For the first time in more than five years, choral and orchestral ensembles from Phillips Exeter Academy and Phillips Academy Andover combine forces for two exciting collaboration concerts: at Cochran Chapel in Andover, MA, on Saturday, March 31, at 7:30 p.m., and in Phillips Church in Exeter, NH, on Sunday, April 1, at 3:00 p.m. Cochran Chapel is located on the corner of Chapel Avenue and Main Street, and Phillips Church is located on the corner of Tan Lane and Front Street. These concerts are free and open to the public.

Each concert will include performances from more than 150 singers that make up The Exeter Glee Club, Concert Choir and Chamber Orchestra; and The Andover Chorus, Fidelio and Orchestra. The groups will be conducted by Ryan Turner (Exeter) and Christopher Walter (Andover), and will be joined by voice faculty soloists, Susan Consoli, soprano; Allan Combs, tenor; and Mark Andrew Cleveland, bass. Choral groups from both schools will perform Schubert: Mass in G, and Pinkham: Wedding Cantata. Exeter’s Concert Choir and Fidelio—Andover’s small, select vocal ensemble—will each perform three selections separately, and then together will perform Go Lovely Rose, by Eric Whitacre.

Turner sees the joint concerts as more than a chance for the two competing schools to sing together. “This concert is a wonderful opportunity for the two rival schools to collaborate, instead of compete—it’s a nice change. These concerts stress the importance of music in building community and common ground. I do not know of any other event in which so many students from both schools share the joy of music together, and the importance of the arts in education,” he says.

For further information, please call the music department at (603) 777-3453. A complete list of upcoming events is available on the Phillips Exeter Academy public events line at (603) 777-4309 and on our website’s musical events page at http://www.exeter.edu/news_and_events/news_events_2990.aspx. For directions to Phillips Exeter Academy, call (603) 777-4330 or visit our website at http://www.exeter.edu/about_us/about_us_2156.aspx.

Phillips Exeter Academy is a coeducational, independent preparatory school that was founded in 1781 and originated the system of instruction known as Harkness teaching in 1931. In the spirit of its charter to foster both goodness and knowledge, students come from a wide variety of geographic, economic, racial and religious backgrounds. The diverse student body comes from approximately 45 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands and 26 foreign countries.