Susquehanna Chorale to Present 2024 Youth Choral Festival

The critically-acclaimed Susquehanna Chorale and three of its educational choirs will present the annual Youth Choral Festival on Sunday, Nov. 24, at 4:00 p.m. at the High Center for Performing Arts, Messiah University, Mechanicsburg. The public is invited to attend. 

The Youth Choral Festival will showcase the intergenerational voices of the Children’s, Youth, Alto Voce and adult Chorales in a concert designed to celebrate the joy of lifelong singing.

The concert opens with an arrangement of ¡El Cielo Canta Alegria! by Roger Bergs, performed by the Children’s Chorale, under the direction of Judith Shepler. They will also sing Brahm’s Marienwürmchen, I Started Out Singing by Jocelyn Hagen, an arrangement of the traditional spiritual Let Me Fly by Cristi Cary Miller, along with an English Folk Song, The Tailor of Gloucester, arranged by Cyndee Giebler.

 The Susquehanna Chorale, under Artistic Director, Founder, and Conductor, Linda L. Tedford, will perform Mendelssohn’s Weihnachten, Psalm 131 by Jeffrey Van, and Baba Yetu, a Swahili adaptation of The Lord’s Prayer, by Christopher Tin.

The Alta Voce Chorale, (formerly The Young Women’s Chorale), directed by Mitchell Sensenig-Wilshire, will present two pieces by Jacob Narverud, Ad Astra (To the Stars) and Lunar Lullaby, Beth Darowish’s World Premiere, Eclipse,Moon Goddess by Jocelyn Hagen, and We Are the Stars from “Stargazing” by James Eakin.

The Susquehanna Youth Chorale, under the direction of Dru Deitch will feature Aaron Copland’s Zion’s Walls, arranged by Glenn Koponen, Mangisondele Nkosi Yam, a traditional isiZulu song arranged by Michael Barrett, Bob Dylan’s The Times They Are A-Changin’ arranged by Adam Podd, and Shawn Kirchner’s I’ll Be On My Way.

The concert concludes with Mack Wilberg’s Anthem of Peace, directed by Ms. Tedford, featuring all of the singers on stage for a combined grand finale.

Tickets can be obtained through the Chorale’s website, www.susquehannachorale.org/performances or by calling the Messiah University Box Office at 717.691.6036. Tickets purchased in advance are $21.00 for adults and $6.00 for students. Livestream tickets are $20.00.

The Susquehanna Chorale is a recipient of Chorus America’s most prestigious award, the Margaret Hillis Achievement Award for Choral Excellence and several of the Chorale’s recordings have been considered for GRAMMY nomination.

Conductor Tedford has been honored by the American Choral Directors Association of Pennsylvania with the Elaine Brown Award for lifelong commitment to excellence and leadership in the choral art. She has also received Theatre Harrisburg’s Award for Distinguished Service to the Arts in the Capital Region.  In 2022 Tedford was the Central Penn Journal’s Circle of Excellence Award. 

The Chorale is funded in part by the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, a state agency funded by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.