Singers is the School of Music’s premiere choral ensemble and consists of 42 auditioned singers. The ensemble has performed three times at the internationally-known Spivey Hall of Atlanta, Ga. Major works in the past four years have included the Brahms Ein deutsches Requiem, Orff Carmina burana, Verdi Requiem, and Bach Johannespassion. Most recently, University Singers and the University Wind Ensemble premiered Enterprise, a commissioned composition by Hollywood composer/orchestrator/arranger, Ira Hearshen. This work commemorated the death of seven Enterprise High School students during the tornado of 2007. University Singers have been included in concerts with Ward Swingle, James Earl Jones, Della Reese, and William Warfield, have continued the 40-year tradition, Hilaritas, had performed three premieres of choral pieces at the SCI 1992 National Conference, and sang at the 1994 Southern Regional ACDA Convention in Knoxville.
BIOGRAPHIES
Pianist Kevin T. Chance joined the UA faculty in January of 2010 as Instructor of Piano, teaching class piano and serving as the principal collaborative pianist in the choral and voice areas and a coach in the Opera Theatre. He has been hailed as “a superlative musician” playing “with musical conviction and muscularity.” He has performed throughout the United States and abroad as both soloist and collaborator, including concerto appearances with the Magic City Orchestra of Alabama and the Brevard Music Center. In 2003, he was invited to the Lake District Summer Music Festival in England where he was featured on both of the festival’s gala performances. Recent engagements include Beethoven’s Choral Fantasy with the Athens Chorale in Georgia as well as the Baton Rouge Symphony, a recital at the Des Moines Symphony Academy in Iowa, and concerts for the Cedar Rapids Opera Theatre, the University of Texas at Brownsville, Birmingham-Southern College and the University of Alabama. Chance has been a prizewinner of several regional and national competitions including the National Society of Arts and Letters Career Awards Competition, Music Teachers National Association Competitions (MTNA), and the Brevard Music Center Concerto Competition.
Dr. Faythe Freese, Associate Professor of Organ and Church Music at The University of Alabama School of Music, holds degrees in organ performance and church music from Indiana University. She has held faculty positions at Indiana University, Concordia University in Austin, University of North Dakota-Williston, and Andrew College. As a Fulbright scholar and an Indiana University/Kiel Ausstausch Programme participant, she studied the works of Jean Langlais with the composer in France, and the works of Max Reger with Heinz Wunderlich in Germany. Her organ teachers have included Marilyn Keiser, Robert Rayfield, William Eifrig and Phillip Gehring.
With performances described as “powerful…masterful…impressive… brilliant,” Freese is in demand as a recitalist throughout the United States, Germany, Denmark, South Korea and Singapore. She is a featured artist and lecturer at the 2010 American Guild of Organists National Convention this summer from July 4-8 in Washington, D.C. Freese is the author of publications entitled Sunday Morning Organist: A Survivor’s Guide for the Pianist and Sonus Novus: Intonations and Harmonizations, available from Concordia Publishing House.
Dr. John Ratledge, is currently in his sixth year as Conductor of University Singers, Area Coordinator of Graduate Choral Conducting, and Director of Choral Activities at The University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa. Ratledge teaches graduate conducting, literature, and pedagogy.
Ratledge made his European conducting debut in 1996 with the Filharmonia Sudecka of Walbryzychu, Poland, and since that time, he has conducted orchestras in France, Greece, Hungary, Romania, and Spain. Most recently, he made his Korean conducting debut in March 2008 when he conducted the Dangjin-gun Chorus, a professional choir in Dangjin, South Korea. During his tenure at Shorter College of Rome, Georgia, the Shorter Chorale distinguished itself nationally and internationally by giving the premiere of the full orchestral version of the Duruflé Requiem in Poland, Hungary, Romania, and Greece, the organ version premiere of same in Bulgaria, Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms premiere in Poland, and the St. Petersburg, Russia’s premiere of Handel’s Messiah. He has received invitations to conduct the Athens and Bulgarian State Orchestras.
Ratledge is on the roster of Manhattan Concert Productions and will be Artist in Residence at Carnegie Hall in May 2010. Prior to this engagement, Ratledge has conducted two solo choral concerts at Carnegie Hall. Ratledge has sold-out Atlanta’s Spivey Hall nine times. University Singers made their Spivey Hall debut in 2006, and the ensemble gave its third Spivey Hall performance in 2008, Ratledge’s 13th performance at the prestigious venue.
Ratledge has conducted over 250 clinics throughout the United States, in addition to conducting All State and Region Choruses in Alabama, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Texas, Louisiana, New Hampshire, New York, Oklahoma, and Tennessee. He conducted the Delaware All-State in 2009. Ratledge has been a convention headliner at the Texas, Georgia, and Alabama Music Educators Association, as well as the Georgia and Tennessee American Choral Directors Association. Named to Who’s Who Among America’s Educators in 1996, 1998, and 2005-2006, Who’s Who in America in 2006-2008, Ratledge holds membership in the National Collegiate Choral Association, is a Life Member of American Choral Directors Association; Alabama Music Educators Association; Alabama Vocal Association; Texas Choral Directors Association; Music Educators National Conference; Pi Kappa Lambda, national music honor fraternity; Kappa Delta Pi, education honor society; Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia, music fraternity; and has been named Outstanding Young Man of America in 1978, 1982, 1985, 1987-1990. Most recently, he was named Distinguished Alumnus at Carson-Newman College in Jefferson City, Tennessee.
Ratledge’s compositions are published by Alliance Music, Southern Music, and Cambiata Press. Recent commissioned works include: i am the secret fire in all things, SSAA divisi and two soprano soli, a cappella premiered November 2008 bythe Vancouver Chamber Choir, Jon Washburn, Conductor; Blackberry Winter, SATB divisi, soprano solo which was premiered by the Midland Lee High School Chorale, Paula Edwards, Conductor, at the Texas Music Educators Association in February 2004, and I Am (text by Rilke) SATB divisi, Mezzo-Soprano and Baritone solos, premiered in April 2004 by the New Hampshire Master Chorale, Dr. Dan Perkins, Conductor. The Lord’s Prayer was commissioned and premiered in October 2006 by the Concert Choir of Darlington Upper School (Rome, Georgia), Dan Bishop, Conductor.
