News Release
Chamber Singers to Perform in Holy Week Celebration at the Washington D.C. Temple Visitors’ Center
On Easter Sunday, March 31, the Southern Virginia University Chamber Singers will perform selections of sacred music as the final ensemble in the first Holy Week Easter Celebration held at the Washington D.C. Temple Visitors’ Center.
“The Southern Virginia music program has performed periodically at the Visitors’ Center since 2006,” said Director of Choral Activities Kyle Nielsen, who directs the Chamber Singers. “They came to me to ask if we wanted to be a part of Holy Week, and I enthusiastically said yes.”
Celebrating the life of Jesus Christ in the week leading up to Easter Sunday and His resurrection, the Washington D.C. Temple Visitors’ Center’s Holy Week Easter Celebration will feature art by Eva Timony, flower displays, and daily concerts free and open to the public.
“It’s just such beautiful music. And I love singing sacred music because I feel like I connect with it so much deeper than any other kind of music,” said Daisy Glover (‘26), a member of Chamber Singers. “Everybody in this choir has a connection, if not to God himself, a connection to spiritual nature, to something, and I just love getting to sing with people like that.”
Performing Christ-centered music, Chamber singers will be joined by alum Ethan Goodmansen (‘22) and a string quintet of current university students for Ralph Vaughan Williams’s “Easter” from Five Mystical Songs. A piano trio from the Instrumental Chamber Music program will also perform a melody of “Beautiful Savior” and “Come Thou Fount.”
”We decided to do a hymn melody,” said Annalyce Leuck (‘24), a member of the string quartet and the instrumental chamber group. “I’ve noticed in experience with church playing or events like this it’s better to play a song that people know because then they can think about and internalize the words alongside the music.”
Chamber Singers have recently performed at the Virginia Music Educators Association Fall Conference in 2022, the Festival of Lights at the Washington D.C. Temple Visitors Center in 2019, and Carnegie Hall in 2019.
Established in 1997, the Chamber Singers is Southern Virginia University’s premiere auditioned SATB ensemble. With a motto to spread joy through heavenly music, Chamber Singers build community, compassion, integrity, and excellence while obtaining choral mastery.
Free but with limited seating, the Chamber Singers will perform on March 31 at 7 p.m. at the Washington D.C. Temple Visitors’ Center. A full schedule of the week’s events can be found at Holy Week at the Visitors’ Center.