ISSUED: 6 August 2018
MEDIA CONTACT: Valerie Owens
SHEPHERDSTOWN, WV — Shepherd University’s Masterworks Chorale announces auditions for the November 10 performance of Baroque masterworks by Handel and Bach, including Handel’s coronation anthem “The King Shall Rejoice” and Bach’s “Cantata 150” and “Mass in G Major.” Auditions will take place August 23, 24, and 27 at 7:30 p.m. in the Frank Center McCoy Rehearsal Hall.
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 classical or folk songs, to be sung without accompaniment.
Masterworks Chorale, under the direction of Dr. Rachel Carlson, assistant professor of music, meets Monday evenings from 7:30-9:30 p.m. The 120-member vocal ensemble, made up of Shepherd vocal students and members from the community, presents two full-length concerts per year of great masterpieces from the choral literature with soloists and orchestra.
Carlson is also conductor of the Shepherd University Chamber Singers and Camerata. She founded and serves as artistic director of Six Degree Singers, a community choir based in Silver Spring, Maryland, and serves as assistant conductor of the Washington Master Chorale. In 2014, she was nominated for a Wammie (Washington Area Music Award) for best Classical Conductor/ Director. Carlson has toured the country and the world as a freelance choral singer and soprano soloist with professional ensembles, including the Oregon Bach Festival, True Concord Voices and Orchestra, Vox Humana, Santa Fe Desert Chorale, Washington Master Chorale, Washington Bach Consort, Conspirare, Manhattan Chorale, Washington Revels, and Germany’s Bach Ensemble Helmuth Rilling.
For more information or to schedule an audition, contact Carlson at 304-876-5371 or rcarlson@shepherd.edu.
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