ADA — The Ohio Northern University Department of Music will host the second annual All-Ohio Choral Day on Friday, Nov. 1. More than 170 high school music students and teachers from across the state will participate in the event.

Led by distinguished choral composer Joseph M. Martin and assisted by Ben Ayling, ONU director of choral activities, the students will join University Singers, the select mixed ensemble at ONU, in a day of music-making and education.

The day will be concluded with a concert, featuring Martin’s music, at 7:30 p.m. in the Freed Center for the Performing Arts. Culminating his four-day artist in residency, Martin will conduct the festival chorus in a grand finale with a performance of six of his most popular compositions. ONU Men’s and Women’s Choruses, the ONU Chamber Singers and the visiting students will be featured along with special guest soloist Adriane Thompson Bradshaw, ONU’s vice president for student affairs.

Martin has performed solo piano recitals and has been the featured artist with symphony orchestras in the United States and Mexico. As winner of the Nina Plant Wideman Competition, he performed with the Guadalajara Symphony Orchestra. His first solo piano recording, “American Tapestry,” was nominated for a Dove Award. This album, along with his other recordings (“Songs of the Journey,” “Celtic Tapestry” and “A Christmas Tapestry”), has been enormously popular in the sacred and secular markets. He has recorded for Yamaha’s Disklavier series and has composed hundreds of commissioned works. Recognized throughout the United States for his many choral compositions, Martin has more than 1,200 compositions currently in print, and the list continues to grow. His composition “Pieta” was recently honored with an award from the John Ness Beck Foundation.

In 2008, he was inducted as a National Patron of the Delta Omicron International Music Fraternity. Along with Mark Hayes and David Angerman, Martin has co-authored a fully graded, progressive piano method for the Christian student called Keys for the Kingdom. His major works include nearly 40 choral cantatas and extended works and Song of Wisdom, a choral tone poem based on the best-selling children’s book, “Old Turtle.”      

Tickets for the concert are $15 for general admission, $10 for seniors and $5 for children. Tickets for ONU faculty and staff and ONU students are $5. The Freed Center box office is open Monday through Friday from noon to 5 p.m., and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Phone orders are accepted with American Express, MasterCard, VISA or Discover by calling 419-772-1900. Tickets also are available online at www.freedcenter.com

Link: http://www.onu.edu/node/54045

Ohio Northern University’s quality, student-centered education distinctively combines nationally ranked sciences, arts and professional programs for more than 3,500 students in its five colleges: Arts & Sciences, Business Administration, Engineering, Pharmacy and Law.