The Colby College Chorale will perform a concert titled Musique Pour Choeur, Musique du Coeur on Saturday, February 19, at 8 p.m., under the direction of Paul Machlin, the Arnold Bernhard Professor of Music. The concert will be in Colby’s Lorimer Chapel and is open to the public free of charge.

The program will begin with "Musique Pour Choeur," music for chorus, by a variety of French composers, including Gabriel Fauré, Maurice Ravel and Georges Bizet. After an intermission the chorale will perform "Musique du Coeur," music of the heart, in honor of St. Valentine’s Day. This part of the program will include songs that range from a saucy jazz piece about a failing relationship to the bittersweet memory captured in a Newfoundland folk song to the fun of a Beatles tune. The concert will conclude with folksongs and African-American spirituals, including Ride The Chariot.

"The pieces range broadly in character in both halves of the program," said Machlin. "There are some very sensuous texts, serious songs from the Bible and then jazz and works by the Beatles, which are a lot of fun. Some pieces are accompanied by piano and are especially demanding. We’re lucky to have three exceptionally skilled accompanists. But most of the music is unaccompanied, so it is quite challenging, and this group has risen to that challenge."

The Colby College Chorale, directed by Machlin, is the college’s largest singing group and features more than 65 Colby students from every class and many academic majors. This spring, the Chorale will embark on a concert tour to Connecticut and New York City.