The 50-voice Rutgers University Chorus, Newark Campus, will present spring concert on Sunday, April 28, 4:30 p.m. in Christ Episcopal Church, 74 Park Ave., Glen Ridge, N.J. , and again on May 5 and May 6 in Newark at St. Mary’s Abbey Church and on the Rutgers campus.
At all three concerts, the Rutgers Chorus, under the direction of Prof. John E. Floreen, will present works of Benjamin Britten, Michael Cox, Gabriel Faure, Moritz Hauptmann, Georg Philipp Telemann, Louie White, Malcolm Williamson. The chorus also will perform arrangements of spirituals and British, Mexican, Taiwanese and Hebrew folksongs, all reflecting the rich cultural diversity of Rutgers-Newark. Susan McAdoo serves as the Chorus’s assistant conductor, and Brian Harlow is the accompanist. The Newark concerts will be on Sunday, May 5, 3 p.m. in St. Mary’s Abbey Church, 528 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., Newark, N.J., and on Monday, May 6, 11:30 a.m. in the Paul Robeson Campus Center Art Gallery, 350 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., on the campus of Rutgers-Newark. Admission to the April 28 and the May 5 concerts is $25 for preferred seating; $10, general admission; $5, students and senior citizens. Admission to the May 6 campus concert is free.
Christ Church and the Robeson Campus Center are handicapped accessible.
The Chorus has made eight international concert tours, having performed in Germany and the Czech Republic (1997), The Netherlands (1999), France (2001), England (2003), Scotland (2005), Wales (2007), Italy (2009, and Spain (2011). Highlights among the tours have been performances given in Notre Dame Cathedral, Paris; St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican, Rome; St. Paul’s Cathedral, London; Segovia Cathedral, Spain; and the St. Thomas Church, Leipzig, Germany. During its Wales concert tour the Chorus performed live over BBC Wales Radio. A concert tour in Austria is planned to take place in May, 2014.
The Chorus’s ongoing mission of campus outreach has included performances in over 25 communities in the five counties surrounding Newark, serving as, in the words of the Star-Ledger as the musical “prime ambassadors” of Rutgers-Newark.
Critical reviews include: “The Rutgers Chorus has everything….huge musical talent, a strong sense of rhythm, the disciplined precision to deliver a clear, vigorous young sound, full of joy and enthusiasm” (Croeso, Cardiff, Wales, UK); “Excellent intonation and flawless musical projection are distinguishing characteristics of the Rutgers Chorus….a group of exceptional singers” (Associazione Italiana Organisti de Chiesa” (Cremona, Italy); “Magnificent voices….one of the more outstanding vocal groups in the United States of America” (Diario de Avila (Avila, Spain).
For information: Prof. John E. Floreen, conductor, Rutgers University Chorus, 973 625 4651, or Jfloreen@Earthlink.Net
