The Gardner-Webb University Concert Choir is a mixed, auditioned touring choir composed of students from a variety of musical backgrounds and scholastic fields. They perform sacred and secular music from all historical periods in churches, schools, and at University functions. Each year they tour throughout the Carolinas and the southeast, and have performed in New York, D.C., Europe, the Holy Land, Costa Rica, and last year to Ireland. They have been invited to sing at the NC American Choral Directors Association conference in recent years. Dr. Paul J. Etter is their conductor.
Located in Boiling Springs, 50 miles west of Charlotte, in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains of western North Carolina in Boiling Springs. GWU is home to nearly 4,000 students from 40 states and 15 foreign countries, and includes a total of 5 professional schools, 2 academic schools, and 13 academic departments offering over 80 undergraduate and graduate major fields of study. Founded in 1905, Gardner-Webb University, a private, Christian, Baptist-related university, provides outstanding undergraduate and graduate education that is strongly grounded in the liberal arts while offering opportunities to prepare for various professions. Gardner-Webb is committed to the liberal arts as the best preparation students can have for rewarding, meaningful lives, and provides exceptional educational opportunities within a Christian environment. GWU is proud to have been honored by the John Templeton Foundation as a “Character-Building College,” the U.S. President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll since 2008, and 1 of 24 universities nationwide to receive an “A” from American Council of Trustees and Alumni.
Dr. Paul J. Etter is in his seventeenth year as Director of Choral Activities/Coordinator of Worship Leadership and also the Chair of the Department of Music. A GWU Excellence in Teaching award winner, he teaches conducting classes, worship leadership classes, and conducts the GWU Concert Choir, and each spring the Choral Union performs a major choral/orchestral work. Dr. Etter has been actively involved leading church music for nearly thirty-five years, is in demand to lead clinics and festivals in area churches and schools, and serves as the treasurer for the NC chapter of the American Choral Directors Association.