The community is invited to join the Lander University Department of Music for an evening with Lander’s two choral ensembles. The University Singers and Old Main Singers will host a joint performance Sunday, April 14, at 4 p.m. in the Josephine B. Abney Cultural Center Auditorium at Lander. This concert is free and open to the public.
Lander’s University Singers and Old Main Singers will perform music from five centuries in this concert titled Journey: Choral Music for a Lifetime. Concert selections will include Randall Thompson’s “Allelluia,” Claudio Monteverdi’s “Si ch’io vorrei morire,” Hugo Alfven’s “Aftonen,” Gerald Kemner’s “Now Shout!,” Phil Mattson’s “Misty,” Harry Somers’s “Feller from Fortune,” Daniel Gawthrop’s “Sing Me to Heaven,” and Freddie Mercury’s “Somebody to Love.”
The concert will also be the final collegiate choral conducting appearance of Dr. Chuck Neufeld, professor of music, who will be completing his 44-year journey as a director of choral ensembles with his retirement from Lander University at the end of the academic year. Neufeld has conducted collegiate choral ensembles for 33 years. He has served on Lander’s faculty as director of choral activities since 2010. Neufeld has led musical productions of the Greenwood Community Theatre and served as artistic director and conductor of the Laurens County Chorale for 14 years. He has performed in 43 of the 50 United States and in 12 European countries, in venues such as Piccolo Spoleto Music Festival and the Moscow State Conservatory; with the Augusta Symphony, the Aiken Symphony, the Phoenix Symphony, the Fort Worth Symphony and the Boston Pops; and with professional choirs such as the Phoenix Bach Choir, the Vancouver Chamber Choir, the Taylor Festival Choir and the Cecilia Ensemble. He has served as choral director in eight churches and given many solo oratorio performances.
“Dr. Chuck Neufeld has ably led Lander’s choral groups, taught music education courses, and led voice lessons at the University and beyond,” said Dr. Lucas McMillan, interim dean of the College of Arts and Humanities at Lander. “He has performed across the United States and in Russia with The Cecilia Ensemble. Most importantly, Chuck has helped to mentor Lander alumni who now serve as choral directors in S.C. schools, some of whom have won state-wide awards.”
At the conclusion of the concert, Lander will celebrate the careers of both Dr. Chuck Neufeld and Dr. Judi Neufeld, who will also retire from Lander after serving on Lander’s faculty since 2002, and previously as the dean of the College of Education. A reception after the concert will allow community friends, alumni and students to share their appreciation for the Neufelds and wish them well in their retirement.
Please visit www.lander.edu/events for updates and to confirm event times and venues. For questions, please contact the College of Arts and Humanities at 864-388-8323, or send an email to music@lander.edu.
To make a gift to the College of Arts and Humanities, please visit giving.lander.edu/give/CoAH.