The 1956 Virginia Glee Club performance in the Woodrow Wilson Centennial Concert was part of the Glee Club 1955-1956 season. Held April 28, 1956 in Staunton, Virginia, the concert, a Music for Young America Concert sponsored by the National Symphony Orchestra, Howard Mitchell conducting, included participation from collegiate choral groups throughout Virginia, including the Madison College Glee Club, Edna T. Schaeffer conducting; Mary Baldwin Glee Club, Gordon C. Page conducting; Radford State Teachers' College, Jean Bird Einstein conducting; Shenandoah Conservatory of Music, Richmond McCluer conducting; Stuart Hall, Constance Cody King conducting, and the Virginia Glee Club, Donald MacInnis conducting. The program featured predominantly either symphonic works or works for the massed glee clubs, with the exception of a performance of The Testament of Freedom featuring the Virginia Glee Club and the National Symphony Orchestra.
A recording of this concert is available at the University of Virginia Library. The recording only includes the Testament of Freedom.
Program[]
- Welcome — General E. Walton Opie, Chairman, United States Woodrow Wilson Centennial Celebration Commission
- Introduction of Honored Guests — Honorable George M. Cochran, Chairman, Virginia Woodrow Wilson Centennial Celebration
- Testament of Freedom (Randall Thompson) — University of Virginia Glee Club and National Symphony Orchestra
- Academic Festival Overture (Johannes Brahms)
- Adagio for Strings (Samuel Barber)
- Symphony No. 5 — First Movement (Paul Creston) (commissioned by the National Symphony Orchestra for its Twenty-Fifth Anniversary)
- Let Us Now Praise Famous Men (Ralph Vaughan Williams) —College glee clubs and orchestra
- Egmont Overture (Ludwig van Beethoven)
- Magnificat (Johann Sebastian Bach) —College Glee Clubs and Orchestra
Gallery[]
