February 28, 2003

VITERBO CHORALE FESTIVAL TO FEATURE GUEST ARTIST

LA CROSSE, Wis.--Viterbo University will present a Chorale Festival on Friday, March 7 from 1-4 p.m. in the Fine Arts Center Main Theatre.
As part of the festival, a Chorale Clinic will be held with composer Libby Larsen as the guest artist.  Larsen will offer feedback about the composer’s point of view about text setting and expression and will work with the conductors and choirs to listen for new elements in the music and to listen from a different perspective.

 Performers in this festival include Oshkosh West High School Girls Chorus, Central High School Ninth Grade Girls Choir, University of Wisconsin-La Crosse Women’s Chorale, Viterbo University Women’s Chorale, and women of the Viterbo Concert Choir. At the conclusion of the individual performances, all choirs will sing Libby Larsen’s "Ring the Bells."

 Larsen is a national composer who has catalogued over 200 works and has addressed many music genres, including vocal and chamber as well as orchestral and choral scores and is currently conducting workshops and talks around the country.  She is considered one of the most prolific and performed living composers and is the co-founder of the American Composers Forum, has served on the boards of The American Symphony Orchestra League and the Music Panel of the National Endowment for the Arts, and has been the Vice President of the American Music Center and director of the College Music Society.

 Larsen has received numerous awards including a Grammy as producer of the CD: The Art of Arleen Auger.  Her opera: Frankenstein, The Modern Prometheus, was selected as one of the eight best classical music events of 1990 by U.S.A. Today.

This event is free and open to the public and students are encouraged to attend.