Winter Weather Forced Choir Performances to Reschedule

Winter weather led to a change of plans for the Emmy-nominated Nebraska Wesleyan University Choir, which was scheduled to kick off its annual winter tour on Jan. 6.

Performances in Seward, Neb.,Des Moines, Iowa, Libertyville, Mo., Whitefish Bay and Madison, Wis., were all cancelled. Only the concert in Des Moines, Iowa, was rescheduled. The choir had to shorten their winter break schedule.

The 90-minute program included diverse music, including early Hebrew songs sung in Ladino, a Judeo-Spanish language, and Inca sung in Quechua, a Native American language.

The program also included works of Badings, Andre’ Thomas, Ben Allaway, Szymko as well as a new piece by Omaha, Nebr. composer Stephen Bouma. The piece recently won second place in a prestigious Ithaca College competition. Excerpts from the well-known closing movement of Beethoven’s Ode to Joy were also performed in preparation for the choir’s spring performance of the work with Lincoln’s Symphony Orchestra. The concert concluded with the choir’s signature piece, Sir Malcolm Sargent’s Silent Night.

The University Choir is a select 54-voice ensemble. Since 1977, the choir has undertaken seven foreign concert tours and two choral residencies in Hawaii in addition to annual concert tours throughout the United States. Among the honors are: the first American choir to perform in universities and conservatories in Romania, and the first American choir invited to participate in the St. Petersburg, Russia International Choral Festival. They were the first collegiate choir from Nebraska selected to perform at the American Choral Directors Association National Convention and have appeared as the featured collegiate ensemble at the Nebraska Music Educators Association Convention.
The choir is under the direction of William A. Wyman, who is in his 35th year at NWU. He has served as a clinician or guest conductor throughout the country.

In 1996, the Nebraska Choral Directors Association selected Wyman as the “Outstanding Choral Director of the Year.” He previously won a prestigious Fulbright Scholarship to Seoul National University in Korea. In 2004, he was inducted into the Nebraska Music Educators Association Hall of Fame and this past May he made his Carnegie Hall conducting debut.