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College Choir Turns 75 |
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Today, Director of Choral Activities Brandon Johnson continues the a cappella tradition begun by Bain. In the performance of sacred choral music, the College Choir brings together a diverse group of individuals, both music and non-music majors, to sing as one voice. “We study the notes and rhythms,” Johnson says, “but the goal is to move beyond the notes and provide a musical, enjoyable, expressive concert.”
One of the highlights for the choir is an annual tour. In the spring of 2006 the choir capped off a tour of New England with its New York City debut in the Lincoln Center. Then, in May, the ensemble traveled to Eastern Europe, performing in the basilicas and churches of Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Germany. Spring 2007 will feature a mid-Atlantic tour (see dates and locations listed). The students recently drafted a mission statement to express the choir’s purpose: We seek to glorify God personally and corporately by upholding and extending a rich tradition of excellence in choral music. Through a diversity of choral literature, we aspire to minister the life-transforming power of God’s love and grace to all that hear us. Because of our desire to reach others for Him and our understanding of Christ’s love for us as His children, we strive to live humbly as a community of individuals that love and value each other. Johnson comments, “We sing sacred music and spread the word of God to the communities we visit, but I think the real spiritual growth happens in the singers, and in me.” |
This
year marks the 75th anniversary of the Houghton College
Choir. Wilfred C. Bain founded the choir in 1931—when a
cappella singing was still in its infancy—to take the place
of traditional glee clubs. Ben King, associate dean of the
Greatbatch School of Music, says Bain “is among the giants
of American Music Education. He went on from Houghton to
Denton, TX, where he built the North Texas State music
program into the largest in the nation and among the most
prestigious. Then he went to Bloomington, IN and did the
same for the Indiana University School of Music.” Over the
years, Houghton’s choir has been nurtured by other respected
conductors including Robert Shewan, Donald Bailey and B.
Jean Reigles.