The Florida A&M University (FAMU) Concert Choir holds its final performance of the year with its Holiday Concert on Sunday, Dec. 8, at 7 p.m.
Director Mark Butler, DMA, and his students are looking forward to a large turnout at Lee Hall Auditorium and hope the support continues during the coming months.
Carnegie Hall Debut
The Concert Choir is scheduled to perform on April 6, 2020, at the legendary Carnegie Hall in New York City. To pay for that trip, the group is soliciting donations.
Butler said the Concert Choir has had previous invitations to perform at the world-famous venue but couldn’t afford the trip. This time will be different as the group prepares for its Carnegie Hall debut.
“With a supportive University president, dean and positively motivated student members, along with a committed and industrious Executive Board, we are very hopeful in making this wonderful opportunity become a reality,” said Butler, director of Choral/Vocal Studies and Activities.
“We’re working hard and requesting support to meet deadlines for Carnegie payment deposits and funds for hotel lodging and transportation.”
The Carnegie Hall Concert program will involve three segments. Part I features Conductor Anton Armstrong, DMA, and the St. Olaf University Choir. In Part II, the FAMU Concert Choir will perform as part of a mass choir singing retired Florida State University professor Andre Thomas’ Mass “Gloria” with a professional symphony orchestra. Thomas will conduct that performance.
Butler, an associate professor of music, will conduct the FAMU Concert Choir as it performs in Part III, the finale.
“We are delighted for our students,” said Valencia Matthews, Ph.D., dean of the College of Social Sciences, Arts and the Humanities. “Many artists never fulfill their dream of performing on the Carnegie Hall stage. These students can say they did it while at FAMU.”
Holiday Concert
Sunday’s concert will first feature three selections from the Cairo (Georgia) High School Chorus conducted by FAMU music graduate Erikka Edwards. The University Concert Choir will then perform various choral pieces. Butler said the concert should last about 80 minutes. Admission is free.
To donate to the FAMU Concert Choir, visit: https://my.famu.edu/giving/concertchoir
