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Festive Evensong service concludes Church Music Conference Jan. 25


Last updated January 8, 2019

By News administrator

The 2019 Furman University Church Music Conference concludes with a festive Evensong service Friday, Jan. 25, at 7 p.m. at Christ Church (Episcopal), 10 North Church St. in downtown Greenville.

The event is free and open to the public.

The traditional sung Anglican (Episcopal) service of evening prayer features conference clinician Bruce Neswick, organist and director of music for Trinity Episcopal Cathedral, Portland, Oregon.

The service also includes three choirs: the Furman Singers (directed by Hugh Ferguson Floyd); the Parish Choir of Christ Church (directed by Donald W. Duncan); and a choir comprised of Church Music Conference attendees. Each choir will sing separately, and the three choirs will combine for a brief choral recital at the conclusion of the service.

The choral recital features anthems by Benjamin Britten (“Jubilate Deo”), Samuel Sebastian Wesley (“Thou Wilt Keep Him in Perfect Peace”), and Charles Wood (“O Thou, the Central Orb”), directed by Neswick and accompanied on the organ by Furman Professor of Organ, and Christ Church Associate Organist Charles Boyd Tompkins.

Neswick is among the outstanding American church musicians of our day. Formerly organist and director of music at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City, as well as organist and director of music at St. Philip’s Cathedral, Atlanta, Neswick has also served as a faculty member at the prestigious Indiana University School of Music.

At Trinity Cathedral, he directs a multi-faceted music program that includes adult, youth, and children’s choirs, as well as an ongoing concert series featuring major works for choir and orchestra.

In addition to his accomplishments related to his current role, Neswick is also a world-class improviser on the organ, having won First Prize in the 1990 American Guild of Organists National Competition in Organ Improvisation.

For the Church Music Conference Evensong, he will direct the Furman Singers and the combined choirs, accompany several congregational hymns, and perform an improvised postlude.

Learn more about the 2019 Church Music Conference and the concluding Evensong service. Or contact the Department of Music at 864-294-2086 and FurmanMusic@furman.edu.

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