Fall Festival of Choral Music features concert Oct. 18

The Furman Fall Festival of Choral Music will close with a concert on Saturday, Oct. 18 at 3 p.m. in McAlister Auditorium on the Furman University campus.

The concert is free and open to the public.

For the festival, singers from selected high school programs in the region are invited to participate with mixed quartets of their finest singers. These groups practice and perform under the baton of Furman Singers director Dr. Hugh Ferguson Floyd who leads Saturday’s culminating concert with the Singers.

The nearly 100-voice Furman Singers and High School Festival Choir, comprised of almost 70 singers, will be accompanied by Grace Odell ‘16 (Pelzer), and Furman Music Professor Vivian Hamilton. The choirs will perform a mix of traditional hymns, folk songs and spirituals.

A special addition to the festival is a piece by Furman Professor of Music Composition and Theory Mark Kilstofte titled “Caritas” (Charity), which was commissioned by Furman to Commemorate 50 Years of Desegregation at the university.

Floyd is Coordinator of Choral Music at Furman. Prior to his appointment at Furman, he served as Director of Choral Studies at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music at Oberlin College. He has also been a guest lecturer at the Eastman School of Music and Yale University. Floyd served as Director of Choral Activities and Voice Instructor at the famed Interlochen Center for the Arts in Michigan and taught at the Interlochen Arts Academy. Floyd is a graduate of Furman, the Eastman School of Music, and the University of Michigan.

For more information about the event, contact the Furman University Music Department at (864) 294-2086, or email the department at FurmanMusic@furman.edu.