APSU Chamber Singers embark on a vocal four of four states

Clarksville, TN – Dr. Korre Foster, assistant professor of music, wants to educate aspiring singers on an Austin Peay State University music program regarded as “The Best Kept Secret in Tennessee.”

That’s why this March, Foster is taking the Chamber Singers, APSU’s premiere choral ensemble, on a tour of four states in five days.

As a part of the tour, Korre and the APSU students will spend their days in select area high schools, collaborating with students while also spreading the message of the opportunities awaiting young vocal talents in the University’s choral program.

At night, the Chamber Singers will perform free concerts for the communities they are visiting.

“We’re trying to get those talented young singers to come to Austin Peay,” Foster said. “We’re going to schools in all of these states because they’re very good programs and it’s very much an exchange: we sing for them and they sing for us and then I work with the high school choir. That way, the high school students have an experience of how (APSU singers) work and rehearse.”

The tour’s performances and times include:

• March 6th, 8:00pm, St. John United Church of Christ, Bellevue, KY.
• March 7th, 7:00pm, Calvary Episcopal Church, Cincinnati, Ohio.
• March 8th, 7:00pm, First Presbyterian Church, Evansville, IN.
• March 10th, 7:00pm, First United Methodist Church, Springfield, TN.

During the tour’s evening concerts, the Chamber Singers will perform works ranging in style from the European to traditional Chinese to French Creole and Haitian music. The APSU students will also perform a selection of spiritual pieces from Howard Helvey, performing the works alongside the Cincinnati-based composer himself.

“We have a collection of pieces (the Chamber Singers) have sung last semester and some we recently began practicing,” Forster said. “It’s a combination of familiar pieces and music that is brand new, which is typical when you have a lot of foreign language that we have to add to the actual rhythm and pitch of the pieces.”

For more information on these concerts or the APSU Chamber Singers, contact Foster at 931.221.7002 or fosterk@apsu.edu.