Children’s Choir to perform at JMU

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The Shenandoah Valley Children’s Choir, past of the music department at Eastern Mennonite University, will present its spring concerts at the Forbes Center for the Performing Arts at James Madison University.

The family-friendly concert is a first-time collaboration between the acclaimed SVCC and the award-winning JMU Percussion Ensemble. Performances will take place 7 p.m. Saturday, Apr. 9 and 7 p.m. Sunday, April 10 in the Forbes Center Concert Hall.

SVCC director Julia White and JMU Percussion Ensemble director, Michael Overman, have worked together for the last 18 months to prepare for this marriage of ensembles. According to White, “We’re excited to work with the Forbes Center for this extraordinary event. And we can’t wait to perform in this beautiful new venue.”

The children’s choir has collaborated with JMU on numerous occasions, including several opera productions, the Contemporary Music Festival and most recently at the Gandhi Awards Ceremony for President Jimmy Carter and Archbishop Desmond Tutu. JMU flutist Beth Chandler was a special guest on SVCC spring concerts in 2010.

Repertoire for the concert will include music from classical selections to folk songs from countries around the world, including Canada, the Torres Straight Islands and Finland. It will also include newly-composed works, one of which is a Mi’kmaw Honour Song. Overman is overseeing the arranging of the combined works for the children’s choir and percussion ensemble.

Founded in 1992 by artistic director Julia J. White, the SVCC has grown to include nearly 150 in two classes, three choirs and a staff of five. They just released their 14th CD, “Songs from the Heart.”

The JMU Percussion Ensemble, directed by William C. Rice and Dr. Michael Overman, consists of nearly 30 students and has performed throughout the East Coast, including concerts at the Virginia Music Educators Association Convention and Virginia Days of Percussion. They were selected to perform a feature concert at the Percussive Arts Society International Convention in Philadelphia. Most recently the ensemble created two podcast videos featured on the VicFirth.com website, and toured Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania.

The Forbes Center for the Performing Arts is comprised of the Dorothy Thomasson Estes Center for Theatre and Dance and the Shirley Hanson Roberts Center for Music Performance and houses five state-of-the-art performance venues. It also includes classroom, rehearsal and office facilities.

Concert tickets are $14 for adults, $12 for seniors and JAC cardholders, and $8 for JMU students and youth 18 and under. For tickets, visit www.jmu.edu/JMUarts or call the Forbes Center Box Office at 540-568-7000.

For more information on the SVCC, visit www.emu.edu/svcc.