Oregon State University Chamber Choir: The President's Concert
Free
An annual event, the President's Concert, directed by Dr. Steven Zielke, is the final performance of OSU's premier choir, the OSU Chamber Choir. It is named in honor of former OSU President Ed Ray and his late wife, Beth Ray, to honor them for choral scholarships they established. The scholarships, awarded to section leaders for the following year, are presented each year at this concert.
The concert features a recent work by the young innovative African American composer, Joel Thompson, most known for his work, Seven Last Words of the Unarmed. Hold Fast to Dreams combines two Langston Hughes works dealing with the dreams and aspirations of freedom, two poems that likely influenced Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s famous lines in his speech "I have a dream". These two poems, one written early in Hughes' life, and one composed almost 30 years later, when combined in a single composition, provide the listener with the conflict inherent in striving to reach that ideal.