269 FIRST-EVER MTSU WOMEN’S CHOIR INVITATIONAL SET FOR FEB. 24

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Feb. 14, 2007
CONTACT: Tim Musselman, 615-898-2493

Inaugural Event Will Feature Free & Open Afternoon Chorale Concert

(MURFREESBORO)—The first-ever MTSU Women’s Choir Invitational featuring select high school choirs and the MTSU Women’s Chorale will be held beginning with 8:30 a.m. registration Feb. 24 in Wright Music Building (WMB) lobby on the MTSU campus and ending with a final concert performance at 4:30 p.m. in the T. Earl Hinton Music Hall of the WMB.
"The MTSU Women's Choir Invitational has been designed to recognize some of the state's top female high school choirs,” said Dr. Jamila McWhirter, assistant professor of choral music education at MTSU. “This is a wonderful opportunity for these young women to sing together in a supportive environment.”
McWhirter said the invitations for the event are an honor extended to those high school women’s ensembles whose members received a superior or excellent rating at last year’s ACDA State Choral Festival.
The clinician and guest director for the event will be Sandra Cordes, a past president of the Missouri Choral Directors Association. Cordes presently serves as a clinician and adjudicator for various festivals and honor choirs in the Midwest and throughout the United States.
Concerning the final concert, the MTSU Women’s Chorale will perform, while the Mt. Juliet Women’s Choir, Wilson Central Varsity Women’s Choir, Oak Ridge Select Women’s Chorale, Madison Women’s Chorale and the Siegel Women’s Select will perform individual choral selections.
With MTSU music student Tracey Phillips as accompanist and under Cordes’ choral direction, the choirs will perform Johann Helmich Roman’s Jubilate Deo, Eugene Butler’s On the Beach at Night Alone, Zoltán Kodály’s Dancing Song and Mary Lynn Lightfoot’s How Can I Keep From Singing.
“It is my hope that this Invitational will aid in the promotion of women’s choral music in the state of Tennessee and create a thoroughly enjoyable aesthetic experience for the participants,” McWhirter said.
The Feb. 24 event was made possible through funding from the MTSU Public Service Committee and the American Music Company in Liberty, Mo.
The 4:30 p.m. performance is free and open to the public.
For more information on this and other events in the McLean School of Music, please visit www.mtsumusic.com or call 615-898-2493.

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