Furman Chorales and Singers in Concert Oct. 27

The Furman University Men’s and Women’s Chorales and the Furman Singers will present their fall concert Thursday, Oct. 27 at 8 p.m. in Daniel Memorial Chapel on the Furman University campus.

The concert is free and open to the public, and is presented by the Furman Department of Music.

Conducted by Furman music professors Hugh Ferguson Floyd, Vivian Hamilton and Rusty Keesler, the program includes a mix of sacred and traditional hymns, folk tunes and spirituals.

Repertoire includes selections by Gabriel Fauré, Mack Wilberg, J.S. Bach, Z. Randall Stroope, Williametta Spencer, Craig Courtney, and Felix Mendelssohn, among others, and arrangements by Gwyneth Walker, Stacey V. Gibbs, Robert Shaw, Alice Parker and more.

Accompanying the choral groups on piano is Furman senior Kevin Edens of Marietta.

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

About Dr. Hugh Floyd
Dr. Hugh Ferguson Floyd is professor of music at Furman, coordinator of choral ensembles and director of the renowned Furman Singers. As of July 2016, he became chair of the music department. He is the first recipient of the Bingham L. Vick, Jr. and Judith S. Vick Professorship of Music, established by the Furman Singers Alumni Association. Prior to his appointment at Furman, Floyd served as the Director of Choral Studies at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music at Oberlin College. He also served as Director of Choral Activities and voice instructor at the famed Interlochen Center for the Arts, and a guest lecturer at the Eastman School of Music, and Yale University. Floyd frequently serves as a guest conductor and clinician around the country. In 2010, he was named Artistic Director for the New York State Summer School of the Arts School of Choral Studies. Floyd is a graduate of Furman University, the Eastman School of Music, and the University of Michigan.

About Dr. Vivian Hamilton
Dr. Vivian Hamilton is director of the Furman Chorale and a collaborative pianist in the music department. Hamilton has been a singer in the Robert Shaw Institute Festival Singers where she worked with Robert Shaw, and studied conducting with Dan Lewis and Edvard Tchivzhel. She has worked with choirs at Simmons College, Emerson College, the University of South Carolina, Northeastern University, and Clemson University. For 12 years, she conducted the Greater Anderson Musical Arts Consortium Chorale, and is a former president of the South Carolina American Choral Directors Association. Her choral conducting experience also includes work at Baptist and Methodist churches in Massachusetts and South Carolina, and in the public schools of Boston and Upstate South Carolina. She is active in the community as the Minister of Music at First Baptist Church, Greenville, S.C. She has served as a collaborative pianist in Boston, Massachusetts and throughout South Carolina. She was the Principal Keyboardist for the Greenville Symphony Orchestra, playing celeste, piano, and harpsichord.

About Rusty Keesler
Mr. Rusty Keesler is the director of the Furman Men’s Chorale and teaches Choral Methods and Choral Literature. He comes to Furman after teaching nearly 40 years in the Upstate’s public schools where he was named Teacher of the Year for three schools and two districts. For 11 seasons he conducted Greenville’s Singing Christmas Tree with the Greenville County Youth Orchestra, including four seasons of Holiday Concerts at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC. Choirs under his leadership have performed at Carnegie Hall, St. Bartholomew, St. Thomas, and the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City, the Kennedy Center, the National Cathedral, the U.S. Naval Academy, a concert tour of Germany and Austria, and two PBS broadcasts. Keesler has prepared choirs to sing with such notable conductors as Robert Shaw, John Rutter, Lloyd Pfautsch, and Daniel Pinkham. He is a graduate of Converse College with graduate studies at Winthrop University, Florida State University, and the University of South Carolina.