WVU Bands
Serving nearly 500 students, the
WVU Bands program is designed to provide professional training for music
education and performance majors, while also serving as a musical outlet for
wind and percussion players throughout the university community regardless of
major. The program currently consists of five ensembles - the Wind Symphony,
the Symphonic Band, the Concert Band, the Mountaineer Marching Band, and the
Basketball Pep Band.
WVU Symphony Orchestra
The WVU Symphony Orchestra, a national award-winning ensemble, is known for its outstanding performances of standard and innovative programs. WVUSO presents six to eight programs a year and trains students to perform at the highest level of artistic expression and technical expertise. In 2014, WVUSO was one of only two collegiate orchestras invited to perform at the national conference of the College Orchestra Directors Association in Fort Worth, Texas. In 2019 WVUSO began a series of annual visits to Lewisburg WV’s Carnegie Hall.
Recent programs have included works by Tchaikovsky, Bernstein, Mazzoli, Beethoven, and many others. The 2019-2020 season will feature works by Prokofiev, Smetana, Beethoven, Stravinsky, Wagner, and Higdon. Membership is open to qualified students and community members by audition.
Further information on programs and dates for WVUSO concerts will be posted soon at our website: symphony.wvu.edu.
WVU Choirs and Vocal Ensembles
MOUNTAINEERS SING
The WVU Choral Program has a choir for everyone. Whether you are a student, member of faculty, staff member, or a part of the local community, there is a place for you to sing at WVU. Regardless of your background or level of experience, we have a choir for you!
Chamber Singers
Chamber Singers is the flagship choral ensemble of West Virginia University. This auditioned ensemble is available to students from all departments and schools across the university and performs a variety of classical and multi-cultural repertoire from the Renaissance through the twenty-first century. In addition to performing regularly in West Virginia, the choir tours both nationally and internationally.
Mountaineer Singers
Mountaineer Singers is a non-auditioned ensemble that brings together treble voices from across various schools and departments throughout the university. The choir presents choral programs of classical, popular, folk, and multi-cultural repertoire. Performances take place both on and off campus and the choir also collaborates with the WVU Mountaineer Chorus for joint performances.
Mountaineer Chorus
The WVU Mountaineer Chorus is a non-auditioned tenor/bass ensemble open to all students across the university. The ensemble explores music of diverse cultures, styles, and periods, and regularly collaborates with other university ensembles including the WVU Mountaineer Singers
West Virginia Community Choir
The West Virginia Community Choir is a non-auditioned choir open to all members of the university community, including students from all majors, faculty, staff, alumni, and community members. The ensemble performs a diverse selection of music from a variety of time periods, styles, and genres. Performances take place at the Canady Creative Arts Center as well as at local community events. The choir collaborates with other university ensembles and regularly offers opportunities to travel internationally.
See the world with the WVU Choral Artists
The WVU Choral Artists allow students, alumni, faculty, and community members to travel to and perform in stunning venues around the world. The choir is a project-based ensemble that rehearses together before embarking on an international tour. The choir has recently traveled to Italy, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, and Australia.
Performance Opportunities
The WVU Choirs regularly collaborate with the West Virginia Symphony Orchestra and the WVU Symphony Orchestra for performances of major works. Student members of all choirs also have the opportunity to sing with Collegiate Honor Choirs and to participate in state and national choral events.
WVU High School Choral Festival
The WVU High School Choral Festival brings together choral students from around the region to perform with a high profile guest conductor/composer. Recent guests have included Eric Whitacre, Joshua Habermann, Ola Gjeilo, Jake Runestad, and Andrea Ramsey.
The Opera Theatre mounts fully staged productions of standard operatic repertoire and also presents programs of opera scenes each season.
Jazz and World Music
The
Jazz Area
features ten different ensembles ranging in size from piano trios
to big bands. They play a wide variety of styles including Bebop, Latin, Fusion,
and Experimental and Avant Garde. The ensembles are open by audition to all WVU students.
The WVU World Music Ensembles are a dynamic way to be artistically engaged while exploring diverse musical cultures on campus. These ensembles include the WVU African Music and Dance Ensemble, the WVU Steel Band, the WVU Taiko Ensemble, the WVU Gamelan Ensemble, and the WVU Brazilian Ensemble and the WVU Bluegrass Band, West Virginia University’s only ensemble devoted exclusively to the performance of Appalachian music. Performing in both traditional and contemporary bluegrass styles, the students in the WVU Bluegrass Band work to develop strong vocal, instrumental, and band leadership skills.
Chamber Ensembles
A variety of chamber ensembles feature combinations of woodwinds, brass, percussion, and string instruments and include the internationally acclaimed Percussion Ensemble, the WVU Graduate String Quartet, the WVU Graduate Woodwind Quintet, the WVU Chamber Winds, Guitar Ensembles, and the New Music Ensemble.
