Featuring the Montclair State University choirs in performances of music inspired by Africa’s diverse & unique cultural heritage.
Dr. Heather J. Buchanan, conductor
Steven W. Ryan, accompanist
Saturday, April 21 • 8:00pm
Pre-concert talk from 6:30pm to 7:30pm in the Leshowitz Recital Hall, John J. Cali School of Music.
The 60-voice MSU Singers will perform
The Making of the Drum (Bob Chilcott), Traditional South African Folk-Songs & African-American Spirituals.
The 160-voice MSU Chorale will perform David Fanshawe’s epic “Afro-Latin, tribal-choral masterpiece” African Sanctus with professional guest artist Indra Thomas, soprano and accompaniment of piano, percussion, African tape, lead guitar, bass guitar, drum kit, & ethnic drumming troupe.
This unorthodox setting of the Latin Mass integrates authentic traditional African music recorded by the composer on his now legendary journeys up the river Nile through Egypt, Sudan, Uganda and Kenya. The MSU performance will be a dramatic multi-media production with slide projections of the composer’s photographs simultaneously coordinated with the musical performance.
The MSU performances also honor the composer’s 70th birthday and we are honored to welcome his wife Jane Fanshawe to campus. Ms. Fanshawe will give a free pre-concert talk on African Sanctus in the Leshowitz Recital Hall on Saturday, April 21 beginning at 6:30pm.
