Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, July 4, 1995 TAG: 9507050046
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV2 EDITION: HOLIDAY
SOURCE: ADRIANNE BEE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: Medium
Jon Polifrone, composer-in-residence at Virginia Tech, wrote the requiem "For Those We Love," and it was performed by the chorale, the Virginia Tech Concert Choir, Montgomery County Boychoir, soloists from Chicago and New York, and the Virginia Tech Symphony Orchestra. The resulting CD apparently amazed Zubin Mehta, a conductor of international reputation.
"He couldn't believe he was hearing an amateur group and that it took us only four hours to record the one-hour piece," said Craig Fields, the chorale's musical director. "We had to. We didn't have the financial luxury to do it over and over."
The chorale's CD set a record in classical music single sales at Books Strings & Things.
When Fields, a former professional opera singer and now associate professor and choral director at Virginia Tech, slips the CD into his stereo, his house is filled with the sounds of 150 angelic voices.
"The group surprises people," Fields said. "They expect an average church choir, and when the chorale sings, people are blown away by the beauty of the music."
This Independence Day, 42 chorale members took off to impress audiences all over Europe. Munich, Passau, Kitzbuehel, Vienna, Cesky Krumlov and Prague all will hear the sounds of the chorale, which Fields refers to as "artistic ambassadors for Southwest Virginia."
On the Fourth in 1992, on a previous European concert tour, Fields remembers singing in a festival in a church in Poland. "We were such a hit - we were singing American spirituals out on the church steps," Fields said. "Everyone joined us and no one wanted to stop singing."
The 80-member group comprises a handful of Tech students, lots of couples and people of all ages.
The chorale will be hosted and sponsored by choirs in Austria and Czechoslovakia. "It's a vacation as well as a musical experience," said Fields, who is taking his father-in-law along to see the sights of Europe. The chorale will return from its European Concert Tour on July 17.
Fields will audition new singers in August for the chorale.
"There are some very talented people in this area," Fields said. "I work them very hard and don't lower my artistic standards - I try to bring them up to a professional level."
by CNB