W&L Vocal Groups Presenting Fall Concert
Washington and Lee University will present the Fall Choral Concert on Friday, Oct. 17, at 8 p.m. in Wilson Concert Hall in the Lenfest Center for the Arts. The performance will feature W&L’s University Singers, Glee Club and Cantatrici.
The performance is free, but tickets are required and available online. The event will also be streamed online at https://go.wlu. edu/livestream.
The program will be led by conductors Olivia Arnold, adjunct music lecturer and interim choir director; Lacey Lynch, lecturer of music; and student members of the Choral Conducting Mentorship Program (CCMP). Dr. Anna Billias, lecturer in music and collaborative pianist, will accompany choral selections.
The program will open with a double-choir setting of “If I Had a Hammer” by Craig Hella Johnson, a tune made popular by Peter, Paul and Mary, with percussion played by students and faculty.
Cantatrici and Billias, collaborative pianist, will premiere a student composition for SSA choir and piano by Colin Looby ’26 made possible by the support of the Todd Jones Memorial Scholarship, followed by a lyrical piece for the Glee Club, “Away from the Roll of the Sea.” Composed by women composers, “Moon Goddess” and “Song of Miriam” celebrate strength and unity and highlight the vocal flexibility of soprano and alto voices.
The Glee Club will feature the contemplative piece “On Life” through a partnership with Texasbased composer Anthony Maglione with “Fly Me to the Moon” to follow.
To conclude the Cantatrici and Glee Club portion of the concert, the combined choir will sing Shawn Kirchner’s arrangement of “Hard Times Come Again No More” by Stephen Foster. This performance will feature Dr. Anthony Cincotta playing the soprano saxophone solo and Kailesh Amilcar ’26 on piano.
In the second half of the program, the University Singers will open with a vocal jazz reimaging of the wedding march “Bruremarsj” set by Jan Magne Førde for the royal marriage of Princess Märta Louise in 2002.
Following are pieces expressing love of home, Barlow Bradford’s setting of the Walt Whitman poem “Keep Your Splendid, Silent Sun” and “Asadoya Yunta,” and an Okinawan folk song set in modern Japanese lyrics by Ko Matsushita. Moving into a set depicting the vast night sky will include “Iuppiter” by Michael Ostrzyga and “O Schöne Nacht” by Johannes Brahms.
Traditional favorites will round out the evening, closing with James Erb’s “Shenandoah.”
