Professor of Music Michael Bray conducting final tour with Choir

Posted March 02, 2017 Print

GREENVILLE, Pa.-- Thiel College Professor of Music Michael Bray, D.M.A., embarks Friday with the Thiel Choir and the Thiel College Chamber Singers on his last tour before his retirement in May.

The choir’s nine-day tour comprises seven performances in Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia and Pennsylvania. In their 64th concert season, they will sing selections from classical, folksong, psalmody, spiritual and modern genres. The choir will cover 1,834 miles from March 3-11 and the tour will culminate with a home concert at 3 p.m. March 19 in the David Johnson Memorial Chapel at Thiel College.

The eight-part touring choir consists of 35 students from all academic fields, accompanied by Adjunct Professor of Music Kathryn Gray.

2017 Tour Schedule

7 p.m. Friday, March 3 Saint Luke Lutheran Church (Silver Spring, Md.)

7 p.m. Saturday, March 4 Our Saviour Lutheran Church (Southern Pines, N.C.)

10 a.m. Sunday, March 5 Our Saviour Lutheran Church (Southern Pines, N.C.)

7 p.m. Sunday, March 5 King of Glory Lutheran Church (North Myrtle Beach, S.C.)

7 p.m. Wednesday, March 8 St. Paul Lutheran Church (Aiken, S.C.)

7 p.m. Thursday, March 9 St. Paul’s Lutheran Church (Durham, N.C.)

7 p.m. Friday, March 10 Bethel Evangelical Lutheran Church (Winchester, Va.)

7 p.m. Saturday, March 11 First Lutheran Church (Apollo, Pa.)

3 p.m. Sunday, March 19 David Johnson Memorial Chapel (Greenville, Pa.)

Bray is retiring at the end of the spring 2017 semester after nearly 21 years at Thiel College.

The Thiel College Choir

Since its founding in 1953 by Dr. Marlowe W. Johnson H’02, the Thiel Choir has enjoyed a long- standing reputation among college choirs in the United States. Through the years, the Thiel Choir has presented concerts in the midwestern, eastern and southern regions of the United States and Canada and has performed on nine European tours including most recently to Ireland.

About Dr. Bray

Bray joined Thiel College in 1996 as the Director of Choral Activities and became the sixth conductor in the history of the choir. In addition to overseeing the work of the Thiel Choir, the Thiel College Chamber Singers and the Thiel College Handbell Ringers, his classroom responsibilities include private instruction in voice, world music, music history and conducting.

Bray has held teaching positions in Pennsylvania, Georgia, Minnesota and Colorado, and church positions in Georgia, Arizona and Pennsylvania. A native of South Dakota, Bray holds a B.A. in music education from the University of Northern Colorado, and a M.M. and D.M.A. in choral conducting from the University of Arizona in Tucson, where he studied with Maurice Skones and Kenneth Jennings, prominent Lutheran choral conductors. He holds memberships in professional organizations including the American Choral Directors Association, the National Association of Teachers of Singing and the Association of Lutheran Church Musicians.