2024 Chamber Choir Tour
Support the Choir Tour
Wake Forest alumni Frank and Kathy Bragg, former choir students in the late 1950s and early 60s, have given a $1 million gift to endow The Thane McDonald Wake Forest Choir Tour Fund. This generous gift initiates a campaign to build a $3.5M fund that will allow students participating in the University’s Chamber Choir to take their performances across the U.S. and to international locales without concern for cost.
Please consider a gift to the endowment to support this growing movement of artistry, collaboration and creativity.
Choir Tour 2024
The Wake Forest University Chamber Choir, Wake Forest’s premiere choral organization, will be touring the Southeast May 10-18. Their concert entitled, “We Sing Prophetic Joys,” lasting just about 1 hour, will include accompanied and a cappella repertoire by composers including Haydn, Rheinberger, Duruflé, Dello Joio, Orbán, Powell, Dilworth, Locklair, and more.
The Chamber Choir invites Wake Forest University alumni and the general public to join them for an evening of beautiful and powerful music performed by WFU students representing multiple disciplines, majors, and minors throughout the University. The concert is free of charge.
If you are a WFU alum or supporter and you would be interested in supporting the Chamber Choir while they’re in your area, please contact Dr. Chris Gilliam, director of the choir, at gilliac@wfu.edu.
We hope you’ll make plans and that we’ll see you there!
Tour Itinerary
Saturday, May 11
Atlanta, GA
Workshop with Dr. Sarah Frook Gallo
Interim Associate Director of Choral Activities
University of Georgia
Location & Time TBD
Glenn Memorial UMC: on the Emory University Campus
1660 North Decatur Road NE, Atlanta, GA 30307
7:00 PM Concert
Sunday, May 12
First Presbyterian Church: Atlanta, GA
1328 Peachtree St. NE, Atlanta, GA 30309
10:45 AM Prelude
11:00 AM Worship
Monday, May 13
Grace-St. Luke’s Episcopal Church: Memphis, TN
Duruflé’s REQUIEM with concert organist, Dr. Patrick Scott
1720 Peabody Ave, Memphis, TN 38104
7:00 PM Concert
Tuesday, May 14
St. George’s Episcopal Church: Nashville, TN
4715 Harding Place, Nashville, TN 37205
7:00 PM Concert
Friday, May 17
St. Louis Cathedral: New Orleans, LA
615 Pere Antoine Alley, New Orleans, LA 70116
Concert: 11:00am to 11:30am
Sunday, May 19
Wake Forest University
Baccalaureate: 11am – Wait Chapel
Farewell to Seniors Concert: 12:45-2:00 PM (Venue TBD)
The Wake Forest University Chamber Choir
The Chamber Choir is the premier choral ensemble at Wake Forest University, made up of students who represent a cross section of the campus. Talented undergraduate and graduate students from multiple academic disciplines dedicate four hours each week to study choral repertoire spanning every era from the Middle Ages to the 21st century, including modern pop, jazz, folk-style, and newly commissioned compositions.
The Chamber Choir is like a family for the choristers; a home-away-from-home where talented students gather together daily to sing, study, and make music together in a welcoming and supportive environment. Choir is a place where the singers laugh, destress, engage their minds and bodies, and experience their emotions; a place to focus on something bigger than themselves to help develop in them the kind of artistry which bolsters teamwork and leads to lasting positive impact.
Every Chamber Choir Tour has four distinct objectives
The first objective is to share inspiring choral music with audiences of alumni, local community, and potential student recruits and to represent the college before those who may or may not be familiar with Wake Forest and its liberal arts model.
The second objective is to introduce Wake Forest University to at least one high school along the journey and to perhaps mentor a resident choir program or share a concert in that school.
The third objective is to provide the opportunity for Chamber Choir students to work and study with other skilled choral conductors in workshops that offer Wake students a fresh look at the music they have been studying—the eyes and ears of other artists help students gain greater musicality and nuanced understanding.
Finally, and perhaps most importantly, the fourth objective of our tours is to strengthen the personal and artistic connections shared by each member of the Chamber Choir—something that only traveling together, living together, laughing, and singing together for a concentrated week can provide. Tours offer students the unique opportunity to form and strengthen special bonds, shape and perform extraordinary music, and experience first-hand their ability to positively impact communities outside of their own.