UALR’s Department of Music will host the Central Arkansas Choral Directors Association’s All-Region Choir Clinic on Saturday, Nov. 21 providing a day of choral workshops that will culminate in a 6p.m. free public performance at Robinson Auditorium with members of the Arkansas Symphony.

An estimated 520 of Central Arkansas’ best young singers previously selected by audition from 77 junior and senior high schools will be on the UALR campus from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. rehearsing in four different choirs – junior treble and mixed choirs and senior treble and mixed choirs. They move to Robinson Auditorium for on-stage rehearsals from 3 to 5 p.m. to prepare for the public performance at 6 p.m.

Directing the choirs will be Bevan Keating and Kira Keating from UALR in Little Rock, Gaye McClure from Southside High School in Fort Smith and Angela Weaver from Southside Senior High School in Batesville.

Performance selections will be challenging and varied, ranging from Joseph Haydn’s Te Deum, accompanied by Arkansas Symphony Orchestra, and Leonard Bernstein’s Candide to spirituals and folk tunes such as Joshua Fit de Battle of Jericho and Home on the Range.

Students performing in these All-Region Choirs are now eligible to audition for the All-State Choir on Feb. 5, 2010 in Jonesboro.

For more information, contact Susan Belcher of the UALR Music Department at 501-569-3294 or sbbelcher@ualr.edu.