Music Performance Groups
The Division of Music offers many opportunities for students—music majors, minors, and non-majors—to enhance their musical abilities through participation in performance organizations. All of the groups have open audition policies, but some by virtue of the level of competition are primarily populated by music majors.
Our graded choral program is comprised of eight choirs—the University Singers, the Conductor's Chorus, the Collegiate Choir, the Concert Choir, the Lyric Choir (for ladies), the University Chorale, the Men's Glee Choir, and the University Chamber Singers. Conductors include Dr. Warren Cook, Dr. Beth Eubank, and Mr. Fred Coleman.
The instrumental ensembles include two bands—the Symphonic Wind Band and the Concert Band—and two orchestras—the University Orchestra and the Chamber Strings. In addition, each instrumental department has smaller groups: the Flute Choir and Flute Ensemble, the Woodwind Choir, the Trumpet Choir, the Trombone Choir, the Horn Choir, the Tuba/Euphonium Choir, the Brass Choir, two Handbell Choirs, a Percussion Ensemble, and the Musica Antiqua.
Visit the University Handbell Choir page.
Symphonic Wind Band
The
Symphonic Wind Band is a sixty-piece ensemble dedicated to providing its members a band
experience of the highest quality. Auditions are open to all students, but music majors
and graduate students constitute the majority of its membership. Dr. Dan Turner, head of
the Music Education Department, has directed the band since 1981.
The group has two major concerts each year, in December and April, in which they perform standard repertoire, including recent performances of Symphony no. 3 by Alfred Reed, and Symphony no. 1 "The Lord of the Rings" by Johan de Meij. They also perform lighter repertoire at several outdoor concerts. The band also travels on a weeklong out-of-state tour (biannually). The band's recording, For God and Country, is available from SoundForth, the music division of the BJU Press. For more information about the Symphonic Wind Band, contact Dan Turner.
Listen to an excerpt of the Wind Band's December 2005 performance of Music-Maker March by Alfred Reed.
Listen to an excerpt of the Wind Band's April 2006 performance of American Overture for Band by Joseph Wilcox Jenkins.
University Orchestra
The Bob Jones University Orchestra has as its mission the providing of orchestral
experience to talented students. It gives them the opportunity to perform great music
from symphony, opera, and oratorio literature and also to participate in a sacred
ministry through the performance of fine sacred music, all for the glory of God. When Dwight Gustafson, dean emeritus of the School of
Fine Arts, retired as conductor of the Orchestra after more than forty years of service, Mr. Jay Pinner, head of
the String Department, was appointed conductor in his place.
The Symphony numbers sixty to sixty-five pieces depending on the literature performed. Any advanced musician, regardless of major, is eligible for membership on the basis of audition. Several University faculty assist as player-coaches. The yearly schedule consists of an October concert, a weeklong out-of-state tour with sacred music (biannually), collaboration with the University's combined choirs for Thanksgiving week oratorio performances (Messiah, Elijah, The Creation, etc.), the March opera performance, and the Commencement Concert in early May.
You can hear the University Orchestra on two CD's available from SoundForth—Blessed Assurance and May Jesus Christ Be Praised. For more information about the University Orchestra, contact Jay Pinner.
Listen to an excerpt of the Orchestra's October 2005 performance of Allegro from Piano Concerto No. 2, Op. 36 by Lowell Liebermann, Andrea Tang, piano.
Listen to the Combined Choirs and Orchestra's December 2005 performance of the Hallelujah Chorus from Handel's Messiah.
University Chorale
The University Chorale, under the direction of Dr. Warren Cook, is comprised of
both undergraduate and graduate students. Any advanced vocalist regardless of major is eligible to audition.
The Chorale performs in the Sunday morning campus church service and presents two full-length recitals a year.
Each year selected members of the Chorale also participate in the Oratorio and Commencement concert choir and
opera choruses. The Chorale also travels biannually on tours of churches and Christian schools.
In 1996, the Chorale was invited to perform in Seoul, Korea, as part of the World Choral Festival. The Chorale is featured on the Proclaim His Birth recording available from SoundForth.
Listen to an excerpt of the University Chorale's November 2005 performance of Selah from Words of Paradise by Dan Forrest. Selah was judged the winner of the 2005 American Choral Directors Association Raymond W. Brock Memorial Student Composition Contest.
Listen to an excerpt of the University Chorale's November 2005 performance of Simple Gifts by René Clausen.