“The Reimagined Song” features art songs arranged for choir and a contemporary setting of Te Deum. Chamber Singers will expand the idea of chamber music by performing music originally written for solo voice and piano. Harry T. Burleigh, a noted baritone known for his settings of spirituals as art songs, was a prolific African-American composer of solo music. His cycle “Five Songs of Laurence Hope” sets exotic texts of love and passion by Adela Florence Nicolson who wrote under the pseudonym Laurence Hope. Of his own accord, Samuel Barber transformed his iconic setting of “Sure on this shining night.” Both bubbling and serene, two songs by Ernest Chausson have been transformed for treble chorus and tenor-bass chorus. The set will end with the fiery story of a boy pleading to his father about the seductive tempter known as “Erlkönig” as set by Franz Schubert. All-Collegiate Choir will present Dan Forrest’s Te Deum, a 4th-century Latin hymn with hundreds of settings. This three-movement work opens with a peak-and-valley theme used as a chant-like motif. The prayers, added later to the traditional text, provides a quiet contrast to the two larger sections. The work ends with a tour de force of rapidly changing meters, frequent shifts of tonal centers, and high energy culminating in a recapitulation of the central theme from the opening.

The Chamber Singers is UNL’s vocal chamber ensemble. It is intended to provide the highest level of choral chamber-specific performance experience for graduate and undergraduate singers. The ensemble is open to music-majors and non-majors alike. The choir explores a broad range of repertoire specializing in literature for unaccompanied and contemporary small vocal chamber ensembles; including works from early music eras as well as contemporary literature, and new music composed expressly for them.

All-Collegiate Choir is comprised of UNL students as well as singers from the Lincoln area. No audition is required, and non-majors are welcome and encouraged to join. This group performs large-scale works with orchestral, organ, and piano accompaniment, including many popular choral favorites. It also is frequently asked to sing in combination with other choirs on campus and in the community.

Adults $5; Students/Seniors $3

This performance will also be live webcast.

Program: https://unl.box.com/s/oisd0xwi5o54yeiqvv1lodegui9ha5xo