Bridgewater College Alumni Concert set for Aug. 17

The Bridgewater College Alumni Choir will present a concert at 3 p.m. on Sunday, Aug. 17, at the Bridgewater Church of the Brethren located at 420 College View Drive.

The Alumni choir was founded by Jesse E. Hopkins, the Edwin L. Turner Distinguished Professor of Music Emeritus at Bridgewater College.

In addition to Hopkins, who is a 1970 alumnus of Bridgewater College, the 39-member choir will be directed by Melissa Mason Dull ’05, Wes Dunlap ’13, Abigail Hostetter ’06, Curtis Nolley ’76, Jessica Strawderman ’10 and David Tate ’71. Mary Beth Flory ’70 will serve as accompanist.

The program will feature a variety of choral works selected by the conductors, including a piece for double chorus by Felix Mendelssohn and a Beatles song set for mixed chorus. Contemporary composers works included are David Dickau, Ola Gjeilo, Alf Houkoum and György Orbán. The program will conclude with Jack Halloran’s setting of the spiritual “Witness.”

Hopkins holds a master of music education degree from James Madison University and a doctorate in choral music education from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. In 2012, he retired from the Bridgewater College faculty after 35 years. He served as music director at the Bridgewater Church of the Brethren for many years and is conductor of the Schola Cantorum of Waynesboro, Va.

Dull, Dunlap and Hostetter serve as choral directors at Fort Defiance High School, Broadway High School and Wilson Memorial High School respectively. Nolley is director of the Shenandoah Valley Choral Society and Strawderman is a music teacher for the Virginia School for the Deaf and Blind. Tate is a retired music educator for Augusta County Schools and an adjunct instructor at Mary Baldwin College.

The concert is open to the public at no charge.

Bridgewater College is a private, four-year liberal arts college located in the Central Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. Founded in 1880, it was the state’s first private, coeducational college. Today, Bridgewater College is home to approximately 1,800 undergraduate students.