April 13, 2007 — British composer Judith Bingham has been described as a rare thing in contemporary music, a composer whose music “has the ability to connect and communicate with its audience on an immediate and direct level.”

This April 22, the University of Utah Singers will perform the Utah premiere of Bingham’s Ghost Towns of the American West. The three-act event will take place at 7:30 p.m. in Libby Gardner Concert Hall and will be followed by a reception for the composer.

Bingham was selected as the winner of the 2004 Barlow Prize to compose a new work for a cappella choir. That work, Ghost Towns of the American West, will be premiered by a consortium of three renowned choirs: the VocalEssence Ensemble Singers in Minneapolis, the BBC Singers in London and the University of Utah Singers in Salt Lake City.

Bingham is especially noted for her choral and orchestral works. She attended the Royal Academy of Music in England and studied with teachers such as John Hall, Eric Fenby and Hans Keller.

In 1977 she received the Young Composer Award and in 2004 was awarded the Barlow Prize for choral music and three additional awards in England. Her works have been coupled with those of such composers as Ralph Vaughn Williams and Jean Belmont.

Bingham has done commissions for the BBC Philharmonic, London Symphony Orchestra, Kings College Cambridge and Westminster Abbey.

“Because she is one of the UK”s most internationally performed composers we are very lucky to have her with us,” says Nicole Beckstrand, University of Utah Singers vice president.

The internationally acclaimed University of Utah Singers are regularly featured in concerts at Libby Gardner Concert Hall and have performed in the Salt Lake Tabernacle, the Assembly Hall on Temple Square and the Cathedral of the Madeleine. They have performed at the Western Division Convention of the American Choral Directors Association and the National Convention of the Music Educators National Conference.

Having recently returned from a concert tour of France and Spain where they were the winners of the European Grand Prix International Choir Competition in Tolosa, Spain, the University of Utah Singers are winning acclaim in Europe as well as at home.

The University of Utah Singers have been featured on French National Television at the Nancy International Choir Festival in Nancy, France and in concerts throughout Spain, France, Germany, and The Netherlands.

They will return to Europe in 2007 to perform at the 12th International Choir Festival en Provence, the Festival des Choeurs Lauréats; and the 19th Festival “Choralies de Vaison-la-Romaine,” in France. For more information, please visit their website at www.uofusingers.org.

For additional information about the premiere of Bingham’s Ghost Towns of the American West, contact Nicole Beckstrand, at 801-390-8840 or nicolebeckstrand@gmail.com.