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University Singers
The University Singers is the most prominent and advanced choral ensemble at the University of Missouri and offers a proud tradition of excellence in choral singing. The repertoire is varied, including major works from all periods of music history. The choral excellence of this ensemble has captured the attention of audiences in Washington, D.C. and New York, at national conventions of professional music organizations, and on tour in England, France, Italy, Austria, Hungary, and the Czech Republic. Many alumni of the University Singers have gone on to become members of professional choral ensembles (such as those directed by Norman Luboff and Robert Shaw), professional singers of popular music, opera and oratorio, choral directors at the university, high school, and junior high school levels, vocal music teachers, piano performers and teachers, and composers. Two major on-campus concerts are presented annually in addition to two concerts presented with the University Choral Union. The Singers also perform on tour annually in Missouri and beyond.
The University Singers was formed during the 1945-46 academic year by Paul Van Bodegraven, Director of Choral Activities at MU, in an effort to establish an elite, auditioned choral ensemble capable of performing all of the masterworks in the choral repertoire. The University Singers complemented the University Chorus, a non-auditioned ensemble which had been active for many years.
The University Singers was led by Bodegraven until May 1952 when he left the University. He was succeeded by Thomas Mills who directed the ensemble for twenty-five years, from 1952 until 1977. Under his leadership, the Singers performed at a national meeting of the American Choral Directors Association, the 1964 World's Fair in New York and at a concert celebrating the Bicentennial of the Declaration of Independence at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. in 1976. Near the end of his tenure as director, Mills experienced health problems and was forced to take a leave of absence during the 1976-77 academic year when Charles Nick Kyriakos served as interim conductor. Mills returned briefly in the fall of 1977, but Ira Powell directed the choir most of time that year. Powell was appointed director for the 1978-79 academic year. He was succeeded by Kyriakos as director for the 1979-80 academic year.
Duncan Couch was appointed director of the University Singers, effective August 1980 and served in that capacity through May 1989 when he was appointed Director of Choral Activities at Stetson University. Gregory Fuller, then a doctoral student in music education at Mizzou, but now Director of Choral Music at the University of Southern Mississippi, was appointed interim director of the choir for the 1989-90 academic year, and was succeeded by David Rayl in August 1990. During Rayl’s twelve-year tenure, the Singers performed at the 1995 national meeting of the American Choral Directors Association in Washington, D.C., and undertook concert tours to England and France in 1998 and to Italy in 2000. The highlight of the 1998 tour were performances at the Florilège Vocal de Tours in France, where the Singers was one of five choirs to advance to the final round in the Mixed Chorus Division. The choir’s five-city tour in Italy was marked by a performance at the Maggio Musical Florentino in Florence. In October 2000, the choir sang at the state funeral of Governor Mel Carnahan. Rayl’s choirs also performed several times at the Missouri Music Educators Association annual meetings at Tan-Tar-A. Rayl is currently Director of Choral Activities at Michigan State University.
Following an interim year under the leadership of Harrison Boughton, formerly of Wichita State University, Paul Crabb was appointed the fourth permanent director of the choir in August 2003. Under Crabb’s guidance, the University Singers performed in four cities of Central Europe – Prague, Brno, Vienna, and Budapest – in 2006. The Singers has been invited (one of nine choirs from across the country chosen by blind audition) to perform at the national convention of the National Collegiate Choral Organization at Yale University in November 2009. In May 2010, the choir will tour Italy, performing at music festivals in Milan and Bologna – the only American choir chosen to participate.
The choir performs on a concert tour in Missouri and/or nearby states every January prior to the beginning of the Spring term. In January 2009, the ensemble performed a series of concerts in the Chicago area.