The MSU Grand Chorus and MSU Symphony Orchestra will join forces to perform the annual President’s Concert Sunday, April 28 at 3:30 p.m. at the Juanita K. Hammons Hall for the Performing Arts.

The concert is free and open to the public. Tickets are not required.

A long-standing, end-of-year tradition

Conducted by Dr. Cameron LaBarr, Clif and Gail Smart professor in music and director of choral studies, the annual President’s Concert is a long-standing, end-of-year tradition presented by the Department of Music.

The orchestra is prepared by Dr. Chris Kelts, director of orchestral studies, and the choirs are prepared by Dr. Erin Plisco, associate director of choral studies, and LaBarr.

“Seeing and hearing the caliber of musicians on stage creating beautiful music together is truly amazing,” LaBarr said. “It is one of my favorite events of the year.”

This also will be Clif Smart’s final President’s Concert to sponsor as president of MSU.

Soloists have special connections to MSU

This year’s concert will feature four soloists: Kara Ann McBain (soprano), Caitlin Moore (mezzo-soprano), Brandon Michael Nase (tenor) and Jared Swope (baritone).

Each soloist has a special connection to MSU, according to LaBarr.

McBain is a graduate of MSU who studied voice with Dr. Carol Chapman and sang in the MSU Chorale, LaBarr said. She has recorded commercially as a soloist on two of the Chorale’s albums.

Swope is a graduate of MSU who studied with Dr. Chris Thompson and also sang in the MSU Chorale. He has completed graduate degrees at University of Notre Dame and Yale University and now sings professionally around the world.

Nase is currently serving as guest artist in the Department of Music for the 2023-2024 academic year.

Moore and LaBarr met when LaBarr was a faculty member at Lee University. Moore sang professionally in the Tennessee Chamber Chorus, which LaBarr conducted at the time. Moore is now at Colorado Mesa University.

Program features a grand classic and a premiere performance

This year’s program consists of two masterworks: “Missa in Angustiis” by Joseph Haydn and the North American premiere of “Out of this Darkness: A Normandy Cantata” by John Wykoff.

Wykoff plans to attend this year’s concert.

Previous masterworks performed for the President’s concert include Beethoven’s “Symphony No. 9,” Mozart’s “Requiem,” Bach’s “Mass in B Minor” and Orff’s “Carmina Burana.”

Music in times of trial

Haydn’s “Missa in Angustiis” (Mass for troubled times), composed in 1798, and Wykoff’s “Out of this Darkness: A Normandy Cantata,” composed in 2023, may be contrasting in style, instrumentation and text, but they share the thematic idea of triumph over trials, LaBarr said.

“Missa in Angustiis” was composed during the War of the First Coalition as Napoleon’s armies moved further into Europe, threatening Vienna where Haydn was living at the time, LaBarr explained.

News of Napoleon’s defeat by Lord Nelson and the British Navy at the Battle of the Nile reached Vienna within the week of the work’s premiere, thus giving the work the moniker of “Lord Nelson Mass,” he added.

Composer John Wykoff’s “Out of this Darkness: A Normandy Cantata” was commissioned for the Normandy Choral Festival, an event in which a French orchestra and several American choirs, including the MSU Chamber Choir performed, according to LaBarr.

Wykoff and lyricist Charles Anthony Silvestri capture Normandy’s long and violent history while remaining hopeful for a more peaceful world.

“‘Out of this Darkness’…looks for a definite redemption secured by solid Love,” Wykoff wrote.

Mark your calendar for the President’s Concert