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Whitworth's choir and jazz ensemble continue to collect awards and invitations to perform in select venues. The Whitworth Choir, under the direction of Marc A. Hafso, has been invited to perform at the 2008 Northwest Divisional Convention of the American Choral Directors Association, to be held in Vancouver, B.C., Feb. 20-23. The Whitworth Jazz Ensemble, led by Director Dan Keberle, will perform at the National Association for Music Education's 2008 All-State Conference, which takes place Feb. 15 in Yakima.
The choir was selected to perform at the 2008 convention after a competitive audition before adjudicators at state and divisional levels. The ACDA is a nonprofit organization comprising thousands of choral professionals representing school choirs, industry and institutional organizations, places of worship and community and professional choirs.
The Whitworth Choir is regarded as one of the premier college/university choirs in the Pacific Northwest. The schedule of the 50-voice choir includes its popular Christmas Festival concerts in Spokane and Seattle, regular tours, performances of major works, and recording projects. The choir has appeared at state and regional conventions with the ACDA, the Washington Music Educators Association and Music Educators National Conference. The group's latest CD, My Spirit Sang All Day, was released in fall 2006.
The Whitworth Jazz Ensemble was selected through anonymous recorded auditions to perform at the MENC gathering. The 19-piece band performs several concerts each year on campus, as well as at jazz festivals, in public schools, at civic events, and on tours in the United States and abroad. Since 1996, the group has won five first-place trophies at the University of Idaho's annual Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival, and in recent years the band has performed in concert at Whitworth with guest artists including Bob Mintzer, Joe Lovano, Slide Hampton, Nicholas Payton, Kenny Garrett, Phil Woods, Gene Harris and Terence Blanchard. The group has also appeared at festivals, clubs and universities in Brazil, Germany, Italy, Australia and Cuba. Its latest CD, Apple Flambé, was released in September 2007.
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