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News & Updates

Lux Nominated for Two Wammie Awards

1/4/2021

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We are excited to announce that Lux Choir has been nominated for two Wammie Awards! Lux has received a nomination for Best Choral Group; and our Christmas album, My Lord Has Come, has received a nomination for Best Choral Album. To vote, you must create an account on the Wammie Awards website here. Voters must be residents of Maryland, DC, or Virginia to be considered eligible. After registering and confirming your email, you can go to the awards hub and vote for the artists or works nominated for each award. You can vote for as many nominees as you feel are deserving for each award; however, you may only vote once. To find and vote for Lux, you can search either by award or by group. Voting ends on January 31st, after which finalists will be announced for each award. Winners will then be selected from the groups of finalists by a panel of 50+ regional music industry professionals.

The Wammie Awards is a 32-year-old awards show curated by The MusicianShip, a DC-area organization dedicated to the enrichment of youth lives through music. The Wammie Awards aim to celebrate music creatives from DC, Maryland, and Virginia and highlight their work and their impact on the region. You can read more about the Wammie Awards by visiting their website here.

click here to register to vote for the Wammie awards
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Cole Reyes Named Composition Contest Winner

12/14/2020

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After reviewing 44 submissions from 11 countries, totaling over 3 hours of music, Lux's panel of judges for their first-ever composition contest has named a winner: Cole Reyes. The winning piece, Alleluia (The Rose), is a fresh and evocative setting of the famous text There is No Rose. 

Lux Manager Emily Shallbetter, a judge of the contest, was "so impressed by so many of the submissions [Lux] received," and hopes that "all of our applicants enjoyed writing their pieces as much as I enjoyed listening to them."

On his winning piece, Reyes said, "I decided to use a classic Christmas text, There Is No Rose mostly because of its juxtaposition of English and Latin. We have, standing side-by-side, the old and the new." This contrast of old and new seems wholly fitting as the final part of Lux's Christmas From Home program, made up of both ancient chant and a newly-composed chant from local composer Christen Holmes, commissioned by Lux.

"This piece seeks to symbolize the current state of the winter season," Reyes says, "The month of December is a time full of holidays, religious and secular — a time filled with loved ones and gifts. We create traditions that we stand by year after year. This piece is a tribute to the evolution of traditions."


Cole Reyes's Alleluia (The Rose) will be premiered virtually as part of Lux's audience-interactive Winter Season, Christmas From Home.
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Lux Announces Christmas From Home

11/7/2020

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Lux is excited to announce their Winter Program for the Winter 2020-2021 Season. A continuation of Songs From Home, their virtual programming this past Fall, Christmas From Home is a fresh take on virtual choral programming. In a world stocked full of virtual choirs and concerts, Lux is taking a more interactive approach. The program will include digitally aleatoric settings of chants for the Christmas & Advent seasons, allowing listeners to create their own version of the piece each time they listen.
Although the program begins with ancient chant, Lux's love of contemporary choral music still shines through: The final chant programmed in the series is a newly-commissioned chant melody from Maryland-based composer Christen Holmes, and the culminating event of the series is the virtual world-premiere of the winning piece from their Composition Contest, which closes on December 12. Of the program, director Robby Napoli said, "I'm very excited about the novelty of the program, and I think it will be a welcome change from the virtual performances we've recently been inundated with. Most of all though, I'm excited that we've been able to tailor this season so perfectly to our mission, and I absolutely cannot wait to bring two brand new pieces to life."

The first release of the program, which is completely free to all, will be available on Lux's website beginning in early December. To learn more about Lux or buy their newest Christmas CD, visit their website at www.ChoirLux.com.

Support the singing you love.

Offerings like Christmas From Home are only possible with your help! Whether $5 or $5,000, consider supporting this project by giving to our Winter Donor Drive. Need a little more incentive? Our Donor Rewards program is our way of saying "thank you"! Click here and see what you'll receive for gifts as low as $50!
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Our First-Ever Composition Contest

10/18/2020

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...is here! We're all very excited to announce Lux's first venture into composition contests, and we can't wait to see your submissions! Open to choral composers of all ages, the winner of this contest will have their piece premiered in our Winter 2020-2021 season, which will run through December and parts of January. Aside from inclusion in our program, the winner will receive $750, a live premiere in a future Lux concert, and a studio recording in a future recording session!

For more information, read below, or contact [email protected] with any further questions.
learn more
submit your piece
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We're Streaming!

8/5/2020

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Our latest release, My Lord Has Come, is now available on Spotify and Apple Music! Blending the popular and the lesser known pieces that we've come to love into one release; My Lord Has Come includes simple arrangements of classic hymns next to more lush arrangements of classic melodies like Rathbone's Silent Night, and finally including other Christmas & Advent anthems like Howells's Sing Lullaby or Pärt's O Weisheit.
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Listen now on your favorite streaming platform and continue supporting our music by making a donation or buying your copy of My Lord Has Come today!
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buy now

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Supporting Black Artists

6/8/2020

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We're happy to announce the launching of a new page on our website--Supporting Black Artists. For far too long, Black voices have gained little attention in the arts, despite their massive contributions. We all must play a part in correcting that, and one of the steps we've taken here is to launch this page. It features an interactive list of organizations that are committed to creating spaces for Black artists in music, choral or otherwise, and what we can do to support their missions. It also features a form that you can fill out to give us suggestions for furthering our support Black artists. Lux is committed to supporting Black musicians everywhere. We are devoted to furthering our own initiatives to highlight the phenomenal Black musicians throughout the country. Black voices have been silenced for far too long, and we hope that we can help by amplifying those voices. Black Lives Matter.
Supporting black artists
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Lux Virtual Choir

6/5/2020

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Earlier this week, in conjunction with our Education Initiative, we released our first-ever Virtual Choir! In the midst of the COVID-19 Crisis this year, we wanted to create a performance opportunity for some of our local high school choirs, so we teamed up with three amazing HS choirs in the state of Maryland to sing one more song before the end of their school year. Over the course of three weeks, students used Lux practice tracks, and participated in recorded mini-masterclasses to describe how our singers would prepare a piece like this for rehearsals, performances, and recording projects.

Many thanks to all those who helped us celebrate these amazing choirs and their hard work this year both in person and online as we premiered our first collaboration with these schools! A special thanks, of course, goes to directors Mrs. Kelly Butler (Walter Johnson HS, Montgomery County), Mr. Robby Napoli (Chesapeake HS, Anne Arundel County), and Ms. Amy Vanek (Clarksburg HS), as well as all of their singers for collaborating with us on this project.

See the video right here on this post to hear the final product and continue supporting Maryland's young choral artists!
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Senior Recital: Austin Nikirk

2/24/2020

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Soprano Austin Nikirk will be presenting her Senior Recital this coming weekend on Saturday, February 29th in Schmucker Hall at Gettysburg College! She has been hard at work preparing the diverse set of repertoire she'll be performing, and we can't wait to hear it. We hope to see some of you there! If you can't make it in person, there will also be a livestream via Facebook. We were able to sit down with her recently for an interview about her upcoming recital and some other things she's been up to this year. Check it out below!
It’s finally senior year! How’re you feeling about that?
"I have mixed feelings, because I’m so excited about many of the projects that I’m working on, and don’t want them to end! But I am also ready to be out of school, haha."
 
Besides your recital, what are you most excited about this year?
"Our opera workshop is doing an opera in French this year, and I am helping coach the language! It has been really fun combining my passion for French language and culture with opera."
 
What’s been your favorite experience studying music in college?
"I have interned with the choral department for two semesters now, and by far my favorite experience has been conducting our upper-voice ensemble, Audeamus. I have really enjoyed seeing them grow vocally and musically!"
 
Okay, so, recital time. Let’s start with the easy question. When and where is your recital?
"It will be February 29th (yeah that’s leap day!) at 7 pm, in Schmucker Hall at Gettysburg College."
 
What’s your favorite piece on your recital? Why?
"My opener! I don’t want to give too much away, because it’s a bit of performance art, but it’s not like anything I’ve ever sung before. It’s also by a composer who graduated from my school last year, so I’ve been able to coach it with him and really get into the nuance and expression of the piece."
 
How has the recital process been for you? What did you have to do to prepare, and how do you feel about it all?
"I have been working on some of this music since last semester, but there is also a significant portion that I have learned in the last few weeks. So getting it all together at the same time was really a journey! But I’m really excited about my program, and can’t wait to share it with my audience!"
 
If there’s only one thing you want audience members to get out of your recital, what would it be?
"My overall concept is probably the most important part. I begin with three pieces by student-composers, followed with a piece by their composition teacher here at Gettysburg. The next set was composed by his graduate professor, followed by his teacher, and so on. Finishing in the early baroque, I hope to take the audience on a journey back through the evolution of compositional styles!"
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Lux at Chesapeake High School!

1/21/2020

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Last Friday, we spent the day meeting and working with the wonderfully talented choral program at Chesapeake High School, in Pasadena, MD! Throughout the day we ran sectionals and masterclasses with Cheseapeake's Chamber Singers and Concert Choir, and we were also able to give an informal concert and Q&A at the end of the day! We were so impressed with their talent and the hard work they put in during rehearsals, and it was such a joy to sing for them and talk about all aspects of choral music with them! Not only did the kids at Chesapeake High enjoy our work together, but our singers had so much fun inspiring the next generation of young choral singers and getting to meet the wonderful students at Chesapeake! Check out some of our work together below.
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Christmas Album Released!

11/29/2019

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Just in time for Christmas shopping, Lux's first Christmas release, My Lord Has Come features some of our own favorite Christmas songs and arrangements for choir, including beautiful, gushing settings of well-known carols, as well as more traditional choral pieces which have become standards of the Christmas choral repertoire. Blending the known and lesser known Christmas anthems that we've come to love into one release; using simple arrangements of classic hymns next to more dense arrangements of classic melodies like Rathbone's "Silent Night", and finally including other Christmas anthems which might be less familiar, like Howells's "Sing Lullaby" or Pärt's "O Weisheit". Buy it now or preview a few tracks on our 'Listen' page using the buttons below!
buy now
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