Summer Chorus, a collaboration between the Oratorio Society of Minnesota and the U of M School of Music, performed "A Musical Journey to Korea" on July 31 at the Ordway Concert Hall in St. Paul. Roughly 45 of the group's singers now depart for South Korea, where the university said they'll perform the program twice more alongside South Korean choirs.
Matthew Mahaffey, a U of M music professor and artistic director of the Oratorio Society of Minnesota, directs the ensemble.
Summer Chorus is non-auditioned and open to anyone with some choral experience, drawing 100 to 150 singers most summers from ages 14 into their 80s, often including multiple generations of the same family.
The concert's repertoire leaned into modern Korean choral writing, including Cool Jae Huh's "Missa Arirang," which blends the Latin Mass with the Korean folk tune "Arirang," plus works by Hyowon Woo, Ahn Hyoyoung and Cho Hyeyong that pair Western choral forms with traditional instruments like the buk drum and gayageum.
The South Korea trip runs August 5 through 14, with the group joining conductor Hyunchung Ji and the Seoul Choral Society for joint performances, according to the Summer Chorus program page.