Thursday Scholarship Series features UGA Hodgson Singers

The Thursday Scholarship Series welcomes the UGA Hodgson Singers to the stage on March 22nd. The concert will be held at 7:30 p.m. in Hodgson Concert Hall located in the Performing Arts Center next to the Hugh Hodgson School of Music (HHSOM).

The Hodgson Singers serve as the flagship choral ensemble of the HHSOM and are comprised of UGA’s most gifted and talented vocalists. Membership is contingent upon absolute excellence in musicianship, vocal artistry, and dedication.

The choir was recently featured by invitation at the American Choral Directors Association Southern Division Convention in Louisville, KY. As one of fifteen choirs chosen out of nearly one hundred to perform at the conference, the Hodgson Singers were among one of four collegiate mixed choirs invited, which is the most competitive category of ensemble.

Audiences are in for a treat as they listen to the program the international award-winning and nationally recognized Hodgson Singers have prepared.

“The program features selections, both sacred and secular, from many time periods.  Many of the texts suggest a return to the simplicity of nature in order to recognize and reclaim our inner calm. While other pieces reflect upon the death of loved ones,” says the conductor and Director of Choral Activities, Dr. Daniel Bara.

Audiences will hear selections from composers both old and new. The concert will conclude with two well-known rousing southern hymnal tunes: Precious Lord, Take My Hand, by Georgia composer Tommy Dorsey, and the gospel tune, I’ll Fly Away, in a new arrangement by Shawn Kirchner. 

“As always, I try to select music that is of diverse styles, and which draws the listener into the point of view of the poet and performers,” says Dr. Bara. “We always strive to have our choral concerts be emotionally engaging and quasi-dramatic events for the audience – and ones that leave the listener wanting more.”

Dr. Daniel Bara is the John D. Boyd UGA Foundation Professor of Choral Music, the Director of Choral Activities, and a Professor of Music at the Hugh Hodgson School of Music. He oversees seven university choral ensembles, as well as the graduate choral conducting program. He led the Hodgson Singers in their 2017 professional recording, Grace Immaculate, which is held on the Gothic Records label and is distributed internationally by Naxos. Dr. Bara has released two internationally distributed choral recordings with Gothic Records, Greater Love (2007) and Eternal Light (2010) with the East Carolina Chamber Singers.

Joining Dr. Bara onstage for this performance will be assistant conductor Lee Wright and Elena Lyalina, who will be accompanying the Hodgson Singers on the piano.

Tickets for the concert are $20 for adults and $6 for students and can be purchased online at pac.uga.edu or by phone at 706-542-4400. For those unable to attend this event, the concert will be streamed at music.uga.edu/streaming. The Hugh Hodgson School of Music sponsors more than 350 performances each year. Go to music.uga.edu to view the school’s performance calendar and learn more about the School of Music.