HICKORY, N.C. — The Lenoir-Rhyne University A Cappella Choir, directed by Paul D. Weber, will tour Costa Rica March 12-23 on a music–mission trip after performing winter concerts in North Carolina.
Accompanying the choir will be Jeana Neal Borman, Lenoir-Rhyne University collaborative artist. The choir will perform in Costa Rica in a variety of venues and for worship with congregations of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Costa Rica (ILCO).
The choir will sing concerts at the following sites:
Saturday, March 14, 8:00 pm, La Fortuna Church, La Fortuna
Monday, March 16, 6:00 pm, Monteverde Institute, Monteverde
Tuesday, March 17, 6:00 pm, Monteverde Catholic Church, Monteverde
Friday, March 20, 7:00 pm ILCO sponsored, San José
Saturday, March 21, 8:00 pm, National Basilica of Cartago, Cartago
Sunday, March 22, 9:00 am, Costa Rican Lutheran Church, San José
The Lenoir-Rhyne University A Cappella Choir celebrates its 79th concert season this year. The choir has previously made eleven tours abroad, most recently to Poland, the Czech Republic, Germany, and the Baltics. The choir has sung for the installation of two national American Lutheran bishops, for mass at the Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis, and for the 2009 Lutheran Reformation service at the National Cathedral, Washington, D.C. In April of 2007 the choir gave its final spring concert in Blacksburg, Virginia, in remembrance of the first anniversary of the Virginia Tech massacre. In April 2011 the choir joined over one hundred alumni for a 75th Anniversary Reunion Concert.
The Reverend Dr. Paul Weber has been Director of the choir since 1999. Celebrating thirty-five
years of ordained ministry, Weber is a graduate of Christ Seminary–Seminex and received his advanced training in composition and choral music at Yale University and The University of Iowa. Weber and his wife, Florence Jowers, joined the Lenoir-Rhyne faculty in 1996 to found the Sacred Music Program for the training of undergraduates in the craft and practice of church music. Their students have gone on to serve the church as musicians and pastors in a variety of contexts.
Jeana Neal Borman is staff accompanist and vocal coach for the Lenoir-Rhyne University music program. Ms. Borman has performed extensively in many other venues as collaborative pianist, musical director, ballet pianist, and orchestral musician. She is a magna cum laude graduate of Emory & Henry College and holds a master's degree from Illinois State University.
Lenoir-Rhyne University is a private, coeducational university with its primary campus in Hickory, North Carolina, and was founded in 1891. Academic programs include 60 undergraduate majors, 23 graduate programs, the Center for Graduate Students of Asheville, NC; and the Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary in Columbia, South Carolina. Today, over 2,000 undergraduate and graduate students are enrolled between the three campuses. Lenoir-Rhyne is affiliated with the North Carolina Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and welcomes students from all religious backgrounds.
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