Approximately 100 high school students will be on the Lee University campus to participate in the annual Honor Choir on Friday and Saturday, Feb. 8-9. Every member of the choir was selected by a high school director to represent their school on the collegiate stage.
The event will culminate in a performance Saturday, Feb. 9, at 3 p.m. in the Conn Center. In addition to the Honor Choir, the Lee University Choral Union, conducted by Dr. Cameron F. LaBarr, will give its own music performance. An ensemble from Lee’s Opera Theatre, directed by Mr. Jimmy Frost, will also perform a scene from their upcoming production of Gilbert and Sullivan’s “The Gondoliers.”
The students will rehearse choral music under the direction of School of Music faculty members William Green, Cameron F. LaBarr and Loralee Songer. The students are grouped into a men and women’s choir to study, rehearse and eventually perform their own musical selections, with the entire group coming together for a mixed choir experience.
Much of the students’ time on campus will be spent learning and preparing their pieces during intense training sessions with the Lee faculty.
Dr. William Green is a professor of Choral Music, conducts the Lee University Chorale, and serves as dean of the School of Music. Dr. Green is active nationally and internationally as a guest conductor, adjudicator and clinician. He has presented workshops throughout the United States, as well as in Central America and Israel, and most recently conducted Lee’s Festival Choir at the 2013 Presidential Inauguration.
Dr. Cameron F. LaBarr joined the Lee faculty in fall 2011 as an assistant professor of choral music and director of Choral Union. Dr. LaBarr was recently awarded a fellowship to attend and participate in the Salzburg Global Forum for Young Cultural Leaders in Austria, selected as one of 50 attendees from a pool of candidates from around the world.
Dr. Loralee Songer, the director of Ladies of Lee, is an assistant professor of music at Lee University. Dr. Songer is active as a vocal recitalist with performances throughout the United States and abroad. She won first place at the Regional National Association of Teachers of Singing in 2008 and 2010 and has used her extensive experience to teach at scholastic conferences across the nation.
The concert is open to the public and free of charge.
For more information, contact LuAnn Holden at lholden@leeuniversity.edu or 614-8259.