VSU Chamber Singers to play Carnegie Hall

VALDOSTA — Clell Wright will lead the Valdosta State University Chamber Singers March 19 as they lend their voices to a choir of 100 to perform Poulenc’s "Gloria." 

The performance is set to open the first concert for MidAmerica Productions at Carnegie Hall’s Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage since 2019, and it will be the Carnegie Hall debut for both Wright and his choir, university officials said in a statement.

“This performance is my debut as a conductor at Carnegie Hall and is the debut for my students as well,” he said. “This trip is especially exciting for us because many of our students are first-generation university students and many have never traveled outside the South. To travel to New York and then have the opportunity to perform in such an historic venue is truly an excitement for our students.”

The "Gloria" text, from the Ordinary of the Catholic mass, has inspired innumerable musical settings during its 16-century existence. A late work from the most popular of the French composers collectively known as “Les Six,” the "Gloria" of Francis Poulenc exhibits in equal measure his Parisian sophistication and the sincerity of his religious beliefs. Commissioned by the Boston Symphony Orchestra "and first performed in 1961, it is considered to be one of the sweetest works of spirituality from the past 60 years," university officials said.

For Wright, although this will not be his first time conducting the Poulenc "Gloria" — the first time was about 10 years ago — he said he is excited and humbled to be leading the masterwork again. 

Describing the piece, he wrote, “I love this work. It is a balance of playfulness and deep emotion. Poulenc makes this sacred text of Adoration to the Divine leap with expression and passion. And when the chorus taps into that sense of awe and wonder, the music comes alive. I am honored beyond words to be conducting such a marvelous work as the Poulenc 'Gloria' at such a hallowed venue.”

Wright will be joined onstage by soprano soloist Eilana Lappalainen as well as a massed choir made up of seven ensembles, including the choir he directs, the Valdosta State University Chamber Singers. The other six choirs will be:

– Albany Chorale, Albany, Ga. (Travis Kern, director)

– Grambling State University Choir, Grambling, La. (Natorshau Davis, director)

– Huntington High School Choir, Shreveport, La. (Arnese Brass, director)

– Lee County High School, Leesburg, Ga. (Bradly Bunce, director)

– Shreveport Chorale, Texarkana, Texas (Marc-André Bougie, director)

– Texarkana Regional Chorale, Texarkana, Ark.-Texas (Marc-André Bougie, director)

“It is a lifelong dream of most musicians to have the opportunity to perform at Carnegie Hall,” Wright said, reflecting on the debut he and his students are about to make, “and to share the stage as a conductor with so many outstanding conductors, soloists and choral performers is truly an honor.”

Sharing the Playbill

Headlined by the New England Symphonic Ensemble (Preston Hawes, artistic director), the "Gloria" will be followed in the first third of the concert by the New York premiere of Marc-André Bougie’s "Requiem," conducted by the composer himself and performed by the aforementioned seven choirs with vocal soloists Ariana Wehr, soprano, and Daniel Sutin, baritone.

Following a brief pause in the program will be Mark Hayes’ "Te Deum" conducted by Gary Packwood and Vaughan Williams’ "Serenade to Music" conducted by Bradley Vogel. Joining Wehr and Sutin in the soloist lineup will be Alison Bolshoi, contralto, and Michael Boley, tenor. Packwood and Vogel will be conducting a choir comprising singers from the ensembles they direct — Mississippi State University State Singers and McPherson College Choir, respectively — plus voices from a third group, Wagner College Choir, Staten Island, N.Y. (Thomas Juneau, director).

A “Concert of Negro Spirituals” will be the last of three parts of the March 19 concert program, and the only third that will be after the intermission. This portion of the concert will be conducted by Paul Kwami, who will be joined by three choirs from Nashville, Tennessee — the Fisk Jubilee Singers whom he directs; the Harpeth Hall Chamber Choir, led by Esther Ting; and the Montgomery Bell Academy Choir, led by Michael Colavita — along with two others: Dorothy Cotton Jubilee Singers, Ithaca, N.Y. (Baruch Whitehead, director); Wilkes Central High School Chamber Singers, Wilkesboro, N.C. (David Brooks, director).