For the first time, the University of Memphis’ flagship choral ensemble, University Singers, is releasing an album. Debuting on Oct. 9 on both Apple Music and Spotify, the album titled “Between Love and Law” marks the first album for the entire choral program and features 23 tracks — 22 of which were recorded in the Plough Foundation Performance Hall at the Scheidt Family Performing Arts Center.
“It’s not super common in university choral programs to produce something like this,” Director of Choral Activities Dr. Francis Cathlina, said. “But I have seen some of the top choral programs in the nation produce these albums pretty regularly, and so it was an artistic goal of mine to help the students and put them on a national and international stage.”
Kalen Wilson, a junior Choral Music Education major and assistant conductor for University Singers said, “The feeling of having a debut album with an ensemble you are in is indescribable. It is truly a blessing to sit and listen to the fruit of our labors from the choral department. My favorite memory is when we came together for the recording sessions, prepared and ready to create the sound. The atmosphere becomes serious and everyone becomes so concentrated. I love it because it is such a night and day difference in comparison to when we are just making music.” Wilson has been a musician for 15 years.
University Singers and Cathlina have been working on the album since 2023, so three years of University Singers contributed to the album. Their first single released early September a motet titled “Sicut Cervus” which is a famous Renaissance piece dating back to the 1500s and the second single releases today (Sept. 18) a more modern piece titled “Gloria.”
The recording was done by Jon Frazer, associate professor and recording studio manager at the Rudi E. Scheidt School of Music.
When asked why the two were chosen as the first and second single release, Cathlina said, “I chose it (Sicut Cervus) as it captures the beauty of the students in almost a pristine way. The recording sound, I mean, the recording was done spectacularly by my colleague John Fraser, who was the recording technology professor here for a long time. He did a phenomenal job recording it, and the students did a fantastic job preparing it and performing it. I just thought it captured their sound really, really beautifully. The second piece (Gloria), was selected because it’s a really stark contrast. It’s much more angular. It’s a little bit more quick-paced. It’ll kind of get your heart beating.”
One of the featured tracks “Better is One Day” was even recorded live at the 2026 ACDA Southern Region Conference at the Renasant Convention Center downtown. University Singers was selected through a peer review competitive process among choirs from the southern region of the U.S. to perform during the conference.
The title of the album has special meaning. “So the album title actually took me quite a bit of time to figure out because how do you encapsulate three years of students’ work into a single title that is engaging and makes people want to click on the album,” Cathlina said.
In 2024, University Singers performed in Nashville for the Tennessee State Choral Conference where the theme of the conference was Asimov’s Three Laws of Robotics. And then in March, they performed at the Southern ACDA conference where the theme was the five love languages.
“So, their programming kind of told the story of these conceptual frameworks, and so the album’s title, ‘Between Love and Law,’ it is an homage or a nod to love from the five love languages and law from the three laws of robotics,” Cathlina said.
University Singers typically has about 50 singers in the ensemble some of which are non-music majors that sing because they love to. “These students work so hard to produce excellence, and for many of them, it’s not even their primary field of study,” Cathlina said.
Cathlina said he is proud of the culture that he and colleague Dr. Emily Frizzell, assistant professor of Music Education, have built within the program.
“We’ve created a culture where the students sing because they want to, not because they have to,” Cathlina said. “Just to see the trajectory of this ensemble and this choral program over the last six years, you know this is kind of a culminating event, and this ensemble hasn’t reached its ceiling yet either. I think there’s a lot more that they can do that is going to be even greater than this.”
University Singers have an upcoming performance on Oct. 19 during the Choral Sampler at SFPAC.
University Singers Home Concert
