Group to fill Davis County music void

Choral director Cameron Rose says many singers throughout the years have asked him about putting together a choir in Davis County.

"There's a void," Rose said, "and it needs to be filled."

So Rose is going to fill it, with the Utah Master Chorale. "It's a new choral organization to serve a couple of purposes. They will perform in the greater Salt Lake and Davis County areas. I myself am in South Davis County, and they have had some choral organizations here in the past, but nothing really with a long-staying record. They've kind of come and gone.

"So the purpose is to create continuity with a professional group." Another purpose, he said, is to perform good music at a very high level.

Rose, who is the group's founder and music director, said he will concentrate solely on choral music. "Other groups who might perform off and on with an orchestra might concentrate on operas or music that doesn't highlight the chorus in true choral music. This will be a really wonderful experience for those who wish to participate in a real choral experience."

For the past three years, Rose has been the chorus master with the Orchestra & Chorus of Sandy City (formerly known as the American West Symphony & Chorus). While he was in that capacity, the size of the chorus doubled, drawing on membership from as far south as Payson and as far north as Ogden.

He said he expects that the Utah Master Chorale will also draw from a larger metropolitan area than Davis County, but that will be the center of operations.

Rose added that he's also a composer and pianist, with professional experience scoring films and creating other original music. "I've had the wonderful opportunity to study with some Pulitzer Prize-winning musicians and some Academy Award-winning musicians down in L.A. — like Elmer Bernstein, who was a wonderful composer that wrote 'The Magnificent Seven.' " And he worked with the L.A. Philharmonic for awhile.

His plans include bringing in some of his original music for performance, as well as works from the choral repertoire that are both sacred and secular. "I'm drawing on all those different fields of music, and music administration, and have now put together a very professionally functioning organization that will serve the community."

The choir will have a nine-month season, commencing after Labor day and finishing in May. "This first year, we'll have three sets of concerts. We'll have a Christmas set of concerts, we'll have an end-of-spring set of concerts, and then we'll have something in the middle." A Temple Square concert at Christmastime is already set up.

Auditions have begun and will continue throughout the summer. "We're looking for experienced singers," said Rose, "but I'm also not wanting to discourage people who may have less formal training, but do have a desire to work hard."

Anyone interested in auditioning should go online to www.utahmasterchorale.org.

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E-mail: rcline@desnews.com