Tower Choir, Platte County Chamber Choir to present joint concert

Northwest Missouri State University’s Tower Choir will continue its Guest Choral Ensembles Concert Series this month with a joint concert featuring the Sound Express, the chamber choir of Platte County High School.

The concert, which is free and open to the public, begins at 7:30 pm, Tuesday, October 24 at the Charles Johnson Theater in the Olive DeLuce Fine Arts Building.

“The concert will surely delight anyone who enjoys the ineffable beauties of music – choral music, specifically – and singers who present arresting and thrilling music,” Dr. Stephen Town, the conductor of the Tower Choir and a professor of music at Northwest, said.

The Platte County High School choral ensemble’s program will include “Take Me Home” arranged by Roger Emerson, “Flight Song” by Kim André Arnesen and “Pal-So-Seong” by Hyo-Won Woo.

The Tower Choir will perform six pieces, including “Dies Irae” by Zdenek Lukas, “How Do I Love Thee?” by Eric Nelson, “O magnum mysterium” by David Conte, “For The Beauty of the Earth” by John Rutter, “In Paradisum” by Edwin Fissinger and “Tafellied” by Johannes Brahms.

The shared concert is part of the ongoing Northwest Guest Choral Ensembles Concert Series established by Town in 2004.

The Sound Express is under the direction of Brian von Glahn, a Northwest alumnus and former student of Town. Von Glahn, now in his 16th year of teaching, joined the Platte County faculty in 2013 after successful stays at Chillicothe and Cameron schools. He will conduct an invitational concert next spring with his choir at the Missouri Music Educators Association (MMEA) Convention.

Formed decades ago by Ralph E. Hartzell, the Northwest Tower Choir is an award-winning choral ensemble, consistently invited to state conferences, including by the MMEA in 2010, 2013 and 2015 and the Nebraska Music Educators Association (NMEA) Conference in 2011, 2014 and 2017, as well as by the National Collegiate Choral Organization in 2011. The Tower Choir will appear Friday, November 17, at the NMEA Conference in Lincoln, Nebraska.

Since the 1999-2000 academic year, under the direction of Town, the ensemble has performed more than 130 concerts for high schools, colleges, universities, churches, institutions and organizations in the states of Missouri, Iowa, Nebraska and Kansas as well as Indiana, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, Ohio, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas and Washington, DC. In addition, the ensemble has given 14 peer-reviewed or invited concerts for learned societies, regional and state conventions, meetings and symposia.