Orange & Blue

Issue date: 11/30/07 Section: News

Dr. Eric Thorson leads the A Cappella choir in preparation for their pilgrimage to the Holy Land

In the spirit of the coming holiday season, Dr. Eric Thorson has been keeping a list. But he has checked it much more than twice - sometimes he checks it twice a day. It takes that sort of attention when you are leading more than 100 people to Bethlehem for Christmas Eve.

Thorson's 46-member Carson-Newman College A Capella Choir will join two other groups on an 11-day study/concert tour with stops in Israel and Jordan December 14-25. "This event is not a typical tour," says Thorson. "It's actually a pilgrimage in that this trip will grant each participant the opportunity for a personal, a spiritual, journey."



A Cappella will accompany St. Timothy on The Northshore United Methodist Church, of Mandeville, Louisiana, and members of the Knoxville Choral Society (KCS), which Thorson also directs. The three groups will combine to offer a 160-voice choir that will be led in performance by St. Timothy's Dr. Robert McBain, with whom Thorson has coordinated the trip.

Also making the trip and performing are five soloists: Viola Dacus, a mezzo soprano from Clinton, Mississippi; Cheri Rose Katz, an alto soprano from Roosevelt, New Jersey; Sandra Lopez, a soprano from Miami; Stuart Neill, a tenor from Miami; and Horace English, a baritone from Shreveport. The choir will be accompanied by the Palestinian Classical Youth Orchestra of Ramallah.

Since the start of fall semester, Thorson has led rehearsals four days per week for musical preparation, but he has also led choir members to prepare their hearts for the sojourn as well.

"To have the bible illustrated to my students in such a real and deeply personal way excites me," notes Thorson. "Several weeks ago I took my concordance and highlighted the places we will take in so we can talk about them and think about them. They're going to walk the Via Dolorosa; they're going to the Sea of Galilee; we will be there. I believe this is a way to help bring someone's faith to a new level, including my own."

Garrett Martin, a senior church music major, says the buzz about the journey has been building since Thorson first mentioned it last spring.

Continued...

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