ISSUED: 4 March 2025
MEDIA CONTACT: Hans Fogle
SHEPHERDSTOWN, WV — Shepherd University’s Dr. Kurtis Adams, dean for the College of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences, was awarded a grant from the West Virginia Department of Arts, Culture, and History to support the Masterworks Chorale performance this April.
“Sprinkle Coal Dust on My Grave,” composed by Shepherd alum Walker Williams for the Masterworks Chorale, is an oratorio about the history of the Mine Wars, leading up to the Battle of Blair Mountain.
This show will be the world premiere performance of Williams’s work and is an educational partnership opportunity with schools in the area and Shepherd’s Appalachian studies program.
Performances will include narrating texts from historical sources, including speeches, witness testimonies from senate hearings in 1913 and 1921, song lyrics, and poetry.
This 2025 Folk Arts project is presented with financial assistance from the West Virginia Department of Arts, Culture, and History and the National Endowment for the Arts, with approval from the West Virginia Commission on the Arts.
Shepherd University’s Masterworks Chorale is the Eastern Panhandle’s premiere vocal ensemble, under the direction of Dr. Jason Strunk
The 100-member vocal ensemble, comprised of Shepherd University vocal students and members from the surrounding community, presents two full-length concerts per year of great masterpieces from the choral literature with soloists and orchestra.
Learn more here.
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