UK Choirs to Host Bluegrass Choral Music Festival
LEXINGTON, Ky. (Oct. 16, 2015) — This weekend, Oct. 16-17, University of Kentucky Choirs is hosting the 23rd annual Bluegrass Choral Music Festival. This outreach event invites students from schools across the region to perform in a collegiate choral environment.
Yearly, the festival brings in 400-500 students for a weekend of workshops and rehearsals, preparing them for a culminating concert 4:30 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 17, in the Singletary Center for the Arts. This year, a record number of more than 500 students from 29 middle schools and high schools will be welcomed to UK’s campus for a weekend of music-making.
As part of the weekend’s activities, the UK's Men’s Chorus and Women’s Choir will perform for the students Friday night. Two of UK’s popular a cappella groups, Paws and Listen and the acoUstiKats, will perform for the festival Saturday afternoon.
The culminating concert on Oct. 17 will showcase three different choirs. Lori Hetzel, associate director of Choral Activities at UK, will lead the SSA (soprano I, soprano II, alto) Choir. Beth Wilson, former director of Choral Music at Georgia Tech (Georgia Institute of Technology), will lead the SATB (soprano, alto, tenor, bass) Choir. Jefferson Johnson, director of Choral Activities at UK, will lead a select Honor Choir with representatives from each of the high schools.
For more information on the 23rd Bluegrass Choral Music Festival or on UK Choirs and their upcoming events, contact Joseph Wrightson, administrative assistant for UK Choirs, at joseph.wrightson@g.uky.edu.
The UK Choirs are part of the UK School of Music at UK College of Fine Arts. The school has garnered a national reputation for high-caliber education in opera, choral and instrumental music performance, as well as music education, composition and music theory.
MEDIA CONTACT: Whitney Hale, 859-257-8716; whitney.hale@uky.edu