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Pepperdine Hosts International A Capella Symposium, The Ascending Voice II

Pepperdine University will host an international symposium of sacred a cappella music from May 12 to May 15, in Malibu, featuring a variety of lectures and workshops, and daily concerts with a lineup that includes performances by the internationally renowned Boys and Girls Choir of Harlem Alumni Ensemble, and Chanticleer, a Grammy Award-winning male a cappella ensemble. 

"The Ascending Voice is Pepperdine University’s celebration of this rare and best form of human art," says University Provost Darryl Tippens, who has organized the symposium with N. Lincoln Hanks, associate professor of music.

The Ascending Voice II will be a proud sophomore event, drawing singers, choral directors, music directors, and scholars of music, theology, liturgy, and history from throughout the U.S. and from abroad, with participants representing many denominational backgrounds including Reformed, Catholic, Mennonite, Church of Christ, Eastern Orthodox, and Armenian churches.

A variety of the music will be showcased—from Renaissance-era classical selections, early American hymnody, Psalmody, Sacred Harp, gospel, and spirituals. Performances will feature the works of such diverse composers as Bach, Salieri, Palestrina, William Byrd, Charles Ives, and Thomas Tallis. Many collegiate choirs will be performing during the week including the Pepperdine University Chamber Singers, the Occidental College Glee Club, Psalom (from St. Petersburg, Russia), UC-Santa Barbara Chamber Choir, Harding (Arkansas) University Chamber Singers, and the Abilene (Texas) Christian University A Cappella Chorus. Other choral groups will include Cappella Romana and Adelphos.

In addition to lectures and workshop presentations by the world's leading authorities on this rich style of worship, the symposium’s daily concert lineup includes performances by top collegiate choral groups, including the internationally renowned Boys and Girls Choir of Harlem Alumni Ensemble at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday, May 12, and Chanticleer, the Grammy Award-winning male a cappella ensemble, at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, May 13. Tickets are available now by calling the Smothers Theatre Box Office at (310) 506-4522, or Ticketmaster at (213) 365-3500.

The final evening program in the three night Ascending Voice II series in Smothers Theatre features a free performance on Friday, May 14 by a festival choir of two hundred collegiate voices performing a program under the direction of Robert Page. Page is one of the most distinguished choral conductors in the U.S., director of choral activities for the Pittsburgh Symphony and conductor of the Mendelssohn Choir of Pittsburgh. He is a founding member of Chorus America.

For more information on the symposium, call (310) 506-4261 or visit the Ascending Voice Web site to register.