The University of Georgia award-winning Hodgson Singers present their spring concert, “The Poet Sings,” on March 14 at 7:30 p.m. in Hodgson Concert Hall at the UGA Performing Arts Center.
This concert is presented by the Hugh Hodgson School of Music as well as UGA Humanities Council as part of the UGA Humanities Festival.
This concert “celebrates the unforgettable chemistry of two great art forms: poetry and vocal music. Choral music has set the words of some of history’s most beloved poets to music,” according to conductor Daniel Bara. Selections include John Corigliano’s Fern Hill (poem by Dylan Thomas) with voice faculty member Elizabeth Johnson Knight as the mezzo-soprano soloist. The program also includes pieces based on the poetry of Shakespeare, Pablo Neruda, Walt Whitman, Robert Frost and Indian poet Sarojini Naidu.
Tickets are $3 for UGA students with a valid ID and $20 for adults. Tickets can be purchased at music.uga.edu or by calling the box office at 706-542-4400. The UGA Performing Arts Center is located at 230 River Road.
In 2023, the University of Georgia presented its first Humanities Festival, a series of public events showcasing the richness and diversity of research and practice in the humanities at UGA and throughout our extended community. The second annual UGA Humanities Festival will take place March 11-22 featuring lectures, conversations, performances, social gatherings and bookend keynote events with Oxford Professor of Poetry A. E. Stallings and Pulitzer Prize-winning author Hua Hsu. The festival is organized by the UGA Humanities Council.
The UGA Hodgson Singers was formed by E. Pierce Arant Jr. in the late 1970s as the UGA Concert Choir and continues to serve as the flagship ambassadorial choral ensemble of the Hugh Hodgson School of Music. Comprised of UGA’s most gifted and dedicated singers, this ensemble provides vibrant, pre-professional ensemble training for the next generation of professional singers, choral music educators, and talented choral enthusiasts. Membership in the UGA Hodgson Singers is open to all UGA students and celebrates excellent musicianship skills, a sophisticated and flexible vocal technique, thoughtful interpretative ideas and a passion for music-making.
The ensemble has appeared in concert in recent years with The King’ Singers, Kathleen Battle, Andrea Bocelli, Tenebrae, the Atlanta Baroque Orchestra, the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and the Knights Chamber Orchestra. The ensemble won the Grand Prix at the International Choral Competition Ave Verum in 2014 and second prize at the prestigious Marktoberdorf International Chamber Choir Competition (Germany) in spring 2023. The choir has performed by invitation at the ACDA Southern Division conventions in 2014, 2018 and 2024, and for the Georgia Music Educators Association In-Service Conference in 2012, 2017 and 2023. Its first professional recording, “Grace Immaculate,” is distributed by Naxos on the Gothic Records label and is available on all streaming platforms.