Holly Grove Choir Joins SU Chorale for 'Mass of the Children' April 19

SALISBURY, MD---Some 90 members of the Holly Grove Youth and Junior Choir join the Salisbury Chorale and a chamber orchestra to present John Rutter’s Mass of the Children 4:30 p.m. Sunday, April 19, in Salisbury University’s Holloway Hall Auditorium.

Conducted by Dr. William Folger, director of choral studies at SU, with organist Susan Zimmer, the mass is one of Rutter’s most popular works. Soloists include sopranos June Barlage, Kathy Blackburn, Aleta Davis, Leaine Eby, Mary Price and Rhonda Woolford, and bass/baritone Frank Davis.

Written following the death of Rutter’s son, Christopher, the mass premiered in 2003 at Carnegie Hall. Its five movements combine traditional Latin and Greek mass text with English poems by authors Thomas Ken and William Blake. Rutter and his compositions have been widely praised. NBC’s Today Show calls him “the world's greatest living composer and conductor of choral music.”

Also featured in the concert is Dan Forrest’s  2008 composition Three Nocturnes, a setting of poems by Sara Teasdale, Emily Dickinson and Walt Whitman for percussion, celesta, piano and chorus.

The public is invited. A $10 donation is requested at the door. For more information call 410-543-6386 or visit the SU Web site at www.salisbury.edu.