Westmont Spring Choral Concert Features Lundberg Arrangements

Westmont’s annual Spring Choral Concert featuring the College Choir, Chamber Singers and Vox Lumina Women’s Chorale will take place 8 p.m. April 22 at Trinity Episcopal Church, 1500 State St. at Micheltorena. A free-will donation will be requested.

A highlight of the evening will be “And Can it Be, that I Should Gain?” a group of well-loved hymn arrangements by Westmont’s composer-arranger and Professor Emeritus John Lundberg, who taught and directed music at Westmont from 1947 to 1979.

A prolific music arranger, Lundberg has authored two books of choral arrangements and two books of male choral arrangements. The Old Fashioned Revival Hour collection of Lundberg’s solos and choral arrangements will release later this year. Lundberg sang first tenor with the group for more than two decades.

The Westmont Chamber Singers, under the direction of Associate Professor Grey Brothers, will give voice to American hymnody, folk songs of the British Isles and recent compositions by American composers. Selections will include three stirring settings from Martha Shaffer’s “Five Hymns from The Sacred Harp,” engaging arrangements of “Ye Banks and Braes” by Marion Vree and “My Lagen Love” by John Powell, as well as recent compositions by award-winning American composers Morten Lauridsen and Adolphus Hailstork. Highlights of the Chamber Singers’ offering will include Steven Sametz’s bracing version of the Bosnian folk song “Ne Sedi, Djemo!”

The Westmont College Choir will perform a selection of Lovesong Waltzes by Johannes Brahms, accompanied by four-hand piano, “Liebeslieder Waltzer, Opus 52.” These delightful vocal-piano dances are uncharacteristically lighthearted Brahms, perfect for springtime. They also will perform Eric Whitacre’s gorgeous “Sleep” and Bob Chilcott’s “Walk Softly.”

The Vox Lumina Women’s Chorale, under the direction of Laura Brinton, adjunct professor of music, will present a variety of works, from the French folksong “J’entends le Moulin” to a setting of a Madeleine L’Engle excerpt from “The Weather of the Heart.” They also will perform two Psalm settings: Srul Glick’s Psalm 23 combining Hebraic lyricism with a classical composition and the rhythmic “Cry Out with Joy” by Christopher Walker based on Psalm 99. Additionally, the chorale will sing a medley of the traditional spirituals “Peace Like a River” and “Down by the Riverside” arranged by Brant Adams.

For more information, contact the public affairs office at (805) 565-7057 or e-mail pubaffairs@westmont.edu.