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APSU Chamber Singers Tour Tennessee and Kentucky

            CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. – The Chamber Singers, Austin Peay State University’s premiere choral ensemble, is hitting the road this week in order to bring high caliber performances to four communities in Tennessee and Kentucky.

            CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. – The Chamber Singers, Austin Peay State University’s premiere choral ensemble, is hitting the road this week in order to bring high caliber performances to four communities in Tennessee and Kentucky.

            “It’s a free concert, and it allows individuals in those communities to see and experience the fantastic music department at APSU,” Korre Foster, assistant professor of music at APSU and conductor of the ensemble, said.

            The Chamber Singers Tour performances and times include:

            • 7:30 p.m., March 3, First United Methodist Church in Hopkinsville, Ky.

            • 7:30 p.m., March 4, Renaissance Center in Dickson, Tenn.

            • 7:30 p.m., March 5, Grace United Methodist Church, Jackson, Tenn.

            • 4:30 p.m., March 6, First Presbyterian Church, Nashville.

            The tour allows the ensemble to present new and innovative works not typically performed in those communities. The program for these concerts will feature a wide range of music, with pieces in German, English and French.

            “The third set is particularly exciting because we are premiering the pieces we commissioned by Sydney Guillaume,” Foster said.

            Guillaume, an acclaimed, Haitian-born composer, visited APSU last fall as one of the University’s Acuff Chairs of Excellence. He composed a new work, “Fèt Chanpèt,” for that visit. The piece, which Foster describes as “a celebration,” pays homage to the carnivals of northern Haiti.

            The concert will also include a performance of Latvian composer Eriks Esenvalds’ rendition of “Amazing Grace.”

            “It is simply one of the best arrangements of ‘Amazing Grace’ out there,” Foster said.

            The Chamber Singers tour also serves as a recruiting tool for the APSU Department of Music. Foster and his top students will stop by high schools in these communities, visiting with the different choirs during the day while they rehearse.

            “We work with their choirs, then we flip sides, they take a seat and we get up and perform for them,” Foster said. “It takes APSU and puts it in front of them.”

            For more information on these concerts or the APSU Chamber Singers, contact Foster at 221-7002 or fosterk@apsu.edu.