UK Chorale to Open Season Masterfully

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Sept. 24, 2015) — The 2015 University of Kentucky Chorale will return to Cathedral of Christ the King this weekend to make its debut as part of the "Cathedral Concert Series." The UK Chorale, under the direction of Jefferson Johnson, UK School of Music director of Choral Activities, will perform at 2:30 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 27. The one-hour "Masterworks" concert, featuring a performance of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's "Coronation Mass," is free and open to the public.

In addition to the Mozart work, the UK Chorale concert will include four shorter new works: "O Nata Lux" by Jens Klimek; "Rytmus" by Ivan Hrušovský, "No Time" arranged by Susan Brumfield, and "Ezekiel," a spiritual arranged for double chorus by Stacey Gibbs. The "Coronation Mass" will be accompanied by organist Michael Rintamaa and a string trio. William White, a graduate student from St. Cloud, Minnesota, will serve as assistant conductor for the concert.

The UK Chorale is the premier mixed choral ensemble at UK. It consists mostly of upperclassmen and graduate students. While the majority of singers are music majors, there are a number of other academic disciplines represented within the ensemble. The 40-voice group prides itself in performing a wide variety of choral literature from Renaissance to 21st century. Most recently, the UK Chorale has performed Mozart’s "Requiem" with the UK Symphony Orchestra and the live score to Stanley Kubrick’s iconic film, "2001: A Space Odyssey." The UK Chorale was the first non-professional chorus in the world to perform the challenging Kubrick film score in its entirety.

UK Chorale has received regional and national awards — most recently an invitation to perform at the American Choral Directors Association convention with the Chattanooga Symphony in March 2015. The group has toured Italy (St. Marks Cathedral); Switzerland; France (Cathedral of Notre Dame, Chartres Cathedral, American Cathedral in Paris and La Madeleine Church; Washington, D.C. (Kennedy Center); the Bahamas (private performance in the Presidential Palace); and New York City (Carnegie Hall in 2001).

The "Cathedral Concert Series" is presented by the Cathedral of Christ the King Music Ministry. It is funded by the Cathedral of Christ the King endowment fund. Christ the King is located at 299 Colony Boulevard in Lexington.

For more information on this concert or the UK Chorale, contact Joseph Wrightson,  

administrative assistant for UK Choirs, at joseph.wrightson@g.uky.edu.

The UK School of Music at UK College of Fine Arts has garnered a national reputation for high-caliber education in opera, choral and instrumental music performance, as well as music education, composition, and theory and music history.

MEDIA CONTACT: Whitney Hale, 859-257-8716; whitney.hale@uky.edu