Chorale to Perform at Palace Theatre

Pitt-Greenburg’s Chorale will be performing “Carmina Burana” with the Westmoreland Symphony at the Palace Theatre on Saturday, Apr. 27.

After the chorale’s performance last year and success in years prior, they were recognized for their work and were asked to perform with the Westmoreland Symphony, the Westmoreland Chambers Singers, and Seton Hill’s Una Voce at the Palace Theatre.

Chris Bartley, professor of music and choral director at Pitt-Greensburg, said, “Chorale has done really excellent performance in the last few years and thus made it immediately obvious and not of debate that they could absolutely handle the demands on doing this.”

“Carmina Burana” is a scenic cantata composed in 1935 by Carl Orff based on 24 poems from the medieval collection “Carmina Burana.” The work consists of 25 pieces, beginning and ending with the most memorable song “O Fortuna.”

“[People] know “O Fortuna.” They have heard it as the Penguins hit the ice, they have heard it before Wrestle Mania, they have heard it in advertisements. It is everywhere,” Bartley said.

Chorale began work on this piece of music back in December after their Winter concert. All of the songs have been rehearsed and learned fully. Some were even sung as a preview at their recent Spectrum concert last month. The director of the Westmoreland Symphony came to their Thursday performance. According to Bartley, the director was blown away by the music that was created by this group of college students.

Bartley said, “[Chorale] is so far ahead [in their preparation] that I have to find other things to keep them entertained. They were fairly close to performance at the end of February.”

To continue in their work toward success for this show, the chorale is working on memorization work and more text work. Their goal is to help those in the other two choral groups and deliver a grand show to the audience at the Palace Theatre.

Alicia Dorsett, a two-year member of the chorale, said, “I’ve never done anything like this before, and I don’t think chorale has either. Getting to sing with the people that I love in a big concert is just going to be amazing.”

There is still time to buy tickets to the show. If interested, contact Professor Bartley or visit the Westmoreland Symphony website.