Rooke Chapel Choir
Bucknell Music Department
The Rooke Chapel Choir of Bucknell University, under the direction of William A. Payn, Director of Choral Studies, has gained international recognition for its creative interpretations of some of the most significant twentieth-century American sacred repertory. The choir's select members represent nearly every major field of study at Bucknell, including the humanities, social sciences, natural sciences, business administration, education, and engineering. The choir's popular Candlelight Service of Carols attracts capacity crowds to Rooke Chapel for three performances every December. Since 1987, PBS productions of this annual holiday service have received national distribution by the Central Education Television Network. The choir was nominated for an Iris Awaard in 1989 and an Emmy in 1996 and 2004. In recent years, the choir has participated in the premiere of Handel's Idomeneo at a sold-out concert in New York City's Merkin Hall; toured England, Wales, Switzerland, Austria, the Netherlands, West Germany, Puerto Rico, Costa Rica, Spain, Poland, the Czech Republic, Italy and Croatia; performed with London's contemporary-music ensemble Electric Phoenix as well as Cambridge's Fitzwilliam String Quartet; sang in a concert version of Handel's opera Acis and Galatea with the Brewer Chamber Orchestra; assisted the Gregg Smith Singers in the New York premiere performance of William Duckworth's Southern Harmony at Merkin Hall; and performed as a featured ensemble at the Eastern Division Conference of the American Choral Directors Association in Boston. Last May, the choir embarked on a concert tour to Poland and the Czech Republic. Two CDs are nationally distributed by Lovely Records: An American Collage, and On This Day Earth Shall Ring. In 2004 the choir was invited to perform with the Syracuse Symphony for three holiday concerts.
