College Choir Goes "Down Under" For World Voices Australia Tour

Choir parent? View the trip tinerary (pdf).

SHREVEPORT, La.—The Centenary College Choir will leave Thursday, May 28 for a tour and performances in New Zealand and Australia before returning home on June 9. The group is comprised of 61 student singers and will be accompanied by 26 additional friends, family, faculty, staff, and alumni.

Photographs from May 28: The Choir begins their journey on a bus to DFW. (photos by Rick DelaHaya)

The choir will join other choirs from across the world as part of the World Voices Australia Concert 2009 and perform Mozart's Requiem Mass in D minor in the Sydney Opera House.

The trip begins with a four-day stop in Auckland and Rotorua, New Zealand, and will include a performance at the Pitt St Methodist. Church in Auckland. This will be the choir's second visit to New Zealand, the first such trip coming 20 years ago in 1989.

The choir wraps up the tour in Sydney, Australia for a final concert in the Sydney Opera House on June 8. The first half of the program will feature a short concert by the Choir of their own repertoire, then joining with 100 other singers from 4 different choirs to perform the Requiem Mass in D minor. The Monday-evening event is the choir's main concert of the trip, and will perform under the direction of Dr. Eric Nelson, Director of Choral Studies at Emory University in Atlanta.

The Requiem Mass in d Minor by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was composed in 1791. It was Mozart's last composition and is also perhaps one of his most powerful and recognized works, not only for its music, but also for the debate as to how much of the music Mozart managed to complete before his death, and how much was later composed by his student Franz Xaver Süssmayr. Even with the open debate about how much of the music was Mozart's, the Requiem has taken a prominent place as one of Mozart's most important works.

About the Centenary College Choir

The Centenary Choir and the tour will be under the direction of David Hobson, completing his second season as choir director. Hobson is only the fourth conductor in the choir's 68 year history and the second to hold the prestigious A.C. Cheesy Voran Chair.

Centenary College Choir

Since 1941 the Centenary College Choir has performed throughout the world: singing for front-line troops in Korea, many American and European heads of state, NATO and American armed forces worldwide, 10 international conventions of Lions International, three times for the General Conference of the United Methodist Church, the Council of Bishops, and two lengthy engagements at New York's "Radio City Music Hall."

Years of extensive travel have earned the choir the media title of "America's Singing Ambassadors." In addition to singing annually throughout the United States, the choir makes international tours every other year, which has included 31 countries on six continents. The most recent concert tour was to Ireland, Wales and England in 2007. The choir is a unique collegiate choral group, singing a varied repertory including both sacred and secular music, from Bach to Broadway, folk to contemporary, and opera to oratorio.

About Centenary College of Louisiana

Centenary College is a private, four-year arts and sciences college affiliated with the United Methodist Church. Founded in 1825, it is the oldest chartered liberal arts college west of the Mississippi River and is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. Centenary is one of 16 colleges and universities constituting the Associated Colleges of the South and is regularly rated as one of the top colleges in the South. In 2008 Centenary College celebrated 100 years in Shreveport and Bossier City.