DePauw Fall Choral Concert set this week

DePauw music faculty member and director of choirs Eric Schmidt, here conducting ChoralFest on Oct. 6, will lead the DePauw University and Festival Choirs in their fall concert on Thursday, Nov. 2 in the Green Center Kresge Auditorium. Admission to the performance, which begins at 7:30 p.m., is free.

Courtesy photo/FRAN WYCOFF

Falling temperatures are signs of the season — outside and in — including the performing arts season. Right on cue, falling leaves signal DePauw’s fall choral concert on Thursday, Nov. 2 at 7:30 p.m. in the Green Center’s Kresge Auditorium (600 S. Locust St.).

According to choral director Eric Schmidt, DePauw Chamber Singers, Vox Animae and the Putnam County Festival Choir plan to take audience members on a journey through a wide spectrum of emotions promising “episodes of fright and despair met with moments of salvation and celebration.” An irresistible invitation.

In the center of the program are several pieces by Z. Randall Stroope, a composer from New Mexico, who recently visited DePauw for its first ChoralFest. This experience gave each of the participating ensembles a unique opportunity to work on several compositions for the fall concert in master classes and rehearsals led directly by the composer. In addition to these pieces, the choirs also will present single movements from larger works that they are going to perform next spring, such as Richard Einhorn’s oratorio “Voices of Light.” This dramatic work was set to the silent movie “The Passion of Joan of Arc,” which students will present together with the Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra in Indianapolis in March 2024.

For Thursday’s program, the Festival Choir also will sing the “Agnus Dei” movement of Gabriel Fauré’s Requiem in D Minor, Op. 48, which the ensemble will perform in its entirety at Wabash College in spring 2024.

Admission to Thursday’s fall choral concert is free. If you plan to go, tickets may be obtained in advance through the GCPA’s online box office at dpugreencenter.eventbrite.com or in person beginning 60 minutes prior to the performance.