Contact: Sasha Steinberg

STARKVILLE, Miss.—The Mississippi State University State Singers are welcoming nearly 400 middle- and high school musicians from Mississippi and surrounding states for the university’s fifth annual Choral Colloquium.

Free to all, the Sunday and Monday [Sept. 13 and 14] music department-sponsored event will feature choirs from Meridian and Starkville high schools, Lafayette High School in Louisiana, McAdory Middle School in McCalla, Alabama, and Hardin County High School in Savannah, Tennessee.

Unless otherwise noted, the performances and their rehearsal session will take place at the MSU Band and Choral Hall on Hardy Road.

The colloquium schedule includes:

Sunday

—2:45 p.m., honor choir rehearsals.

—8:30 p.m., honor choir concert with MSU State Singers in Lee Hall’s Bettersworth Auditorium.

Monday

—8:30-11 a.m., honor choir rehearsals.

—12:45-2:15 p.m., honor choir rehearsals continue at Starkville First Baptist Church.

—2:30 p.m., honor choir final concerts.

Visiting faculty members from Texas and Kentucky are assisting with this year’s event.

Professor Susan Brumfield of Texas Tech University’s School of Music will conduct the middle-school honor choir, while adjunct instructor Denise R. Eaton of Sam Houston State University’s School of Music will lead the high school group.

Brad Almquist is directing the MSU State Singers’ Sunday evening performance. He is choral activities director at Murray State University and a former president of the American Choral Directors Association’s Southern Division.

Almquist also will lead sessions for teachers interested in obtaining continuing education units. For information on CE registration and cost, visit http://www.statesings.com/State_Sings/Choral_Home.html.

Gary Packwood, MSU’s director of choral activities, said the colloquium is another example of continuing efforts by “the entire faculty in the department to increase our visibility, strengthen our reputation as an outstanding place for cultivating the very best musicians and people and become a central location for global research in the arts.”

An associate professor, he also expressed appreciation for “the support of the music department faculty throughout the past five years.”

For more colloquium information, contact Packwood at 662-325-3490 or GPackwood@colled.msstate.edu.

Accredited by the National Association of Schools of Music, MSU’s music department offers a bachelor’s degree in four areas of music education, as well as a bachelor of arts in music. Learn more at www.music.msstate.edu, bit.ly/MSUMusicFB and twitter.com/mstatemusic.

MSU is Mississippi’s leading university, available online at www.msstate.edu.