KINGSTON, R.I. –November 9, 2010 –Sweet harmonies will ring out at the University of Rhode Island when the University Chorus offers their fall concert, an evening of works for large chorus as a warm-up to the holiday season. The concert will be presented at 7.30 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 23 at the URI Fine Arts Center Concert Hall, 105 Upper College Road, Kingston. General admission is $10, or $5 for students with ID, on a first-come basis starting 45 minutes before the concert begins.

The 80-voice chorus, one of the largest musical ensembles at URI, is directed by URI graduate Andrew Howell (’05) and includes both students and members of the community. Pianist Dawn Chung will accompany. The program will include Eric Whitacre’s Five Hebrew Love Songs, Johannes Brahms’ Nanie, Maurice Durufle’s Messe ‘cum jubilo’ and Gabriel Faure’s Messe Basse. Featured soloists will be baritone Peter Waite, a URI music graduate student from Clifton Park, NY, in the Durufle work, and soprano Rebecca Cunha, an undergraduate student from Middletown, in the Faure mass.

Howell who received his Bachelor of Music in Music Education 2005, was also the first graduate of the university’s Master of Music program in Choral Conducting Performance, and specialized in Organ Performance, studying under George Kent. Howell is organist for the Anglican Singers, organist and choir director at St. James Episcopal Church in New London, Connecticut, and during the summer at plays at the Watch Hill Chapel in Westerly, Rhode Island. He works as a harpsichord technician for Zuckermann Harpsichords in Stonington, CT and serves on the board of directors of the Chorus of Westerly.

Dawn Chung, a graduate of the Berklee College of Music, earned her Master of Music degree at URI in 2002. She is the music director at the First Baptist Church of North Kingstown and teaches piano both privately and for the RI Philharmonic Orchestra and Music School. She has been performing as an accompanist and as both a classical and jazz pianist in RI and the Boston area since 1990.

The URI Fine Arts Center Concert Hall is handicap-accessible, and parking is available in the lot behind the building, off Bills Road.

For more information, contact the URI Department of Music at 874-2431 or check the department website at: www.uri.edu/artsci/mus.