BYU Choirs
Encyclopedia
The choirs at Brigham Young University
Brigham Young University
Brigham Young University is a private university located in Provo, Utah. It is owned and operated by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints , and is the United States' largest religious university and third-largest private university.Approximately 98% of the university's 34,000 students...

consist of four auditioned choirs: the Concert Choir, the Men's Chorus, the Women's Chorus, and the Brigham Young University Singers. Each choir is highly accomplished and performs from an extensive repertoire. Together, the choirs have recorded and released a total of 23 albums. The choirs perform throughout the academic year. Admission into each choir is by audition
Audition
An audition is a sample performance by an actor, singer, musician, dancer or other performing artist.Audition may also refer to:* The sense of hearing* Adobe Audition, audio editing software...

, carried out in the weeks leading up to the fall semester. Each ensemble requires a two-semester commitment.

There are other choral performing groups at BYU. For those that are connected with the Jazz Studies Department see BYU bands and ensembles
BYU bands and ensembles
BYU has a broad array of bands and ensembles. Most of these are part of the programs of the School of Music in the BYU College of Fine Arts and Communications, primarily either in the Department of Bands or the Jazz Studies Department.-History:...

.

Concert Choir

The BYU
BYU
-Education:* Brigham Young University, a university located in Provo, Utah, USA administered by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.**BYU Salt Lake Center, a satellite center in Salt Lake City, Utah, USA...

 Concert Choir is a mixed chorus of approximately 90 men and women. This select group performs a wide variety of choral repertoire ranging from the Renaissance
Renaissance
The Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Italy in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe. The term is also used more loosely to refer to the historical era, but since the changes of the Renaissance were not...

 to modern, and all from memory. The choir was first organized in 1984 by Mack Wilberg
Mack Wilberg
Mack Wilberg is a composer, arranger, conductor, and Choral clinician, as well as the music director of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir...

, who has also written a number of songs and arrangements specifically for the ensemble. When Wilberg left BYU in 1999 to become an assistant conductor for the Mormon Tabernacle Choir
Mormon Tabernacle Choir
The Mormon Tabernacle Choir, sometimes colloquially referred to as MoTab, is a Grammy and Emmy Award winning, 360-member, all-volunteer choir. The choir is part of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints . However, the choir is completely self-funded, traveling and producing albums to...

, Rosalind Hall
Rosalind Hall
Rosalind Hall is the current director of the BYU Men's Chorus and BYU Concert Choir.Hall is a native of Wales. She was educated at the University of London, the University of Edinburgh and London's Royal Academy of Music. She received a bachelors of music degree from the Royal Academy in...

 stepped in to conduct the Concert Choir.

The choir has sung at the American Choral Directors Association
American Choral Directors Association
The American Choral Directors Association , headquartered in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, is a non-profit organization with the stated purpose of promoting excellence in the field of choral music...

 (ACDA) convention and with the Utah Symphony. The Concert Choir mostly performs in the de Jong Concert Hall on the BYU Campus, with an occasional trip to other local venues.

The choir has released two albums on Tantara Records
Tantara Records
Tantara Records is a recording label owned by Brigham Young University and operated by the BYU School of Music. The mission of Tantara is to promote the musical works of BYU, both by its various vocal and instrumental ensembles and also the works of its faculty who are musical composers, artists...

: "All Creatures of our God and King" and "Beautiful River". The latter recording, featuring "Five Hebrew Love Songs" by Eric Whitacre
Eric Whitacre
Eric Whitacre is an American composer, conductor and lecturer. He is one of the most popular and performed composers of his generation. In 2008, the all-Whitacre choral CD Cloudburst became an international best-seller, topping the classical charts and earning a Grammy nomination...

, has been praised by singers.com saying that it "proves to us that the [BYU Concert Choir] is ready to take its place as one of the best mixed choirs in the world." Recently, BYU Concert Choir had the opportunity to perform the premiere of two works by Mack Wilberg: "Till All Eternity Shall Ring," and "Dances to Life."

Men's Chorus

The BYU Men's Chorus, the largest collegiate
College
A college is an educational institution or a constituent part of an educational institution. Usage varies in English-speaking nations...

 male choir
Choir
A choir, chorale or chorus is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform.A body of singers who perform together as a group is called a choir or chorus...

 in the United States of America, originally started in 1901 at BYU as "Male Glee
Glee (music)
A glee is an English type of part song spanning the late baroque, classical and early romantic periods. It is usually scored for at least three voices, and generally intended to be sung unaccompanied. Glees often consist of a number of short, musically contrasted movements and their texts can be...

". Anthony C. Lund
Anthony C. Lund
Anthony Canute Lund was the director of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir in Salt Lake City, Utah from 1916 until 1935. Lund was also a professor of music at Brigham Young University....

 directed the choir until the 1920s; then the choir came under the direction of Florence Jepperson Madsen and her husband, Franklin Madsen, with short periods under William F. Hanson and John R. Halliday. In 1955 the Male Chorus became an official class at BYU, conducted by Dr. Ralph Woodward
Ralph Woodward
Ralph Woodward is an English classical conductor, arranger andorganist. His main focus is on conducting choirs.-Education:...

 until his retirement in 1984. Dr. Mack Wilberg
Mack Wilberg
Mack Wilberg is a composer, arranger, conductor, and Choral clinician, as well as the music director of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir...

 became conductor of the ensemble in 1984, and the name was then changed to Men's Chorus. Men's Chorus increased its reputation and gained fame through performances on the BYU campus and on short tours, as well as through nationally broadcast videos on PBS of "A Celebration of Christmas" (first broadcast in 1993), "A Thanksgiving of American Folk Hymns" (1995) and "Songs of Praise and Remembrance" (1999). In 1999, Wilberg was replaced by choral director Rosalind Hall
Rosalind Hall
Rosalind Hall is the current director of the BYU Men's Chorus and BYU Concert Choir.Hall is a native of Wales. She was educated at the University of London, the University of Edinburgh and London's Royal Academy of Music. She received a bachelors of music degree from the Royal Academy in...

, a native of Wales.

The choir has performed at the ACDA
American Choral Directors Association
The American Choral Directors Association , headquartered in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, is a non-profit organization with the stated purpose of promoting excellence in the field of choral music...

 conventions, and performs frequently to sold-out audiences. Over 400 men audition for the choir yearly, with between 75 to 150 of them chosen to join the choir. The repertoire frequently includes Latin
Latin American music
Latin American music, found within Central and South America, is a series of musical styles and genres that mixes influences from Spanish, African and indigenous sources, that has recently become very famous in the US.-Argentina:...

 and classical pieces, folk songs from various countries, LDS music, and well-known American pieces.

The choir released two albums under the direction of Wilberg, released by Deseret Book Company: Shout With Glory - 1995, and Awake My Soul - 1997. In 2005 the choir released the CD, "Praise Him".

The BYU Singers

BYU Singers is a small, flexible group of approximately 40 musicians. Founded in 1984 by Ronald Staheli, the choir's repertoire encompasses a range of musical eras and styles, including Renaissance through contemporary choral music; also Broadway, the American songbook, spirituals, folk songs, and hymns. They have performed in Western and Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe is the eastern part of Europe. The term has widely disparate geopolitical, geographical, cultural and socioeconomic readings, which makes it highly context-dependent and even volatile, and there are "almost as many definitions of Eastern Europe as there are scholars of the region"...

, including the former Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....

, Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...

, Jordan
Jordan
Jordan , officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan , Al-Mamlaka al-Urduniyya al-Hashemiyya) is a kingdom on the East Bank of the River Jordan. The country borders Saudi Arabia to the east and south-east, Iraq to the north-east, Syria to the north and the West Bank and Israel to the west, sharing...

, Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...

, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

, New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...

, Ghana
Ghana
Ghana , officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country located in West Africa. It is bordered by Côte d'Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, Togo to the east, and the Gulf of Guinea to the south...

, Benin
Benin
Benin , officially the Republic of Benin, is a country in West Africa. It borders Togo to the west, Nigeria to the east and Burkina Faso and Niger to the north. Its small southern coastline on the Bight of Benin is where a majority of the population is located...

, Togo
Togo
Togo, officially the Togolese Republic , is a country in West Africa bordered by Ghana to the west, Benin to the east and Burkina Faso to the north. It extends south to the Gulf of Guinea, on which the capital Lomé is located. Togo covers an area of approximately with a population of approximately...

 and South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...

. The group also performs regularly in concerts throughout the United States and has appeared on national television in four programs created for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting
Corporation for Public Broadcasting
The Corporation for Public Broadcasting is a non-profit corporation created by an act of the United States Congress, funded by the United States’ federal government to promote public broadcasting...

.

BYU Singers is the only choir to sing at all three of America's top choral conventions in the same year. They were invited to open the ACDA Convention in Los Angeles in 2005, and were recently one of four collegiate choirs invited to perform in San Antonio, Texas for the first conference of the National Collegiate Choral Organization in 2006. Jo-Michael Scheibe
Jo-Michael Scheibe
Jo-Michael Scheibe chairs the Thornton School of Music’s Department of Choral and Sacred Music at the University of Southern California, where he conducts the USC Chamber Singers, teaches choral conducting and choral methods, and supervises the graduate and undergraduate choral program...

, former president of ACDA Western Division, has said of the choir, "If I had to settle on just one adjective for [the] ensemble, it would be `stunning'! I am not alone in this opinion . . . [the] group's ability to change the choral sound within the variety of musical styles was simply astounding. The combination of superb musicianship and flexibility produced some of the finest musical sound ACDA has ever heard."

In April 2009, the BYU Singers attended the Cork International Choral Festival
Cork International Choral Festival
The Cork International Choral Festival is held annually in Cork, Ireland over the May Bank Holiday Weekend and features choirs from all over the world.-History:...

 where they were awarded the PEACE Award. The PEACE Award "is awarded to a choir who touched the hearts’ of all who heard them and exemplified the intentions of the trophy’s benefactors, the P. E. A. C. E. Movement, Cork. . . Festival audiences are many and varied. They are represented not just by those who attend the Gala Concerts and Competitive Sessions, but by those who listen to choirs in their church visits, and informal performances throughout the week of the festival."

BYU Singers has been featured on eight solo recordings, including two collections of works by Eric Whitacre
Eric Whitacre
Eric Whitacre is an American composer, conductor and lecturer. He is one of the most popular and performed composers of his generation. In 2008, the all-Whitacre choral CD Cloudburst became an international best-seller, topping the classical charts and earning a Grammy nomination...

, and on several other recordings with the combined choirs at BYU. Singers.com has praised the group saying, "the Brigham Young University Singers present a captivating performance of vocal music...and enthralls audiences of every kind."

It is reported that at the Hal Leonard’s Conductor’s craft convention in Kenosha, Wisconsin
Kenosha, Wisconsin
Kenosha is a city and the county seat of Kenosha County in the State of Wisconsin in United States. With a population of 99,218 as of May 2011, Kenosha is the fourth-largest city in Wisconsin. Kenosha is also the fourth-largest city on the western shore of Lake Michigan, following Chicago,...

 in 2009 that Eric Whitacre
Eric Whitacre
Eric Whitacre is an American composer, conductor and lecturer. He is one of the most popular and performed composers of his generation. In 2008, the all-Whitacre choral CD Cloudburst became an international best-seller, topping the classical charts and earning a Grammy nomination...

 said something to the effect of "'Eric Whitacre, the complete a capella work' album by the BYU singers is the best and most complete album of my music ever to be recorded."

Women's Chorus

The BYU Women's Chorus is made up of about 180 singers and performs a large number of concerts throughout the year. Formerly conducted by a number of different faculty and graduate student, since 2005 the choir has now come under the direction of Jean Simons Applonie, who also founded and conducted the Utah-based women's choir Viva Voce
Viva voce
Viva voce is a Latin phrase literally meaning "with living voice," but most often translated as "by word of mouth."It may also refer to:*Italian for "live voice."*Voice vote in a deliberative assembly...

. When Applonie became the director of the BYU Women's Choirs in 2004 she became the first faculty member to serve as its director. Prior to that it had been directed by graduate students.

The Women's Chorus was featured with the Wind Symphony on BYU's 2006 Homecoming Spectacular and its subsequent worldwide broadcast on KBYU-TV.

In 2008 the choir released its first solo recording "Wondrous Love" and has appeared on several albums featuring the combined choirs.

Past choirs

The BYU Madrigal Singers were formed in 1951 under the direction of John R. Halliday. Halliday (1911–1988) had bachelor's and master's degrees in music from BYU and a Ph.D. from Eastman School of Music
Eastman School of Music
The Eastman School of Music is a music conservatory located in Rochester, New York. The Eastman School is a professional school within the University of Rochester...

. He had also for a time been assistant director of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir
Mormon Tabernacle Choir
The Mormon Tabernacle Choir, sometimes colloquially referred to as MoTab, is a Grammy and Emmy Award winning, 360-member, all-volunteer choir. The choir is part of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints . However, the choir is completely self-funded, traveling and producing albums to...

 under J. Spencer Cornwall
J. Spencer Cornwall
Joseph Spencer Cornwall was a conductor of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir in the mid-20th century.Cornwall was born at Mill Creek, Utah Territory....

. For the 10 years prior to the forming of the Madrigal Singers, Halliday had been the director of the BYU band. The Madrigal Singers toured extensively during the 1950s. The BYU Oratorio Choir was formed in 1961, also under Halliday's direction, with the goal of performing oratorios, cantatas and the like. Other BYU singing groups organized between 1951 and 1975 included the BYU Chamber Choir, the Golden Age Singers, the BYU A Capella Choir, the BYU Opera Workshop Chorus, and Scola Cantorum.

The choirs in a combined setting

The choirs perform together frequently throughout the year with a combined total of over 500 singers. Together, they perform a cappella
A cappella
A cappella music is specifically solo or group singing without instrumental sound, or a piece intended to be performed in this way. It is the opposite of cantata, which is accompanied singing. A cappella was originally intended to differentiate between Renaissance polyphony and Baroque concertato...

, accompanied by keyboard or with the BYU Philharmonic. They have performed Mahler's Second Symphony, Fauré
Gabriel Fauré
Gabriel Urbain Fauré was a French composer, organist, pianist and teacher. He was one of the foremost French composers of his generation, and his musical style influenced many 20th century composers...

's Requiem, Orff
Carl Orff
Carl Orff was a 20th-century German composer, best known for his cantata Carmina Burana . In addition to his career as a composer, Orff developed an influential method of music education for children.-Early life:...

's Carmina Burana, and a variety of masses. Occasionally, the choirs are invited to provide music for a session of General Conference, which is broadcast around the world. The combined choirs, along with the philharmonic, are featured in four hour-long PBS broadcasts: Thanksgiving of American Folk Hymns, Celebration of Christmas, Songs of Praise and Remembrance, and The Pilgrim's Journey Home.

One of the most frequent combinations is Concert Choir with Singers. Together, these choirs have performed numerous works including Robert Cundick's The Redeemer, Johannes Brahms
Johannes Brahms
Johannes Brahms was a German composer and pianist, and one of the leading musicians of the Romantic period. Born in Hamburg, Brahms spent much of his professional life in Vienna, Austria, where he was a leader of the musical scene...

' "How Lovely is Thy Dwelling Place," from Ein deutsches Requiem
Ein deutsches Requiem
A German Requiem, To Words of the Holy Scriptures, Op. 45 by Johannes Brahms, is a large-scale work for chorus, orchestra, and a soprano and a baritone soloist, composed between 1865 and 1868. It comprises seven movements, which together last 65 to 80 minutes, making this work Brahms's longest...

, William Walton
William Walton
Sir William Turner Walton OM was an English composer. During a sixty-year career, he wrote music in several classical genres and styles, from film scores to opera...

's Belshazzar's Feast
Belshazzar's Feast (Walton)
Belshazzar's Feast is an oratorio by the English composer William Walton. It was first performed at the Leeds Festival on 8 October 1931. The work has remained one of Walton's most celebrated compositions and one of the most popular works in the English choral repertoire...

, Eric Whitacre
Eric Whitacre
Eric Whitacre is an American composer, conductor and lecturer. He is one of the most popular and performed composers of his generation. In 2008, the all-Whitacre choral CD Cloudburst became an international best-seller, topping the classical charts and earning a Grammy nomination...

's "Her Sacred Spirit Soars," and most recently, Edward Elgar
Edward Elgar
Sir Edward William Elgar, 1st Baronet OM, GCVO was an English composer, many of whose works have entered the British and international classical concert repertoire. Among his best-known compositions are orchestral works including the Enigma Variations, the Pomp and Circumstance Marches, concertos...

's "Lux Aeterna
Lux Aeterna
Lux Aeterna is an album by Dave Fitzgerald. Released in 1997.This is the second solo album from flute and saxophone player Dave Fitzgerald who was a founding member of Iona. Recorded partly in the studio, and partly in the St...

".

Discography

  • A Thanksgiving of American Folk Hymns (BYU Combined Choirs & Philharmonic - 1994) - available on CD and DVD
  • A Celebration of Christmas (BYU Combined Choirs & Philharmonic - 1995) - available on CD and DVD
  • The Redeemer (BYU Concert Choir, Singers & Philharmonic - 1996)
  • We Sing of Christ (BYU Singers - 1997)
  • All Creatures of Our God and King (BYU Concert Choir - 1999)
  • Live at Carnegie Hall (BYU Singers - 1999)
  • Songs of Praise and Remembrance (BYU Combined Choirs & Philharmonic - 2000) - available on CD and DVD
  • Songs of the Soul (BYU Singers - 2000)
  • I Believe this Is Jesus (BYU Singers - 2001)
  • Eric Whitacre: The Complete A Cappella Works (BYU Singers - 2003)
  • The Road Home (BYU Combined Choirs - 2003)
  • Echoes of the Sabbath (BYU Combined Choirs & Philharmonic - 2003)
  • My Redeemer Lives (BYU Singers - 2004)
  • Mahler: Symphony No. 2 in C Minor, "Resurrection" (BYU Philharmonic & Combined Choirs - 2005)
  • Praise Him (BYU Men's Chorus - 2005)
  • The Restoration Oratorio by Merrill Bradshaw (first recorded in 1974; remastered and released as CD in 2005; BYU Combined Choirs & Philharmonic)
  • Beautiful River (BYU Concert Choir - 2005)
  • The Secret of Christmas (BYU Singers - 2007)
  • Brigham Young University Choirs and Eric Whitacre 2 (BYU Singers, Concert Choir & Women's Chorus - 2008)
  • Wondrous Love (BYU Women's Chorus - 2008)
  • Live and Kicking (BYU Men's Chorus - 2009)
  • O Peace of Christ (BYU Singers - 2010)
  • The Pilgrim's Journey Home (BYU Combined Choir & Philharmonic - 2010)

External links

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