University of Mississippi Choir Concert Singers

The University of Mississippi Choir Concert Singers are a select group of students hailing from thirteen states and representing a variety of disciplines. The choir has received four consecutive standing ovations at national and regional conventions of the American Choral Directors Association and was the only nonprofessional choir selected to sing for the 1995 ACDA National Leadership Conference in Lawton, Oklahoma. In 1991, the Concert Singers received a standing ovation in its Carnegie Hall debut. On three occasions the choir has staged major choral works in residence with the Atlanta Ballet and is the only out-of-state choir that has performed with the Atlanta Ballet. The choir has taken over nine tours of Europe. In 1984, 1989, 1994, and 1997 the Choir Concert Singers passed auditions that allowed the group to compete in international choral competitions in England, France, and Bulgaria. In each of these competitions, the choir won a top prize competing against a total of one hundred twenty-four choirs from twenty-nine countries. In winning the 1994 Recontres Internationales de Chant Choral in Tours, France, the Choir Concert Singers swept all five top prizes, marking only the second time this has been accomplished in the history of the competition. This victory qualified the Choir Concert Singers to enter perhaps the most prestigious choral competition in the world, the annual Gran Premio Europeo di Canto Choral, which only the winners of a unique alliance of six international choral competitions may enter. During a tour of four Eastern European countries and Austria, the choir entered the Twenty-Fourth International May Choir Competition in Varna, Bulgaria, winning the 1997 Grand Prize of Varna, a special award for innovation in interpretation, and two other awards. This again qualified the choir for entry into the Gran Premio Europeo di Canto Choral competition. The Choir Concert Singers entered this competition, held in Gorizia, as part of a two-week tour of Italy during July of 1998.