Get to know Dale

What are you doing in school?
"I'm currently studying Music Education and Vocal Performance. I also write music outside of class and am preparing to declare a Linguistics minor."
How long have you been singing in choirs?
"I have been in choir since fourth grade as something for fun. I didn’t develop my neurotic devotion to choral music until eighth grade."
What is your favorite musical memory?
"When I was in seventh grade, I attended the Maryland All-State Mixed Chorus concert. I had never heard such intricate, compelling music sung by mature singers before and it was the moment I realized I wanted to spend my life pursuing music."
Do you have any special talents or interests outside of music?
"I consider myself to be an equivalent to a Victorian-era noble since much of my sapience lies within the humanities. I am trilingual as I was raised as an English and Spanish speaker and used school to my advantage to become proficient in French."
Who is your favorite composer?
"I always find this question unfair as I have a set of favorites for each musical movement in history, but the composer/arranger to get me attached to choral music was Moses Hogan. He is a pioneer in the modernization of spirituals and writes music of such intensity and energy."
Who's your favorite non-classical musical artist?
"Kendrick Lamar is an amazing artist both in his music writing skill and in his poetry. His work is extremely influential in what rap is capable of doing from social commentary to inspiring social change."
What song have you not been able to stop listening to (classical or not)? 
"Not a song, but Osvaldo Golijov's Pasión según San Marcos is a work that combines traditional Latin and African music styles with that of choral music, telling the passion of Saint Mark in a way that dances."
Breakfast for dinner or dinner for breakfast?
"Breakfast for dinner. Sweet foods and carbs tower over their savory counterparts."
If you could turn anything purple, what would it be?
"I always found green to be an enticing color in nature, but purple trees would also be an elegant sight to behold and would be super inspirational."
If you could have a conversation with anyone, dead or alive, who would it be?
"I would love to discuss the workings of the world with Aristotle to figure out every aspect of his culture and to exchange as much wisdom as our respective eras could lend each other."
What's the most interesting fact about you?
"I never learned how to ride a bike. Since I live in suburban America, bicycling is nothing but an obstruction to road traffic and a method of exercise that can be easily replicated by machines. Bicycling is for large city Europeans, not I."

Christopher Dale Auen recently completed his second season with Lux. He is a freshman at the University of Maryland, where he studies Music Education and Vocal Performance and sings in the University of Maryland Chamber Singers. He had the honor of singing in the Maryland All-State Chorus from 2015-2019 and the 2019 NAfME All-Eastern Mixed Chorus. In addition, he sang in the Church Circle Singers from 2016-2018 and spent Fall 2018 through Spring 2019 singing with the National Philharmonic Chorale.

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