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I Dream a World: TLU Spring Choir Tour

Every spring, the Texas Lutheran University Choirs take to the open road, sharing music—and a message—through a series of thoughtfully selected pieces.

This year’s program is entitled I Dream a World—taking its name from the celebrated and powerful poem by Langston Hughes, which presents a vision of a better world in which all people come together to enjoy the same freedom, peace, and joy.

“The words to Langston Hughes’s poem, ‘I Dream a World,’ resonate profoundly in our world today,” says Dr. Douglas Boyer, Director of the TLU School of Music. “‘I dream a world where none are scorned, where love will bless the earth and peace its paths adorn.’ This is such a beautiful vision for our society. Composer Kyle Pederson’s moving setting of the text has been such a joy to rehearse with the students.”

Boyer calls this year’s program “an eclectic mix of music, from the Baroque period to the music of our time, which seeks to express the dream for a world of hope, peace, joy, and love.” He says he “wanted to highlight our amazing TLU string faculty, two of whom will be joining us on choir tour: Dr. Elizabeth Lee, cellist; and Dr. Eric Siu, violinist. Joining the string faculty will be Samuel Gaytan, a wonderful violinist seeking his music degree at TLU.”

Audiences will enjoy works by Dieterich Buxtehude, Brazilian composer from the Classical Period José Mauricio Nunes Garcia, works by Native American composers Linthicum-Blackhorse and James E. Green, and celebrated African American composers Rosephanye Powell and Mark A. Miller. The program closes with Kyle Pederson’s setting the text of Hughes’s “I Dream a World.”

A selection by esteemed arranger and composer Alice Parker is also on the program. Her work for choir and piano four-hands, “Let your Spirit blow as wind,” was commissioned by Texas Lutheran University and premiered in 2018 in memory of Caroline Weston. The work honors the Weston family for their generous support of the arts at TLU. The piece is being performed this spring to honor the memory of George Grainger Weston (November 12, 1923 – October 7, 2023) who passed away in the fall, and the composer, Alice Parker (December 16, 1925 – December 24, 2023), who passed away on Christmas Eve day 2023.

The choirs and string musicians will be joined by pianists Deb Mayes and Cristina Castro and student percussionists Brian Clark and Kaitlyn Estrada.

This year’s tour, which runs March 21-22, will take the choirs to Cuero, Victoria, and Corpus Christi. The tour will wrap up with a home concert in TLU’s Chapel of the Abiding Presence at 7 p.m. on April 2. The performance is free and open to the public, so make plans to join the TLU Choirs, pianists, and instrumentalists for an inspiring musical performance of hope, peace, joy, and love.