Lenoir-Rhyne College Hymn Festival Tour in Carolinas

The Sacred Music Program at Lenoir-Rhyne College will present a Hymn Festival Tour Sept. 21-24 at locations in North and South Carolina. The tour is in celebration of the Sacred Music Program’s 10th anniversary, which occurs during the 2006-2007 academic year.

All performances are free and open to the public. The itinerary is as follows: 7 p.m. Sept. 21 at St. Stephen’s Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod in Hickory; 8 p.m. Sept. 22 at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral in Columbia, S.C.; 7 p.m. Sept. 23 at First Presbyterian Church in Wilmington, N.C.; and 4 p.m. Sept. 24 at Grace Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod in Durham, N.C. A shorter version of the program will be presented Sept. 24 at 11:15 a.m. at Good Shepherd Lutheran Church in Raleigh.

Performers include the Lenoir-Rhyne College A Cappella Choir, Paul Weber, director; the Lenoir-Rhyne Youth Chorus Chamber Singers, Florence Jowers, conductor; Lenoir-Rhyne College organist Florence Jowers, accompanist; and hymn festival organist Michael Costello, adjunct instructor for liturgical ministries, Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary and assistant pastor and director of music ministries at St. Andrew’s Lutheran Church in Columbia, S.C.

The Rev. Paul Weber, director of choral activities, and Professor Florence Jowers, college organist, were appointed jointly to the faculty in 1996 to develop a comprehensive program in sacred music. Michael Costello is a 2001 graduate of the program.

The festival will feature both old and new hymns of the faith, including “Children of the Heavenly Father” and “God of Grace and God of Glory” in arrangements by Costello. Also included on the program will be H.H. Parry’s “I Was Glad” by the combined choirs. The A Cappella Choir will sing “God So Loved the World” by contemporary English composer Andrew Carter, “So Much To Sing About” by Paul Weber, and the popular spiritual “Ain’-a That Good News!” by William Dawson.

The Youth Chorus Chamber Choir will perform “Praise the Lord Who Reigns Above” by Jody Lindh and the Caldwell & Ivory gospel arrangement, “Children, Go Where I Send Thee.” The festival will conclude with the combined choirs leading the audience in Weber’s arrangement of “A Mighty Fortress” and the choral blessing “The God of Peace.”

For more information, visit http://www.lrc.edu/mus/Pages/Choral-Pages/Fall_2006_Hymn_Festival.htm

©2006 Lenoir-Rhyne College