Ouachita Stories

Ouachita Baptist University’s School of Fine Arts Division of Music will present the Ouachita Women’s Chorus and Concert Choir in a combined choirs Fall Concert on Tuesday, Oct. 13, at 7:30 p.m. in Ouachita’s McBeth Recital Hall. The concert is open to the public, and admission is free.

The students from both choirs, who range in classification from freshman to senior and will be singing religious choral music.

“I expect the audience to be mesmerized by the choirs’ intensity as they sing, moved by the choirs’ emotion that they put into the music and overjoyed by the excitement that the choir will portray,” said Dr. Gary Gerber, associate professor of music and conductor of Concert Choir. “It is going to be a fabulous concert.”

Women’s Chorus, conducted by Mary Worthen, OBU assistant professor of music, will open the concert with Ernani Aguiar’s “Salmo 150,” followed by Joseph M. Martin’s “God of Wonders.” Next, they will perform Robert Hugh’s arrangement of “How Can I Keep From Singing” with soloist Emily Peek, a junior music education and choral major from Pine Bluff, Ark.

The Women’s Chorus will continue the first half of the concert with Moses Hogan’s arrangement of “Music Down in My Soul” and Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina’s “Ave Regina Coelorum.” Their final performance will be of Z. Randall Stroope’s “Psalm 23” with Samantha Street, a freshman accounting major from Duncan, Okla., on violin.

Concert Choir, conducted by Gerber, will then perform Knut Nystedt’s “Cry Out and Shout,” Volckmar Leisring’s “O filii et filiae,” Anna Jacobs’ “Ave Maria” and Ludwig van Beethoven’s “Hallelujah” from Mount of Olives.

Next, Concert Choir will perform W.A. Mozart’s “Laudate Dominum” from Vesperae solemne de confessore, K339, with Hannah Chapman, a senior vocal performance major from Forney, Texas, as featured soprano. They will then perform Moses Hogan’s “I Know the Lord’s Laid His Hands on Me” with soloists Grace Johnson, a junior voice performance major from Tyler, Texas, and Preston Pickett, a freshman mass communications major from Dallas, Texas.

The concert will conclude with Jane Marshall’s “My Eternal King” with Russell Hodges, Ouachita’s associate professor of music and music librarian, on organ.

By Rebecca Stone