CARLETON SINGERS TO PERFORM AT CLARK ART INSTITUTE

For Immediate Release
March 13, 2015

[Digital image available upon request]

Williamstown, Massachusetts––The Carleton Singers of Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota presents a free hour-long program at the Clark Art Institute on Friday, March 20 at 3 pm in the Clark Center, West Pavilion. The program includes a variety of styles and features a number of Minnesota composers.

The Carleton Singers is a highly select, mixed choral ensemble of sixteen voices that presents annual concerts of short and extended works from classical, ethnic, and cultural repertories. Under the direction of Dr. Lawrence Burnett, the ensemble has been lauded for energetic and emotional performances while sustaining high degrees of excellence in choral singing. The group was featured in a concert performance at Carnegie Hall to commemorate Martin Luther King, Jr.; demonstrated the singing of African American spirituals at an American Choral Directors Association North Central Convention; and performed at a conference of the Minnesota Music Educators Association. Concert tours have included New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles, New Orleans, Madison, and Washington, D.C, including a performance at the White House.

Lawrence Burnett holds a BM degree in vocal music education from Texas A & I University, an MM degree in choral conducting, vocal pedagogy, and vocal performance from Eastern New Mexico University, and a DMA degree in choral conducting from the University of Texas at Austin. Before joining the Carleton faculty in 1993, Dr. Burnett taught in the Crane School of Music at Potsdam College of the State University of New York. In New York he received the first Governor’s Award for African Americans of Distinction in New York State and served as artistic director of the New York State Summer School of the Arts–School of Choral Studies. His teaching experience spans 40 years.

Dr. Burnett is researching the histories of arrangers, composers, conductors, and performers who have kept alive the styles and traditions of African American sacred music through performances and recordings, and he is developing a web site to serve as a resource for scholars, educators, conductors, and performers.

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ABOUT THE CLARK

The Clark Art Institute is one of a small number of institutions globally that is both an art museum and a center for research, critical discussion, and higher education in the visual arts. Opened in 1955, the Clark houses exceptional European and American paintings and sculpture, extensive collections of master prints and drawings, English silver, and early photography. Acting as convener through its Research and Academic Program, the Clark gathers an international community of scholars to participate in a lively program of conferences, colloquia, and workshops on topics of vital importance to the visual arts. The Clark library, open to the public with more than 240,000 volumes, is one of the nation’s premier art history libraries. The Clark also houses and co-sponsors the Williams College Graduate Program in the History of Art.

The Clark opened its expanded facilities on July 4, 2014, unveiling new and enhanced spaces that accommodate the continued growth of the Institute’s programs. Included in this final stage of the project are the new 42,600-square-foot Clark Center designed by Tadao Ando Architect & Associates, expansion and renovation of the original Museum Building and the ongoing renovation of the Manton Research Center by Selldorf Architects, and a sweeping redesign of the grounds by Reed Hilderbrand Landscape Architecture. The first phase of the campus expansion project was completed in 2008 with the opening of the Lunder Center at Stone Hill, a striking conservation and exhibition facility also designed by Tadao Ando.

The Clark is located at 225 South Street in Williamstown, Massachusetts. Galleries are open Tuesday through Sunday, 10 am to 5 pm. Admission is $20; free year-round for Clark members, children 18 and younger, and students with valid ID. For more information, visit clarkart.edu or call 413 458 2303.

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