Oratorio This Friday

September 29, 2001

September 29, 2001

Oklahoma Baptist University's biannual choral project, Oratorio, directed by Dr. Timothy Stalter from the University of Iowa, will be this Friday at 8 p.m., in the university's Raley Chapel. Giacomo Puccini's Messa di Gloria and Leonard Bernstein's Chichester Psalms are the featured works for the performance by OBU's major choral and instrumental ensembles, music majors, music faculty, and Shawnee's community choir, the Sine Nomine Singers.

Dr. Kristen Todd, assistant professor of music and humanities, will lead a pre-concert lecture about the history of the selections at 7 p.m. in Raley Chapel room 203. Dr. Kevin Hall, J.W. Hollums associate professor of religion, will talk about the Hebrew texts.

Kenneth Whitmore, son of OBU staff accompanist Keith Whitmore, will sing the boy soprano solo in Chichester Psalms. Tenor Lloyd Holt, baritone Conor Scholes and bass Christopher Campbell are student soloists in Messa di Gloria.

OBU's division of music performs a major oratorio work for chorus, soloists, and orchestra every other fall. Recent Oratorio projects have included Handel's Messiah in 1999, and William Walton's Belshazzar's Feast, in 1997.

The guest conductor for the performance is active as a tenor soloist in the U.S. and abroad in addition to his career of conducting and teaching choral music. Stalter is widely known for his performances as the Evangelist in the Passions of J.S. Bach and Heinrich Schuetz.

Dr. John Simons, OBU associate professor of church music and director of the Bison Glee Club, has prepared the OBU students involved, serving as rehearsal conductor.

For more information concerning the performance, contact the division of music at 878-2305 or email music@mail.okbu.edu.