ISSUED: 10 August 2017
MEDIA CONTACT: Valerie Owens
SHEPHERDSTOWN, WV — Shepherd University’s Masterworks Chorale will hold auditions on August 25 and 28 for the Saturday, December 2, performance of the choral masterworks, Mendelssohn’s “Psalm 42” and Fauré’s “Requiem.”
Masterworks Chorale is particularly seeking tenors and basses, however, auditions are open to all voices and consist of vocal exercises and sight-reading. Individual auditions are by appointment and singers should prepare a short piece, preferably a classical or folk song, in advance to be sung without accompaniment.
The Masterworks Chorale, which is under the direction of Dr. Rachel Carlson, assistant professor of music and director of choral activities, meets Monday evenings at 7:30 p.m. in the Frank Center McCoy Rehearsal Hall. The 120-member vocal ensemble, made up 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.
Carlson is conductor of the Shepherd University Chamber Singers, Women’s Camerata, and Masterworks Chorale. 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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