Current rehearsals for Mississippi University for Women’s choral groups contain an added air of excitement as students prepare for a May 5 community concert. Among those groups, the Chamber Singers are fully aware they are also rehearsing to perform for audiences in Scotland next month.
Twenty-nine students are signed up for the international tour which is May 29 through June 9, said Phillip Stockton, director of MUW choral activities. They will present concerts in churches including St. Giles’ Cathedral and Priestfield Parish Church in the capital of Edinburgh. They will also perform and make a recording in Greyfriars Kirk, one of the oldest surviving structures built outside the Old Town of Edinburgh, in the 1600s.
The May 5 concert at Poindexter Hall on campus is, in a way, a preview, said Stockton. The students’ program, with numbers in English and Latin, is titled “Lux Aeterna,” Latin for eternal light.
“The pieces that I chose, for the most part, all deal with light and the power of light … ” Compositions include the song “Lux Aeterna” by Edward Elgar, “Northern Lights” by Ola Gjeilo and “True Light” by Keith Hampton.
“We are also performing two pieces by one of our faculty members, Dr. Joe Alexander — ‘Summer Sounds Beckon Me’ and ‘Blue Jay, Sing a Tune,'” Stockton said.
Like the rest of the singers, Brett-Ashleigh Brooks is counting the days. She’s a junior speech/language pathology major from Tupelo.
“I’m especially excited about performing in St. Giles Cathedral,” said Brooks, 20. “I think it’s so amazing that our chamber group is getting this opportunity. And the recording will be something special, not only to the university, but to each of us, that we can hold on to for the rest of our lives.”
For junior education major Robert Totten, like Brooks, this will be a first trip abroad.
“I never thought I’d have a chance to do that, to see what else is out there,” said the 23-year-old from Memphis, Tennessee. “All I know is America; I’m the first one in my family to be able to see something like that.”
Stockton has accompanied a study-abroad group in the past. He expects the experience to be educational and culturally broadening. “What I noticed last year was that students became more confident, they changed even while they were there,” the director said.
He noted several ties the Golden Triangle has to Scotland, including MUW Vice President for Academic Affairs Thomas Richardson; Columbus resident Pauline Crouse, who grew up in Aberdeen, Scotland; and 2016 commencement speaker Ian Campbell of the University of Edinburgh. These connections helped shape, in part, the students’ itinerary and performance engagements.
In addition to Edinburgh, the group will visit St. Andrews, the Highlands, Glasgow and Aberdeen.
May 5 concert
Local audiences have an opportunity to hear the Chamber Singers’ program to be performed in Scotland by attending the free Friday, May 5 concert. It also features the MUW Chorale. The performance begins at 7:30 p.m. in Poindexter Hall on campus.
For more information, contact the MUW Department of Music, 662-241-6399.
Jan Swoope is the Lifestyles Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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