UNIVERSITY SINGERS
KEVIN FENTON, CONDUCTOR
HAROLD WRIGHT AND COLBY WHITE, ASSISTANT CONDUCTORS
VICTORIA COEY AND DYLAN RHODES, COLLABORATIVE PIANISTS DOUGLAS CHAPLOW, ORGANIST
PASSION. PURPOSE. MUSIC.
Our Program
I.
Selected from the following:
Sing Joyfully William Byrd (1540–1623)
Sing joyfully to God our strength; sing loud unto the God of Jacob! Take the song, bring forth the timbrel, the pleasant harp, and the viol. Blow the trumpet in the new moon, even in the time appointed, and at our feast day for this is a statute for Israel, and a law of the God of Jacob
Sicut Cervus Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (1525–1594)
As the deer longs for streams of water, so I long after you, O God
Veni, Sancte Spiritus Marques Garrett (b. 1984)
Come, Holy Spirit, and send out from heaven the ray of your light. In labor, rest, in heat, temperateness, in tears, solace. O most blessed light, fill the inmost heart of your faithful.
I Will Sing of Life Adolphus Hailstork (b. 1941)
Allyson Andaluz, soloist
I Will Sing! If none will sing of life, then I will. I will sing its praise. Not in the treble voice of youth, nor by happy sounding brasses, nor by cadence sounding on drums would I praise life as those who sing hymns only to the sun, forgetting nature in torment, man in agony. I would sing soft and sad, surging with emotion, remembering pain and fear and death. Where courage and life began to bloom and man spoke in verse and ballad and epic, Recounting glory, learning self, hailing life as the deep surge to be.
I Will Sing! If none will sing of life, then I will.
Indodona arr. Michael Barrett (b. 1983)
The Lord has Taken his son who lived among us.
Jubilate Deo Benjamin Britten (1913–1976)
O be joyful in the Lord all ye lands, serve the Lord with gladness and come before his presence with a song. Be ye sure that the Lord is great. It is he that has made us and not we ourselves. We are His people and the sheep of His pasture. O go your way into the gates of thanksgiving and enter His courts with praise. Be thankful unto him and speak good of His name. For the Lord is gracious, His mercy is everlasting, and His truth endures from generation to generation. Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost.
As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be world without end, Amen
Illuminare
II.
Elaine Hagenberg
Splendor (b. 1979)
Caritas
Nox
Munera pacis
Illuminare
III.
You May Choose Your Words
Luminescence
Xtoles
Te Quiero
Andrea Ramsey
Isabelle Jocelyn, soloist
Andrea Ramsey
arr. Julio Morales
arr. Liliana Cangiano
Lynette Hernandez-Mancera and Allyson Andaluz, soloists
Hallelujah
Just a Stare
arr. Evan Powers
Jackson Roberts, soloist
Swing Low Sail High
Sing for Joy
Connor Mickey
arr. Evan Powers
Kiley Berkery, soloist
B. E. Boykin
TENOR 1
Tobias Deggans ’25
Caden Early ’27
Matthew Kilfeather-Bonello ’29
Zachary Menger
Christian Reggi ’29
Jackson Roberts ’25
Colby White
TENOR 2
Tyler Brown ’28
Will Coey ’28
Antwan Shamaar Latimore ’29
*Connor Mickey ’26
Harold Wright
BARITONE
Victor Angel ’27
Nathan Cohen ’25
Jacob Da Costa ’27
Jack Marshall ’26
Gabe Nair ’29
Benjamin Reid ’25
*Jermiah Tracey ’27
BASS
Douglas Chaplow ’27
Grayson Dannelly ’27
Ferris Kritzer ’25
Clement Lee-Sursin ’28
Christian Noel ’26
Bryce Macon ’28
*Dylan Rhodes ’27
BME Choral Music Education St. Petersburg, Florida
BME Choral Music Education Niceville, Florida
BME Choral Music Education Hicksville, New York
BME Choral Music Education DeFuniak Springs, Florida
BME Choral Music Education Tampa, Florida
BME Choral Music Education Orlando, Florida
MM Choral Conducting Nashville, Tennessee
BME Choral Music Education Tallahassee, Florida
BME Choral Music Education Nolensville, Tennessee
BME Choral Music Education Pembroke Pines, Florida
BA Commercial Music/ St. Augustine, Florida
BS Retail Entrepreneurship
Ph.D. Choral Music Education Orlando, Florida
BA Commercial Music/ West Palm Beach, Florida
Theater Performance
BA Commercial Music Alpharetta, Georgia
BA Music General Orlando, Florida
BME Choral Music Education Boca Raton, Florida
BM Music Composition Orlando, Florida
BME Choral Music Education Jacksonville, Florida
BME Choral Music Education Orlando, Florida
BM Organ Performance Lovettsville, Virginia
BME Choral Music Education Niceville, Florida
BME Choral Music Education Tampa, Florida
BM Vocal Performance Tallahassee, Florida
BM Vocal Performance Chesterfield, Virginia
BME Choral Music Education Orlando, Florida
BM Piano Performance Melbourne, Florida
* choir leadership
The Director
KEVIN FENTON is professor of choral conducting and ensembles at Florida State University, where he conducts the FSU University Singers and Collegians (TB ensemble). He has conducted the Virginia Tech Meistersingers (1998), FSU University Singers (2002, 2003, 2006, 2007 and 2013), and the Festival Singers of Florida (2012 and 2018) in performances at regional and national conventions of ACDA and NAfME. Dr. Fenton has conducted choirs in 39 states, including thirty All-State choirs. Additionally, he has conducted the ACDA Southern Division High School Honor Choir (2008), the Dublin Ireland International Choral Festival (2016), the Xi’an China International Choral Festival (2017), and the Samarang Music Society AVoice4Peace concert in Indonesia (2017 and 2019).
Fenton teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in choral literature and choral conducting. His textbook Foundations of Choral Conducting has been adopted throughout the country. He is a recipient of the Florida State University Teaching Award for Excellence, the Wayne Hugoboom Distinguished Florida Service Award, and the Gamma Mu Chapter of Delta Omicron Music Professor of the Year award. He taught at the Kenya Conservatoire of Music as a Fulbright Specialist to Sub-Saharan Africa in 2016, and he is in his nineteenth year as Artistic Director of the Festival Singers of Florida–a choir of music educators and performers dedicated to “inspiring and engaging through impassioned singing.”
A champion of new music, Fenton has conducted over forty premiere performances including Kara Stacy Bedwell’s “Mother of Exiles” (2025); Skip Stradtman’s Meditations on Death (2025); Rob Redei’s “…and the stars” (2024); Hans Heruth’s “When You Are Old” (2023); Andrea Clearfields’s Transformed by Fire: Choral Suite (2022); Kyle Pederson’s A Vision Unfolds (2022); and Elaine Hagenberg’s Illuminare (2021).