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Lafayette Master Chorale 4/15 Preview

lafayettemasterchorale.org

This Sunday the Lafayette Master Chorale continues their 53rd season. A Peaceable Kingdom starts at 4pm at St. Boniface Church in Lafayette. WBAA's John Clare spoke with artistic director Michael Bennett about the concert A Peaceable Kingdom.

Learn more about the concert here.

Credit courtesy of the artist
Michael Bennett

Michael Bennett is a music educator, choral director, and keyboard artist.  He is the Music & Dance Department Chairman at Lafayette Jefferson High School where he directs several choirs, including the award-winning Varsity Singers, who were state runners-up at the 2016 Indiana State School Music Association concert finals. In addition, he teaches courses in class piano.  In 2014 he was recognized for his excellent teaching by the Greater Lafayette Commerce as a Golden Apple Teacher, one of the newest teachers to the profession to have received the award.

Mr. Bennett is the Director of Music at St. John’s Episcopal Church, Lafayette, where he serves as organist for all services, oversees the parish’s musical offerings, directs the choir program and administers the concert series.

A native of Roanoke, Virginia, Bennett is a graduate of the Indiana University School of Music where he received his Bachelor's degree in organ performance and the Master of Music degree in organ performance and choral conducting. His primary instructors there were William Jon Gray, Marilyn Keiser and Larry Smith.  Michael is a member of the American Choral Director’s Association and the National Association for Music Education and serves on the Board of Directors for the Indiana Music Education Association. 

As a concert organist, Mr. Bennett has performed extensively across the Midwest and East Coast, playing in cathedrals and for chapters of the American Guild of Organists in more than ten states.  He also can be heard in recording with the choirs of Vassar College, where he made his discography debut in a live performance of Mozart’s Requiem with solo organ accompaniment.

From 2004-09, Bennett was the Assistant Conductor and Youth Chorus Director for the Bach Chorale Singers. As the chorale's primary conductor for the 2006-07 season, he was privileged to direct both choruses while on tour in Washington, D.C., at the Washington National Cathedral and the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception.

Bob Chilcott's arrangement of U2's MLK is on this weekend's program:

John Nasukaluk Clare is comfortable behind a microphone, streaming video or playing violin. A former broadcaster for NPR, John has previously worked with Voice of America, the Canadian Broadcast Corporation and stations in Texas, Kansas, Nevada, California, and Pennsylvania. In 2005, Clare earned the Deems Taylor Award from ASCAP for radio broadcasting, citing his work on 20/20 Hearing. Having performed with famed tenors Luciano Pavarotti and Andrea Bocelli, John has worked with the Mozart Festival Texas, Mid Texas Symphony, Nevada Chamber Symphony, Shreveport Symphony, Abilene Philharmonic and Wichita Symphony Orchestra.
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