USC Aiken Concert Choir prepares for a study abroad trip to Italy with Spring Concert

As the semester is coming to a close, campus activities are beginning to wind down, but the USC Aiken Concert Choir has a few more weeks left before saying goodbye. The choir will have the opportunity to travel abroad to Italy to perform repertoire that they have been working towards over the past couple of semesters. The choir will visit three cities (Orvitto, Florence and Rome) during their tour of Italy to perform sacred pieces, meaning that the pieces were specifically composed for mass settings or to be used as a means of worship. In preparation for this tour, the choir will perform a concert accompanied by USC Aiken’s Canticum Novum and the South Boundary Singers on Apr 18.

As is customary with sacred pieces, the text of the music is set in Latin, such as the Missa brevis in G composed by Josef Rheinberger and Cantate Domino, a setting of Psalm 95 composed by Avro Pärt. In addition to these two Latin pieces, another piece the choir will perform is Alleluia, a piece whose text is wholly comprised of its titular word, but musically has a lot of motion and modulations, keeping the piece interesting until the last second. Apart from the Latin pieces, the choir will also perform Larry Fleming’s Give Me Jesus as well as Willaim Dawson’s Ain’a That Good News, two spiritual pieces that bring both a careful and beautiful sound as well as high energy and a fast tempo, respectively.

The concert will be at First Presbyterian Church, 224 Barnwell Avenue NW tonight at 7:30 p.m. Tickets will be available at the door for the general public for $10. USC Aiken students, faculty and staff may enter for free.