Townsend School of Music to Present Holiday Concerts

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MACON—Mercer University’s Townsend School of Music will present two performing arts events in December that feature two of the School’s choirs.

The Mercer Singers will present A Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols at 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday, Dec. 1-2. The Singers will be conducted by Dr. Stanley L. Roberts, with Dr. Robert Parris on organ. The performances will take place in Newton Chapel on Mercer’s Macon campus. Admission is $5 for the general public or free with a Mercer I.D. This annual Mercer music tradition is now in its twelfth year.

The Mercer University Children’s Choir will present “Christmas at St. Joseph’s” at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Dec. 15, at St. Joseph Catholic Church in Macon. The concert will feature a wide variety of the season’s best choral music. Created in 2005, the Mercer Children’s Choir is a community arts initiative of the Townsend-McAfee Institute Graduate Studies in Church Music of Mercer’s Townsend School of Music. The Preparatory Choir (ages 7-9) is conducted by R. Creston Groover with the assistance of Ann Davis, and the Touring Choir (ages 9-15) is conducted by Dr. John E. Simons, Director of Graduate Studies and the Townsend-McAfee Institute, with the assistance of Amanda Pitman and Matthew Turbeville. The concert is free and open to the public.

For more information about these events, contact Townsend School of Music at (478) 301-2748.

Mercer University’s Townsend School of Music and the Townsend-McAfee Institute Graduate Studies in Church Music offer undergraduate and graduate professional music studies in a comprehensive university environment. The School is nationally recognized for its outstanding faculty, award-winning students, performance ensembles and state-of-the-art facilities. It is also home to the Robert McDuffie Center for Strings. Mercer University is an accredited institutional member of the National Association of Schools of Music.

Founded in 1833, Mercer University is a dynamic and comprehensive center of undergraduate, graduate and professional education. The University enrolls 7,200 students in 11 schools and colleges — liberal arts, law, pharmacy, medicine, business, engineering, education, theology, music, nursing and continuing and professional studies — on major campuses in Macon and Atlanta and four regional academic centers across the state. Mercer also operates a university press, engineering research center and performing arts center, affiliates with teaching hospitals in Macon and Savannah, and participates in educational partnerships with Warner Robins Air Logistics Center in Warner Robins and Piedmont Healthcare in Atlanta. Mercer sponsors 14 NCAA Division I athletic teams and is a charter member of the Atlanta Sun Conference. For 17 consecutive years, U.S. News & World Report has named Mercer University as one of the top 15 universities in the South.