MANSFIELD, PA—The Mansfield University Festival Chorus, under the direction of Peggy Dettwiler, will present two major works by Ralph Vaughan Williams, The Five Mystical Songs and Dona Nobis Pacem, for performances on Saturday, April 8 at 7:30 p.m. pm and Sunday, April 9 at 2:30 p.m. in Steadman Theatre.
The choral presentations with feature Mansfield University faculty soloists, Todd Ranney and Alissa Rose, accompanied by full orchestra.
These two concerts will be sung in memory of Justina Sechrist, a long-time member of the chorus and a voice student at Mansfield, who tragically passed away following a car accident last May. She was also an avid historian of the Civil War. The concerts will help to generate funds for a voice scholarship in memory of Justina.
Dona nobis pacem, composed in 1936, features William’s plea for peace by referring to recent wars during the growing fears of a new one. The work includes three poems by Walt Whitman about the Civil War.
The Five Mystical Songs are set to poems by 17th-century English poet and Anglican priest George Herbert from his 1633 collection, The Temple: Sacred Poems.
The Festival Chorus is a mixed chorus of about 80 voices, which is open to all university students as well as community singers. The group performs a wide variety of choral styles in the fall semester and major choral works during the spring semester.
Large scale performances with orchestra and professional soloists include Handel’s Messiah, Vivaldi’s Gloria, Orff ‘s Carmina Burana, Haydn’s Creation and Mass in Time of War, Mendelssohn’s Elijah, Mozart’s Mass in C Minor, Bach’s Mass in B Minor, Honegger’s King David, Jenkins’ The Armed Man: A Mass of Peace, and the Requiems by Brahms, Fauré, Mozart, Rutter, and Verdi.
Most recently, the choruses presented Dan Forrest’s Requiem for the Living and the High Lonesome Bluegrass Mass by Sharp and Ramsay. The Festival Chorus has produced numerous CDs and cassette recordings.
Baritone Todd E. Ranney is an associate professor of 
Voice and Opera at MU. He is also the stage director and producer of Mansfield Opera Theater. During his operatic career he has performed in more than 100 productions throughout the Midwest, including 12 seasons with Cleveland Opera as an associate artist. Ranney is the founding artistic director of Akron Lyric Opera Theatre.
Ranney holds dual Masters Degrees in Voice and Piano from The Cleveland Institute of Music and completed his DMA at The Ohio State University in voice with an emphasis in choral conducting and vocal pedagogy. During his tenure at MU, he has developed annual full-length operatic productions, which over eight years includes: The Marriage of Figaro, The Magic Flute, The Tenderland, The Pirates of Penzance, Gianni Schicchi, Amahl and the Night Visitors, The Consul and Die Fledermaus. Also, he has developed and offers two courses in acting and piano tuning.
Alissa Rose, soprano, holds degrees in voice from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, the Shepherd School of
Music at Rice University, the Hochschule für Musik Detmold, and the University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre, and Dance, as well as a degree in Biochemistry from Oberlin College. Her operatic and concert engagements have taken her around the U.S., Europe and Israel. She has performed under such conductors as James Levine, Robert Shaw, and Zubin Mehta, and has coached with Martin Katz and Dawn Upshaw, among others.
Rose particularly enjoys contemporary music, and has premiered several operatic roles, song cycles and concert works. She is the Pennsylvania Governor of the National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS), and participated in the prestigious NATS Intern Program. She joined the faculty of Mansfield University in the fall of 2008, and she teaches voice, diction and vocal pedagogy.
Tickets are $10 for adults, $8 for senior citizens and $5 for students and children. They can be purchased online at music.mansfield.edu or by calling (570)662-4710. Tickets will also be available at the door.