Vocal,
Choral
Learn More: Placement Auditions
Vocal and choral music students at Furman enjoy excellent instruction and a myriad of performing opportunities. Students perform all solos in operas, oratorios and choral concerts, and alumni who have gone through this program have found invaluable experience that has prepared them for careers in opera, on the stage, and as teachers at all levels.
VOICE PERFORMANCE
Voice performance majors work closely with their professors to prepare for performances, for recitals, for graduate study and for professional singing. Furman prepares singers musically, intellectually, vocally, and mentally for the rigors of professional careers.
CHORAL DIVISION
There are three primary choral ensembles at Furman: the Furman Singers, Furman Chorale and Furman Chamber Choir. Each year, the ensembles present two major choral-orchestral works with the Furman Symphony Orchestra - a Christmas oratorio in December and a major work in May.
Membership in the choral ensembles is open to all Furman students, not just music majors, by audition only. Freshman audition during Orientation Week their freshman year. Transfer students and upperclassmen may audition the first week of school fall term. Selected ensembles re-audition prior to spring term. Members of the Chamber Choir are all recipients of a special choral scholarship. Auditions include vocalization and sight-singing. Vocal strength, clarity of tone, reading ability and past choral experience are important.
Furman Singers
Furman Singers is recognized as one of America's premier collegiate ensembles. The oldest of Furman's choral ensembles, the "Singers" tours annually between terms, and biennially presents concert tours of Europe. In the summer of 2008, the Singers will be traveling to Switzerland, Austria, and Hungary on their 18th such concert tour. Membership in Furman Singers is by audition. Both non-music majors and music performance majors make up the membership. The repertoire of Furman Singers reflects the strength and musicianship of the members: Renaissance motets, polychoral works from the Baroque, oratorio exerpts, great classic sacred music, the finest of 20th and 21st century choral music, spirituals, vocal jazz, pop music arrangements - all this and two major choral-orchestral works are performed annually.
Furman Singers sang with the Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra on July 4, 1996 on the nationally televised "Pops Goes the Fourth," and in the fall of 2006, the Singers again were invited to perform with and travel with the Pops orchestra on their Holiday Tour, all conducted by Furman alumnus, Keith Lockhart. Founded in 1946 by DuPre Rhame, the Singers has been conducted by Dr.Bingham Vick,Jr., since 1970. The Furman Singers' excellent reputation is earmarked by their tradition of excellence, their strong dedication to choral discipline and beauty.
Faculty contact: Bing Vick. For more information on Furman Singers, click here.
Chamber Choir
The
Furman University Chamber Choir is comprised of Furman's finest singing musicians.
In a choral program noted for its excellence, the choir is committed to thorough
preparation and inspired performance of a wide spectrum of traditional and contemporary
choral music.
Chosen by careful audition, and rewarded with a significant scholarship, each singer brings to the ensemble a sense of dedication and purpose. Though all are capable of doing dramatic vocal singing, the singers' commitment to the beauty of the ensemble tone creates a remarkable range and quality of sound. The Chamber Choir is under the direction of William Thomas.
The Choir presents several concerts each year on campus and travels regularly to present concerts and lead worship services in churches throughout the region. The Chamber Choir has established also a loyal following and a beloved tradition through its annual presentation of "A Festival of Lessons and Carols." These standing-room-only services are presented each December in the Charles E. Daniel Memorial Chapel on the Furman campus and broadcast on the South Carolina Educational Radio Network. This year’s broadcast is scheduled for December 15 at 7:00 pm.
Faculty contact: William Thomas
The Chorale
The Furman Chorale, directed by Vivian Hamilton, is actually three ensembles in one: the Men's Chorale, Women's Chorale and the combined ensemble. The Chorales normally perform three to four concerts a year, sing for select services at Daniel Chapel, and combine with the Furman Singers and Furman Symphony Orchestra for the Christmas and Spring Oratorios. Special events often occur, such as this year's performance with the Greenville Symphony Orchestra for Gustav Holst's The Planets.
Chorale membership is based upon audition and open to all students, majors and non-majors alike. Since rehearsals are held during the noon hour, the chorales offer a very attractive option for non-majors unable to attend the more extended afternoon ensemble rehearsals. Many non-vocal music majors join the chorales in order to fulfill their vocal ensemble requirement, allowing them to participate in their primary performing ensemble as well as a vocal ensemble.
One of the unique experiences Furman offers is the opportunity to perform full oratorio works twice a year. With a nationally-recognized all-undergraduate full symphony orchestra, Furman vocalists experience the joy of collaboration as they prepare and present monumental works utilizing 150+ voices.
Faculty contact: Vivian Hamilton
Oratorio Chorus
One of the unique experiences Furman offers is the opportunity for its students
to perform full oratorio works. With a nationally recognized all-undergraduate
full symphony orchestra, Furman vocalists experience the joy of collaboration
as they prepare and present monumental works utilizing 150+ voices. Participation
in the oratorio chorus is a separate offering and open to all interested singers.
Fall and spring terms see the Furman Chorales and the Furman Singers combining
with the Furman Symphony Orchestra to present major choral-orchestral masterpieces.
Conducted by a rotation of faculty members Thomas Joiner, Bingham Vick, Jr.
and William Thomas, the students have presented in recent years major works
including:
Furman students not currently singing in the Furman Singers or Chorales may elect to participate in the Oratorio Chorus for the duration of the performance preparation.
Faculty contact: Bing Vick
FURMAN
OPERA
Two qualities best describe opera at Furman: education and entertainment. Furman Opera Theater is dedicated to extending the musical experiences of undergraduate students through the policy of casting only students in opera roles, providing them with professional coaching and stage direction, and beginning their operatic stage careers in highly successful performances. Furman Opera Theater presents entertaining productions: all performances are sung in English, and production values stress the importance of opera as "good theater."
Recent Furman Opera Theater productions include Mozart's Marriage of Figaro, Lerner and Loewe's My Fair Lady, Puccini's Gianni Schicchi, Mozart's The Magic Flute, Britten's Noye's Fludde, Gilbert and Sullivan's The Pirates of Penzance and The Mikado.
View the Opera Photo Albums: Marriage of Figaro; The Mikado; My Fair Lady
Faculty contact: Bruce Schoonmaker
FACULTY
Trudy Fuller, Area Coordinator,
Voice
Lisa Barksdale, Voice
Kathy Cochran, Music Education
Vivian Hamilton, Men's/Women's
Chorales
Tamara Matthews,Voice
Bruce Schoonmaker, Voice and Opera Studies
Gail Schoonmaker, Voice
William Thomas, Chamber Choir, Department Chair
Bingham Vick, Jr., Voice and Furman Singers