GCU News Bureau
Maybe you sang in your high school a cappella choir back in the day -- or the church choir.
And you miss making that joyful noise.
If so, you might be the perfect fit for Grand Canyon University’s Canyon Choral Society, which is looking for a few good singers to add to its roster as its spring season gets ready to gear up in January.
“This is the group that does the big pieces, generally with the orchestra,” said College of Fine Arts and Production Assistant Dean Dr. Juan de Dios Hernandez.
The group is best known for its production of Handel’s “Messiah” at Christmastime in GCU Arena, one of those massive choral works (the choir performs a little more than two hours of the oratorio, which spans almost three hours when fully performed). The choir also has performed Brahms’ “Requiem,” Mendelssohn’s “Elijah” and Morten Lauridsen’s “Lux Aeterna.”
“And we performed at Carnegie Hall last spring,” said Mark Fearey, GCU Music Director and pianist.
As few as 80 and as many as 120 vocalists perform with the Choral Society each season.
It is the University’s community choir. Although it is made up primarily of students, Hernandez said, “Over the years, we have had faculty, alumni and members of the community at large,” he said.
Rehearsals run from 5:30 to 7 p.m. on Mondays with an occasional midweek dress rehearsal.
Hernandez said that it’s around this time of year, after the annual “Messiah” performance, that people ask him how to join the group.
“It is the only choir (on campus) that is nonaudition,” he said.
Those who are interested in joining simply need to contact Hernandez ([email protected]) or Fearey ([email protected]).
The Canyon Choral Society performs once or twice a semester, and this spring the group is scheduled to perform yet another large-scale work, Beethoven’s “Ninth Symphony.”
The Canyon Choral Society’s first rehearsal of the spring semester is set for Jan. 7.
