Music has been integral part of the cultural life of the Xavier community since its inception in 1915. When Xavier became a four-year institution in 1925, the program was known as a School of Music. Around 1934 when the music unit began to offer a major program of studies in music, it became a department in the College of Arts and Sciences.
From this period to the present, the Music department developed and retained an enviable reputation, especially in its presentation of fully staged operas. It's founding director, Sister Mary Elise, S.B.S., initiated the Xavier Opera Theatre and provided the New Orleans Community with high quality performances of professional caliber.
Today that tradition is carried on in the preparation of qualified students through training in classroom, studio, clinical and actual performance experience.
The Xavier University Department of Music celebrates with the College of Arts and Sciences the 75th year of its existence. There are several performing organizations that present at least two performances on the campus each academic year. These groups include the Concert Choir, the University Chorus, the Symphonic Band, the Jazz Band, the Opera Workshop, and the String Ensemble.
The organizations are supported by the Music Department with its 50 plus majors and students from the entire university, which adheres to a strong Liberal Arts education for all majors. All these groups, along with jazz, choral and vocal master classes and individual student and faculty, will hold recitals and other performances during the 2000-2001 school year.
The Concert Choir, under the direction of Drs. Malcolm Breda and John Ware, will appear at the Vatican in Rome at the Canonization of Xavier founder, Blessed Katharine Drexel. Between Sept. 27 and Oct. 5, the group will present several concerts in Rome, including a special invitational concert hosted by U.S. Ambassador to the Vatican, Lindy Boggs.
This group was seen last year with the Louisiana Philharmonic and Hannibal Lakumbe in "African Portraits." A CD recording of the University Chorus and Concert Choir commemorating the canonization, commissioned by the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament, will be available to the public in August 2000. The CD contains choral performances of spirituals, classical choral literature and contemporary gospel, as well as new compositions by Breda and Ware.
