Daily News

Posted on March 17: McMaster’s oldest club presents piece in harmony

At 90 voices strong, the McMaster University Choir is already the professional choir of choice for a number of musical performances, including concerts with the Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra. This Saturday, they'll present a rarely attempted piece of choral orchestral music, Franz Schubert's Mass #6 in E flat, in the most ambitious performance the choir has ever initiated. Maestro Philip Sarabura says the growth and improvement he's seen in the choir since he joined as its music director and conductor 15 years ago has given it a newfound reputation for quality within the classical music community. "The choir has grown and matured in terms of mindset and confidence, particularly over the last several years," he says. "This is not a community choir'. This group could sing with any major orchestra in the country." Of the 90 choir members, only a small number about 10 per cent are pursuing degrees in music. The rest hail from all facets of the McMaster community, including undergraduate and graduate students studying a variety of disciplines, as well as staff, faculty and alumni. Sarabura says members go through an audition process that's become much more selective over the past few years.

Posted on March 16: Biologist presents molecular view of large-scale evolution

The origin and large-scale evolution of life will be given a molecular look at the final lecture in McMaster's Origins Public Lecture Series. University of Colorado biologist Norman Pace will present the fifth in a series of five presentations on origins research. His lecture, A Molecular View of the Origin and Large Scale Evolution of Life, on Thursday, March 18 at 8 p.m. in Chester New Hall, Rm. 104, will review the current understanding of the molecular "tree of life". Pace is a professor of molecular, cellular and developmental biology at the University of Colorado. He is also a member of the National Academic of Sciences and a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He has won numerous awards, including the United States highest award in microbiology, the Selman A. Waksman Award for Outstanding Achievement in Microbiology, from the National Academy of Sciences.