“Viva La Musica!” concert to feature choral groups at UNC Asheville March 26

With a program spanning many centuries of music sung in four different languages, three UNC Asheville choirs will join to present a concert called Viva La Musica! at 3 p.m. on Sunday, March 26 in Lipinsky Auditorium on campus. This concert is free and open to everyone. 

The concert will feature works with long staying power – Sicut Cervus by Renaissance-era composer Palestrina and Elegischer Gesang by Beethoven – and modern reinterpretations of How Can I Keep from Singing and Simple Gifts. Laura Farnell’s gospel-style work, Lead the Way! inspired by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. will be performed along with Dark Night of the Soul and Luminous Night of the Soul by Norwegian composer Ola Gjeilo. The Latin-style Ritmo by Dan Davison and David Brunner’s Viva La Musica! will complete the program. 

The UNC Asheville Singers – a small student choir that has been selected to sing at the White House for 10 consecutive years – will perform under direction of Associate Professor and Music Department Chair Melodie Galloway. They’ll be joined by two larger choirs directed by Chuck Taft: the University Singers, featuring faculty and staff as well as students, and the Reuter Center Singers – the community chorus of OLLI, the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at UNC Asheville. 

Pianists Brad Curtioff and Nora Vetro, and a string quartet consisting of Andrea Pettigrew (first violin), Mariya Potapova (second violin), Claire Gerhardt (viola) and James Lestock (cello) will accompany the choirs. For more information, about UNC Asheville’s Music Department visit music.unca.edu or call 828.251.6432.