(WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass.) – The Carleton Singers of Carleton College in Northfield, Minn., will perform a free, hour-long program at the Clark Art Institute on Friday, March 20, 2015, at 3pm in the Clark Center, West Pavilion. The program includes a variety of styles and features a number of Minnesota composers.

The Carleton Singers is a highly select, mixed choral ensemble of sixteen voices that presents annual concerts of short and extended works from classical, ethnic, and cultural repertories. Under the direction of Dr. Lawrence Burnett, the ensemble has been lauded for energetic and emotional performances while sustaining high degrees of excellence in choral singing. The group was featured in a concert performance at Carnegie Hall to commemorate Martin Luther King, Jr.; demonstrated the singing of African American spirituals at an American Choral Directors Association North Central Convention; and performed at a conference of the Minnesota Music Educators Association. Concert tours have included New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles, New Orleans, Madison, and Washington, D.C, including a performance at the White House.

Lawrence Burnett holds a BM degree in vocal music education from Texas A & I University, an MM degree in choral conducting, vocal pedagogy, and vocal performance from Eastern New Mexico University, and a DMA degree in choral conducting from the University of Texas at Austin. Before joining the Carleton faculty in 1993, Dr. Burnett taught in the Crane School of Music at Potsdam College of the State University of New York. In New York he received the first Governor’s Award for African Americans of Distinction in New York State and served as artistic director of the New York State Summer School of the Arts–School of Choral Studies. His teaching experience spans 40 years.

Dr. Burnett is researching the histories of arrangers, composers, conductors, and performers who have kept alive the styles and traditions of African American sacred music through performances and recordings, and he is developing a web site to serve as a resource for scholars, educators, conductors, and performers.