Westmont Choir Tours Southern California

The Westmont College Choir tours Southern California April 13-15 with performances in San Dimas, Glendale, Downey and Oxnard. The Westmont College Choir Spring Tour 2012, featuring 40 student singers, includes a repertoire that will explore the life of Christ through the eyes of five centuries of composers.

“This story will be told in vivid textual and musical images,” says Michael Shasberger, Adams professor of music and worship, “from the 16th century voices of Heinrich Schütz and his great Easter double choir motet, ‘I Am the Resurrection’ and Jacobus Gallus and his telling of the Ascension, ‘Ascendit Deus’ to the 21st century sounds of Craig Carnahan’s poignant Advent song, ‘Thou Shalt Know Him When He Comes.’”

The performances also include music by Handel, Brahms and Isaac Watts, whose compositions depict Christ’s birth, life and passion. The choir performs the newly composed “Rain Sequence” by Philadelphia composer Rollo Dilworth. “It combines gospel music, African-American spiritual styles, the poetry of Langston Hughes, Laurence Dunbar and newly written texts into an expressive idiom for three songs that celebrate the creative and renewing aspects of rain,” Shasberger says.

In the past the choir has toured Scotland, England, Guatemala, Costa Rica, the Southwest and the Northwest. “This is the time when the choir grows the most as a unit during the season,” Shasberger says. “Even a few days shared together in travel, song, worship and recreation — a little bit detached and free from the other distractions of college life — give the ensemble a renewed sense of identity.”

The Westmont Chamber Singers, under the direction of conductor Grey Brothers, will also perform. The group will sing Renaissance and Baroque music from the Old World and the New, including celebrated works by Mexicans Juan de Lienas and Manuel de Sumaya, as well a fuguing tune by American William Billings. Highlights of recent works will include "Two Motets" by California composer John Biggs. The chamber singers will also perform folk songs, including a witty arrangement of the American favorite "Buffalo Gals" by Libby Larsen, spirituals, and jazz and pop arrangements.

Admission to all the events is free with a free-will offering taken during the program.

Performance dates and locations are:

• Friday, April 13, at 8 p.m. at Faith Lutheran Church, 505 East Bonita Ave., San Dimas
• Saturday, April 14, at 1 p.m. at Holy Family Catholic Church, 209 E. Lomita Ave., Glendale
  • 7 p.m. at First Presbyterian Church of Downey, 10544 Downey Ave., Downey
• Sunday, April 15, at 3 p.m. at First Presbyterian of Oxnard, 850 Ivywood Dr., Oxnard