USC Concert Choir Concert

The university’s premier choral ensemble presents a free concert for Columbia’s First Thursday on Main event. The program includes Tayloe Harding’s “War Prayer,” with text by Mark Twain presenting the idea that when we go to war and pray for victory, we also are praying that people on the other side will suffer death and destruction. Also on the program is the great 19th-century masterpiece, Gabriel Fauré’s Requiem, written for the composer’s mother, and a set of pieces by William Averitt. A chamber orchestra accompanies the Requiem and War Prayer, which also features soloists bass-baritone Jacob Will and tenor Paul Spencer Adkins, both of whom have international careers singing leading roles in operas and oratorios.