The Gettysburg College Choir and Camerata traveled to Virginia and North Carolina to perform a week long Southern Swing Tour in March during the college’s spring break. Most of the stops were the hometowns of students in the ensemble.
Robert Vance, temporary conductor, led the 43-member group as they performed “Rising and Setting,” featuring music that focused on the cyclical beauty of nature, love and life. Included on the program were Rheinberger’s “Abendlied,” Josquin des Prez’s “Ave Maria, virgo serena,” Eric Whitacre’s “A Boy and a Girl,” Moses Hogan’s “Elijah Rock” and works by William Byrd, Jacques Arcadelt, Palestrina and Stephen Leek.
“The spring tour is important for the choir because it deepens their understanding of the music while honing their performance in repeated shows,” Vance said.
During the tour, Alexander Englert, a senior majoring in philosophy, realized how important the choir has been to his experience: “I met most of my closest friends singing in the choir and many of my most poignant memories are from performing with the group.”
The choir perform on campus and in the Gettysburg community each semester, and tours annually in the eastern United States with regional tours in New York and New England. The choir has toured internationally on several occasions, most recently to Puerto Rico in 2008, Nicaragua in 2006 and Brazil in 2004.
By: Lawrese Brown, class of 2010
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