The University Singers and University of Virginia Chamber Singers will join forces on Thomas Jefferson’s birthday, April 13, to present “American Voices,” a special program featuring works of eight living American composers, including U.Va.’s Judith Shatin and Matthew Burtner, and Grammy Award-winner Eric Whitacre.

The concert begins at 7 p.m. in the Old Cabell Hall auditorium. Tickets for the program, led by faculty conductor Michael Slon, are available at the U.Va. Arts Box Office or by calling 434-924-3376.

The performance will include the world premiere of a work co-commissioned by the University Singers, Forrest Pierce’s “Il Cantico del Sole,” a setting of the St. Francis Canticle of the Sun.  Pierce is currently on the composition faculty at the University of Kansas, and will join the choirs for a guest artist residency the week of the concert.

The concert also includes music by Libby Larsen, Stephen Paulus, Steven Stucky, Frank Ticheli, and Whitacre’s virtuosic “Leonardo Dreams of His Flying Machine.” Burtner’s “Pacific Tilt” (written on a Semester at Sea voyage) and Shatin’s “Birkat Hakohanim” (commissioned by the University Singers and premiered last fall). 

The University Singers includes 90 singers from across the University’s undergraduate and graduate schools. Highlights in the past few years included acclaimed performances of Johann Sebastian Bach’s “Mass in B minor” and Felix Mendelssohn’s “Elijah,” an invited performance at the Virginia Music Educators Association 2010 Conference, an eight-concert, nine-day tour of the Northeast, and collaborations with the Charlottesville & University Symphony Orchestra.

The U.Va. Chamber Singers, founded in 2005, set a high standard in chamber vocal performance, recently collaborating with the professional baroque ensemble Three Notch’d Road and appearing in master class with members of the Tallis Scholars. 

Tickets for the concerts are $15 ($5 for students); U.Va. students may reserve a free ticket in advance. They are available at the U.Va. Arts Box Office in the Culbreth building, at artsboxoffice.virginia.edu or by calling 434-924-3376. Tickets will also be available at the door. 

At U.Va., free parking is available in the C1 lot off McCormick Road. Handicapped parking is available in the small parking lot adjacent to Bryan Hall. For further parking information, call 434-924-3984.