ISSUED: 3 January 2017
MEDIA CONTACT: Valerie Owens
SHEPHERDSTOWN, WV — Shepherd University’s Masterworks Chorale will hold auditions beginning Monday, January 9, for the April 22 performance of Brahms’ Ein deutsches Requiem. Masterworks Chorale is looking for tenors and basses in particular, but auditions are open to all voices and consist of vocal exercises and sight-reading. Singers should prepare a short piece in advance, preferably a classical or folk song, to be sung without accompaniment.
The Masterworks Chorale meets Monday evenings from 7:30-9:30 p.m. in the Frank Center McCoy Rehearsal Hall. The 120-member vocal ensemble, under the direction of Dr. Rachel Carlson, assistant professor of music, is comprised of Shepherd University vocal students and members of the community. It presents two full-length concerts per year of great masterpieces from choral literature with soloists and orchestra.
Carlson is also the conductor of the Shepherd University Chamber Singers and Women’s Camerata. She founded and serves as artistic director of Six Degree Singers, a community choir based in Silver Spring, Maryland. In 2014, Carlson was nominated for a Wammie (Washington Area Music Award) for best classical conductor/director. Carlson has toured extensively with professional choirs across the country, appearing as a soprano soloist with the Washington Master Chorale, Washington Bach Consort, Santa Fe Desert Chorale, Oregon Bach Festival, True Concord Voices and Orchestra, Vox Humana, and Washington Revels, and as a professional choral singer with Conspirare and the Manhattan Chorale.
For more information or to schedule an audition, contact Carlson at 304-876-5371 or rcarlson@shepherd.edu.
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