Singers for Haydn bicentennial celebration concert needed

The East Texas Community Chorus is opening its membership again this spring to community members with singing experience who would like to participate in its upcoming 2009 Masterworks Concert.

The concert will celebrate the bicentennial of the death of Franz Joseph Haydn, one of the most prominent composers of the classical period.

The ETCC, sponsored by Kilgore College, will perform Haydn's Lord Nelson Mass and selections from his oratorio Creation. The ETCC, in its eighth season, will be joined in performance by the KC Chorale and festival orchestra. More than 100 singers and instrumentalists from the region will perform.

Ryan Kelly, director of choral activities at KC, will conduct the Masterworks Concert April 29 in the sanctuary of First United Methodist Church of Longview.

Kelly said the chorus is "nonauditioned" and interested singers with "a strong desire to learn and perform challenging choral music" are encouraged to attend the first or second rehearsal.

Chorus rehearsals will be held each Monday from 7 to 9 p.m., beginning Jan. 12, in the choir room of FUMC Longview.

Recent Masterworks concerts featured collaborative performances of Duruflé's Requiem, Mozart's Requiem, Beethoven's Mass in C and Charpentier's Te Deum with the KC Chorale.

Registration for the ETCC is $60. For more information, contact Kelly at (903) 983- 8122 or by e-mail at: rkelly@kilgore.edu.