The Tusculum College Community Chorus will perform “Rutter’s Requiem,” one of today’s best loved choral works during its spring concert Monday, May 5, at Tusculum College.

The concert, which is free and open to the public, will be at 7:30 p.m. in the auditorium of the Annie Hogan Byrd Fine Arts Building on the Tusculum campus.

The first half of the program will be a performance of “Requiem” by John Rutter. The most common topics of art are the most mysterious and profound characteristics of human experience – love and death, Dr. David Hendricksen, conductor of the Community Chorus, noted during a lecture about the requiem earlier this month. Requiems were originally the addition of music to the texts used in the funeral mass, Hendricksen said, and evolved both lyrically and musically over the centuries.

In his work, John Rutter incorporates characteristics of previous requiems, Hendricksen explained. The piece was written in 1985 after the death of Rutter’s father. Hendricksen explained that Rutter was concerned with practicality so he wrote two versions – one for an orchestra and chorus and a scaled down version that could be performed by small music ensembles and choirs.

The Community Chorus will be accompanied by an instrumental ensemble of outstanding professional musicians in performing “Requiem.”  Beth Brimer and Jill Jones are the two soloists. James Winfree will be accompanist for the Community Chorus throughout the concert.

After intermission, the choir will sing a medley of music from “West Side Story” by Leonard Bernstein, and a whimsical setting of “Five Nursery Rhymes” by Ralph Hunter.

Founded in 1996 as a way to involve singers from throughout the community in a broad range of sacred and secular repertoire, the Tusculum College Community Chorus has grown to more than 50 singers.  For further information, please contact conductor David Hendricksen by phone at 638-0409 or email: conductordavid@embarqmail.com

For more information, please contact Tusculum College Arts Outreach at 423-798-1620, or email jhollowell@tusculum.edu.

One of today’s best loved and most performed choral works will be the focus of a lecture on Tuesday, April 22, at Tusculum College as Dr. David Hendricksen presents “Death, Music and Rutter’s Requiem.”

Hendricksen’s presentation will begin at 7 p.m. in the choir room (Room 46) on the lower level of the Annie Hogan Byrd Fine Arts Building (side entrance) on the Tusculum campus.

The lecture is in conjunction with the spring concert by the Tusculum College Community Chorus, which will feature the “Requiem” by John Rutter. The concert will be at 7:30 p.m. on Monday, May 5, in the auditorium in the Annie Hogan Byrd building. Hendricksen, adjunct professor of music at Tusculum who also led the 2006 Theologian-in-Residence lecture series, is the director of the Community Chorus.

In his lecture, Hendricksen will first consider the context of what a requiem is. Love and death have been two of the most significant subjects artists have addressed in their works through history.  For many centuries, composers have written requiems to mark the passage from life to death to the mystery of life after death.
The musical traditions established prior to the composition of John Rutter’s “Requiem,” including music by Mozart, Brahms, Verdi, Faure and other composers will be examined. Hendricksen will explore the ways in which Rutter’s composition both sustains that tradition and departs from it.

The lecture is part of Tusculum College Arts Outreach’s Acts, Arts, Academia 2013-14 performance and lecture series.  Admission is $6. Tusculum College faculty, staff and students are admitted free with valid Tusculum identification card.

For more information, please contact Tusculum College Arts Outreach at 423-798-1620, or email jhollowell@tusculum.edu.

Rutter’s Requiem Lecture_David H 2014_PDF

Theatre-at-Tusculum will present the powerful and engaging drama “Twelve Angry Men” the last weekend of April and the first weekend of May.

The life of a young man hangs in the balance as the “twelve angry men” of the jury must decide whether he is guilty of murder in the play, which will be performed at 7 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays, April 25-26 and May 2-3 in the Behan Arena Theatre in the lower level of the Annie Hogan Byrd Fine Arts Building (side entrance). Sunday matinee performances will be at 2 p.m. on April 27 and May 4.

“Twelve Angry Men” was originally a teleplay by Reginald Rose, which was later adapted to the stage and also became a critically acclaimed film featuring Henry Fonda. Rose’s original work reflects the time period in which it was written in that only men served on juries. Theatre-at-Tusculum will be performing an adaption of the play by Sherman L. Sergel, which provides for jurors of both genders.

Those who are familiar with the film will find that the play does differ in several points. For example, the film’s focus is preventing an injustice whereas the play’s emphasis is how people from diverse backgrounds come to a consensus, said Frank Mengel, who is directing the play. Mengel is the technical director for Tusculum College Arts Outreach and has directed such productions as “The Diary of Anne Frank” and “Dogg’s Hamlet” for Theatre-at-Tusculum in recent years.

When the play opens, the jurors are almost unanimous in a “guilty” vote, except for a single dissenter. As the jury discuss their views, individual biases and prejudices are revealed and seeds of doubt about the guilt of the accused man begin to grow.

Many familiar local actors will be portraying the jurors, who are not known by name but by their juror number, including Paige Mengel, Brian Ricker, Will Maddux, Parker Bunch, Angela Bride, Sandy Nienabar, Margo Olmstead, Jeff Reese, Eva Griffin, Larry Bunton, Michael Fillers and Jeff Klepper. Zach Gass will portray the guard to the jury room.

The jury room is the scene of all the action of the play and the single set is being constructed by DeAundra Bowker, Bonnie Parks, Jacob Hoffman, Devon Suttles, Ashley Brooks, Andrew Herzig and Gary Mitchell. The stage manager is Suzanne Greene and Barbara Holt is the costume designer.

Admission for the play is $12 for adults, $10 for seniors 60 and over, and $5 for children 12 and under.

To make ticket reservations, please call Tusculum College Arts Outreach at 423-798-1620 or email jhollowell@tusculum.edu

To those not selected; Please do not be upset or feel you did poorly! You made this decision most challenging.  You each performed exceptionally well, and should be exceedingly proud of how well you did!

We would like to encourage you to keep your chin up and to PLEASE continue to audition for our various productions and programs, as we will have more audition opportunities next season. You may find information about possible future auditions and the latest Arts Outreach news on our website, http://arts.tusculum.edu/. Again, bravo to each of you for being so brave and displaying so much talent!

To those selected; Congratulations! We look forward to having you join our group and are excited to work with you! You will be receiving an e-mail within the next few days providing more information, but please reply to this message and let us know, if for some reason you are unable to accept our invitation. Again, Congratulations!

Once again, thank you all for attending GLAWPIGT auditions! We look forward to hopefully seeing all of you in the future. If you have any questions or would like more information regarding GLAWPIGT or any of our other Arts Outreach programs you may contact us by calling 423-798-1620, by visiting our website or Facebook page (TC Arts Outreach), or by emailing jhollowell@tusculum.edu or baricker@tusculum.edu.