Monday, November 07, 2005

WILMINGTON, N.C. - One of the great choral masterworks, A German Requiem by Johannes Brahms, is featured in a special performance to remember and honor a former UNCW student at 8 p.m. Friday, Nov. 18 at First Presbyterian Church in Wilmington. Joe Hickman conducts the UNCW Concert Choir and vocal soloists Nancy King (soprano) and Ian Greenlaw (baritone), and pianists Patricia Ainspac and Karen Rice in this Christopher Kent Beaver Memorial Choir Scholarship Concert.

The Rev. Christopher Kent Beaver, who had been serving as minister of music at Providence Presbyterian Church on Hilton Head Island, S.C., died in June of this year. Beaver was a graduate of the UNCW Department of Music (vocal performance) and from 1982-1987 was active as both ensemble member and soloist in the UNCW Concert Choir and the UNCW Chamber Singers.

While there is no charge for this concert, all donations will go to the Christopher Kent Beaver Memorial Choral Music Scholarship fund established by the UNCW Department of Music. Those wishing to make donations will be seated in a reserved seating area.

Brahms himself compiled the text for A German Requiem, using a variety of selections from Martin Luther’s German translation of the Scriptures. The work was premiered in Bremen on Good Friday 1868, with an additional movement later added as a memorial to the composer’s mother. By turns elegiac and triumphant, the Requiem has established itself as one of the cornerstones in the choral repertoire.

“It is so fitting that we can honor and remember Christopher with this particular music”, said UNCW Director of Cultural Arts Norman Bemelmans. “The entire UNCW community is grateful to Dr. Hickman and all the musicians involved for providing us, and all of Wilmington, the opportunity to honor a member of our university family so appropriately.”

Donations for The Christopher Kent Beaver Memorial Choral Music Scholarship can be mailed to:

Advancement Services
Christopher Kent Beaver Memorial Choral Music Scholarship
University of North Carolina Wilmington
601 South College Road
Wilmington, NC 28403-5905

Please make checks payable to UNCW.

For additional information on becoming a Christopher Kent Beaver Memorial Choral Music Scholarship donor, please contact Joe Hickman, Choral Ensemble director, at 910/962-7104 or hickmanj@uncw.edu or Marla Rice-Evans, associate vice chancellor for development at 910/962-7055 or riceevans@uncw.edu.

For additional information on the Nov. 18 concert, please contact the UNCW Department of Music at 910/962-7416.