Byne Memorial Baptist Church, 2832 Ledo Road, will host the Albany Chorale’s first concert of the 2020-2021 concert season on Thursday, October 15, at 7:00 P.M.  This concert is the fundraiser for music scholarships awarded each Spring to graduating high school seniors planning to major in music.

We are also dedicating this concert in memory of Sandra Yerby, a long-time Chorale member who passed away in August.

Chorale Director Travis Kern could have chosen as the concert’s theme Gloom, Despair and Agony on Me. But, instead Kern has chosen Invictus, Josh Rist’s composition of the William Ernest Henly poem of personal resolve and determination. The Invictus duet will be sung by sopranos Brydon Fox and Bekah Ward.

Other concert selections are Alice Parker’s joyful hymn, God Is Seen, Hall Johnson’s rousing arrangement of the spiritual, Ain’t Got Time to Die, and from the award winning musical, Purlie, Walk Him Up the Stairs, fun to sing and fun to hear.  Soprano Traci Davis will sing the spiritual, City Called Heaven, arranged by Josephine Poelinitz.  Soprano Amanda Latona will be featured in El Dorado by Jonathan Adams.  The composition does not reference Edgar Allen Poe’s poem.  Instead, the work refers to the Spanish word first used by Spanish explorers and missionaries, “it summoned an image of a virginal, untouched Eden, an uncorrupted paradise of natural abundance,” explains Adams   Pianist MeriBeth Hillard will accompany the Chorale.

There are no tickets for this concert.  This is our annual concert to benefit our scholarship program, Therefore, donations will be accepted.  Social distancing will be observed. Masks are encouraged.

The Albany Chorale is a community chorus.  Our singers vary in ages, backgrounds, and musical expertise.  Interested singers are invited to join us Monday evenings at 6:30 at Covenant Presbyterian Church, 2126 West Edgewater Drive.