Furman Chorales and Singers in concert Oct. 22

The Furman University Men’s and Women’s Chorales and the Furman Singers will present their fall concert Thursday, Oct. 22 at 8 p.m. in Daniel Memorial Chapel on the Furman University campus.

The concert is free and open to the public, and is part of Furman’s Cultural Life Program.

Conducted by Furman music professors Dr. Vivian Hamilton and Dr. Hugh Ferguson Floyd, the program includes a mix of sacred and traditional hymns, folk tunes and spirituals.

Accompanying the choral groups are Furman freshman Gabriel Smallwood of Florence, and Furman senior Grace Odell of Pelzer.

About Dr. Vivian Hamilton

Dr. Vivian Hamilton is director of the Furman Chorale and a collaborative pianist in the music department. Hamilton has been a singer in the Robert Shaw Institute Festival Singers where she worked with Robert Shaw, and studied conducting with Dan Lewis and Edvard Tchivzhel. She has worked with choirs at Simmons College, Emerson College, the University of South Carolina, Northeastern University, and Clemson University. For 12 years, she conducted the Greater Anderson Musical Arts Consortium Chorale, and is a former president of the South Carolina American Choral Directors Association. Her choral conducting experience also includes work at Baptist and Methodist churches in Massachusetts and South Carolina, and in the public schools of Boston and Upstate South Carolina. She is active in the community as the Minister of Music at First Baptist Church, Greenville, S.C. She has served as a collaborative pianist in Boston, Massachusetts and throughout South Carolina. She was the Principal Keyboardist for the Greenville Symphony Orchestra, playing celeste, piano, and harpsichord.

About Dr. Hugh Floyd

Dr. Hugh Ferguson Floyd is professor of music at Furman, coordinator of choral ensembles and director of the renowned Furman Singers. He is the first recipient of the Bingham L. Vick, Jr. and Judith S. Vick Professorship of Music, established by the Furman Singers Alumni Association. Prior to his appointment at Furman, Floyd served as the Director of Choral Studies at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music at Oberlin College. He also served as Director of Choral Activities and voice instructor at the famed Interlochen Center for the Arts, and a guest lecturer at the Eastman School of Music, and Yale University. Floyd frequently serves as a guest conductor and clinician around the country. In 2010, he was named Artistic Director for the New York State Summer School of the Arts School of Choral Studies. Floyd is a graduate of Furman University, the Eastman School of Music, and the University of Michigan.

For more information about the event, contact Furman’s Music Department at (864) 294-2086, or email the department at Furman.Music@Furman.edu.