MACON – More than 200 singers will raise their voices together to present John Rutter’s Mass of the Children at 7:30 p.m., Saturday, Oct. 20, at First Baptist Church of Christ, 511 High Place, Macon. The free concert celebrates the community music initiatives of Mercer University’s Townsend School of Music and Townsend-McAfee Institute for Graduate Church Music Studies.
The program will feature singers from Mercer and community area choirs, including Mercer University Children’s Choir, Mercer University Men’s Choir, Mercer University Women’s Choir, the Choral Society of Middle Georgia and Vineville Baptist Church Sanctuary Choir. Music will be provided by a festival wind ensemble comprised of Mercer faculty and students and by Dr. Robert Parris, the Charles B. Thompson professor of music and university organist at Mercer, on organ. Dr. John Simons, associate professor of choral and church music and director of the Townsend-McAfee Institute, will conduct.
In addition to Mass of the Children, the program includes the reading of poems written by members of the Mercer University Children’s Choir and congregational singing from Celebrating Grace: Hymnal for Baptist Worship, scheduled to be published in 2010 by Mercer University Press in collaboration with the Townsend-McAfee Institute.
For more information about the event, contact the Townsend School of Music at (478) 301-2748.
About Townsend School of Music of Mercer University
Mercer is an accredited member of the National Association of Schools of Music. Mercer’s Townsend School of Music and the Townsend-McAfee Institute for Graduate Church Music Studies offer undergraduate and graduate professional music studies in a comprehensive university environment. The School is nationally recognized for its outstanding faculty, award-winning students, performance ensembles and state-of-the-art facilities and is home to the Robert McDuffie Center for Strings.
About Mercer University
Founded in 1833, Mercer University is a dynamic and comprehensive center of undergraduate, graduate and professional education. The University has 7,300 students; 11 schools and colleges – liberal arts, law, pharmacy, medicine, business, engineering, education, theology, music, nursing and continuing and professional studies; major campuses in Macon and Atlanta; four regional academic centers across the state; a university press; two teaching hospitals — Memorial Health University Medical Center and the Medical Center of Central Georgia; educational partnerships with Warner Robins Air Logistics Center in Warner Robins and Piedmont Healthcare in Atlanta; an engineering research center in Warner Robins; a performing arts center in Macon; and a NCAA Division I athletic program. For more information, visit www.mercer.edu.
