Adelphi Chorale And Vocal Ensembles Celebrate The Writings Of Poet Walt Whitman

Students of Adelphi University's Department of Music will present a spring concert by the Adelphi Chorale and Adelphi Vocal Ensemble under the direction of Karen Faust Baer at Adelphi's Performing Arts Center (PAC) on Sunday, May 5. The program, I Hear America Singing, is a celebration of the bicentennial of Walt Whitman's birth in song.

Whitman, born in Huntington in 1819, is one of America's most well-known and influential poets, having written such works as Leaves of Grass and Song of Myself. His words have been set to music by many of the most notable composers, including Leonard Bernstein, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Benjamin Britten, a John Adams, to name but a few.

The cornerstone of this program is Eric Ewazen's (b.1954) "I Hear America Singing," which sets Whitmans' joyful, whimsical, and hopeful work of the same name. Ewazen says about the work, "The common man is celebrated in I Hear America Singing, but so too are the parents, and the children, the workers, and the old and the young. The words are a joyous tribute to life in it most positive and celebratory essence. The words sing, and I wanted my music to sing, with rich chorale writing, major keys predominating, a playful fugue and a final cadence bringing these lyrics of inspiration to a joyous finale."

Also featured on this program is Stephen Sondheim's Send in the Clowns, Stephen Flaherty's "Wheels of a Dream" from Ragtime, René Clausen's Quicksand Years by Whitman and Dave Brubeck's Blue Rondo à la Turk.

The concert takes place at 4:00 p.m. on the Westermann Stage in Adelphi's PAC Concert Hall.

Tickets are $20, with discounts available to seniors, students, alumni and staff. For more information please call the Lucia and Steven N. Fischer Box Office at 516-877-4000 or email boxoffice@adelphi.edu. Regular box office hours are Tuesday through Friday from 1:00 to 6:00 p.m., and the box office is also open two hours before most scheduled performances. Ticket sales and additional information are available online.

Adelphi PAC is one of Long Island's premier cultural arts venues for entertainment of all kinds. See more about other upcoming Adelphi PAC offerings at pac.adelphi.edu.