Get to know DaleWhat are you doing in school?
"Next school year I will begin my undergraduate degrees in Music Education and Vocal Performance. The specifics are unknown since I just finished high school but I hope to join many vocal ensembles, learn to play another instrument, and perhaps to add a minor in linguistics." How long have you been singing in choirs? "I have been in choir since fourth grade as something for fun. I didn’t develop my neurotic devotion to choral music until eighth grade." What is your favorite musical memory? "When I was in seventh grade I attended the Maryland All-State Mixed Chorus concert. I had never heard such intricate, compelling music sung by mature singers before and it was the moment I realized I wanted to spend my life pursuing music." Do you have any special talents or interests outside of music? "I consider myself to be an equivalent to a Victorian-era noble since much of my sapience lies within the humanities. I am trilingual as I was raised as an English and Spanish speaker and used school to my advantage to become proficient in French." Who is your favorite composer? "I always find this question unfair as I have a set of favorites for each musical movement in history, but the composer/arranger to get me attached to choral music was Moses Hogan. He is a pioneer in the modernization of spirituals and writes music of such intensity and energy. I also strongly value the diversity of composers as much of history’s music is filled with (extremely talented, but still,) old white men, and I find the likeability of his writing to be instrumental in bringing more diversity to musical repertoire." Who's your favorite non-classical musical artist? "Alicia Keys hands down. Not only is she a beautiful person human inside and out, but she writes much of her own music and is an adept instrumentalist, which isn’t very common among today’s popular musicians. I’ve been a fan since elementary school." What song have you not been able to stop listening to (classical or not)? "In terms of classical music, Z. Randall Stroope’s Judaskuss is a very new piece with a terrifying text and just as terrifying vocal lines and the energy waxes and wanes constantly.In terms of non-classical music, Kendrick Lamar’s Pride is just addictive for me to listen to with lyrics of substance and stemming from a Pulitzer prize-winning album with other addictive songs that are not only fun to sing along to, but also tell of life in America as a black person." What's your favorite book you've read? "My favorite book is Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. Not only are the characters and setting well-developed, but it’s also an amazing exploration into moral debates in both a secular and religious sense and can be analyzed with so many different perspectives." If you could turn anything purple, what would it be? "I always found green to be an enticing color in nature, but purple trees would also be an elegant sight to behold and would be super inspirational." What’s your favorite sports team? "I don't care about sports, but I will support my Terps in everything!" Dinosaurs or puppies? "If dinosaurs could be domesticated, then they would be a considerable candidate, but alas we can’t know for sure all the behaviors of animals that died millions of years ago. Puppies win (in the evolutionary sense and in my vote)." What's the most interesting fact about you? "I never learned how to ride a bike. Since I live in suburban America, bicycling is nothing but an obstruction to road traffic and a method of exercise that can be easily replicated by machines. Bicycling is for large city Europeans, not I." |
Christopher Dale Auen will begin his second season of Lux this Summer. He is an incoming freshman at the University of Maryland, where he will study Music Education and Vocal Performance. He’s had the honor of singing in the Maryland All-State Chorus from 2015-2019, the 2019 NAfME All-Eastern Mixed Chorus. In addition, he’s also sung in the Church Circle Singers from 2016-2018 and spent Fall 2018 through Spring 2019 singing with the National Philharmonic Chorale.
News & UpdatesThe Town Lay Hushed
January 5, 2020 | 3PM Calvary United Methodist Church | Frederick, MD The Town Lay Hushed January 10, 2020 | 7PM St. Jerome's Catholic Church | Hyattsville, MD |
