The UAB Concert Choir competed against more than 100 other choirs applying for the honor. The Concert Choir at the University of Alabama at Birmingham has been selected as a performing ensemble at the Southern Regional Conference of the American Choral Directors Association in Mobile in March 2020.
The UAB Concert Choir, under the direction of Associate Professor Brian Kittredge, DMA, is the premier choral ensemble at UAB, in the College of Arts and Sciences’ Department of Music. It features approximately 50 auditioned singers from many disciplines across campus, and while a large percentage of the group are pursuing music studies, there are other majors also represented in the ensemble.
The conference will feature 20 choirs from many categories including children’s choirs, middle school choirs, high school choirs, women’s and men’s choirs and collegiate and community choirs. UAB and the University of Montevallo choirs were selected to represent Alabama. More than 100 choirs submitted applications vying for the honor. The UAB Concert Choir, in the mixed collegiate choir category, was selected by blind peer review, based on recordings and submitted materials. Kittredge will choose the choir’s half-hour program for the performance.
“The program will feature a variety of repertoire including traditional choral selections, and new compositions written for the choir to premiere at the conference,” Kittredge said.
The choir tours annually. In 2018, the UAB Concert Choir made its debut performance at Carnegie Hall in New York. In 2017, the choir performed in choral festivals in England and the Netherlands. The choir has also performed on a European summer tour, which included winning gold and silver medals in three categories at the eighth World Choir Games in Riga, Latvia; and has released a CD, “Unceasing Love.”