Kean Choir and Chorale Take Music on Tour

The Kean University Concert Choir, Chorale and Men’s Chamber Choir’s 20-year annual touring tradition continued this spring with six concerts in five days in New Jersey and the Washington, D.C. area.

The apex of the student’s tour was the group’s concert at Christ Church Episcopal in Kensington, Maryland.

“It was a delightful program, beautifully sung and played, with a lovely variety of styles. The soloists all had beautiful voices, and I enjoyed hearing the different languages sung so convincingly and with so much enthusiasm,” said Ted Guerrant, DMA, director of music at the church.

At the University of Maryland, Kean Music Conservatory students took a choral master class with Edward Maclary, D.M., director of choral activities. In Haydn’s famous chorus The Heavens Are Telling, Maclary urged the students to involve their whole body in singing. As the students sang their world music pieces from Venezuela and Brazil, he danced with them and encouraged the whole choir to move with the music. He also heard the choir perform She Walks in Beauty, a piece written by Matthew Halper, DMA, professor of music composition, theory and technology at Kean.

“There’s so much to think about and bring back to our performances in New Jersey,” said senior music major Anthony Hildebrandt of Toms River.

Kean students also visited the Kennedy Performing Arts Center for a concert version of John Adam’s 2012 opera The Gospel According to the Other Mary. Directed by Maclary, the performance featured the University of Maryland Concert Choir.

Junior music education major Tricia Marshall of Point Pleasant said the Choir was “the real star of the show,” and noted that the musicians incisively displayed the choral ideals Maclary had taught in the master class the day before.

After returning to New Jersey, the Choir performed concerts at four area high schools — in Woodbridge, Elizabeth, Roselle Park and Passaic.

“Once again, the students of the Conservatory of Music showcased the best of what Kean has to offer,” said Mark Terenzi, D.M., Kean music professor and choral director. “Bravissimo, Kean Choir students!”

Photo Captions:
Top: Music Conservatory soloists Tricia Marshall, Victoria Esposito and Asia Johnson incorporating exuberant choreography into their performance of Tuxedo Junction at Elizabeth High School.
Left: Music Conservatory students visited the University of Maryland in College Park, and took a choral master class with Edward Maclary, D.M., director of choral activities.
Right: Kean Concert Choir, Chorale and Men’s Chamber Choir performed at Christ Church Episcopal of Kensington, Maryland, as part of the Music Conservatory’s annual tour.