This University Singers concert will feature many of the seminal, 20th-Century works for mixed choir, including Samuel Barber’s Agnus Dei. A true American treasure, Barber himself derived this haunting text setting for choir from his famous Adagio for Strings. Other celebrated American choral composers featured on this concert will include Morten Lauridsen and Eric Whitacre. The concert likewise will feature the music of emerging composers like recent UNL alumnus Nick Dahlquist and Ryan Murphy, recent appointee as the Assistant Conductor of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir in Salt Lake City. The University Singers also will feature early American shape-note melodies and a world-premiere performance of Allen Koepke’s And Nature Smiled. The concert will close with music by Undine Moore, Brandon Waddles and the traditional University Singers concert closer, When Storms of Life Assail.

This performance will be the first by UNL’s University Singers in the brand new UNL Newman Center - St. Thomas Aquinas Church, which just won the American Institute of Architecture’s “People Choice Award” for best architecture across Nebraska in 2015. It is a beautiful and large space with tremendous choral acoustics. The concert is free and open to the public.

University Singers is UNL’s premiere large concert choir directed by Dr. Peter Eklund, Professor and Director of Choral Activities. The University Singers feature some of our University’s most versatile choral singers.