Orpheus Singers to Launch New Season with ‘Afternoon on a Hill’

Town-and-gown choral ensemble The Orpheus Singers will open their 2023-24 performance season at 7 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 27, at Eisenhower Chapel in Penn State’s Pasquerilla Spiritual Center.

The ensemble will open with the performance of  “Afternoon on a Hill,” a concert featuring a mix of classical and contemporary choral works. The concert will include works by composers such as Ysaye Barnwell, Carson P. Cooman, Orlando di Lasso, Andrea Ramsey, Charles V. Stanford, and more under the direction of Jacob Mandell.

For Mandell, the full program of the upcoming concert embodies “what we see, hear, experience, think and feel as we spend our own afternoon on a hill — whatever that mode of paradise is like for us,” he said in a news release. “Especially at the end of October, where we see the Appalachian mountains arrayed in the colorful splendor of mid-autumn, this concert will hopefully give all of us a chance to breathe and to just listen and experience life around us.”

Tickets for “Afternoon on a Hill” can be purchased on EventBrite. General admission is $12, but students and seniors can use the discount codes “STUDENT” or “SENIOR” to purchase $8 tickets. Admission for children under 4 is free.

The Orpheus Singers are also preparing a holiday concert to be performed in December at Pine Grove Hall, as well as “Meditations on a Cross,” a Lenten program featuring works by Monteverdi, Zoltan Kodaly, Richard Burchard, Herbert Howells and more, scheduled for March 10. 

Singers interested in joining the ensemble can visit the Orpheus SIngers’ website for more information on setting up an audition.