USA Concert Choir and University Chorale

USA Concert Choir and University Chorale

The first concert I ever attended in my life proved to be more fun than I had expected. I can even remember the exact date I attended the concert. It was on Tuesday, October 12, 2010 and the fun filled event was being hosted at the Department of Music in the University Of South Alabama. Two bands were playing in the evening concert, USA Concert Choir and University Chorale. I was initially reluctant about attending the concert because I simply had no idea which songs the bands were going to play. However, my friends encouraged me to attend the event. At 7.30 p.m we arrived at the venue and bought five dollar tickets at the front door. The man at the door gave us the concert description paper together with a translation paper on some of the songs that were not in English. We entered the wharf ampitheatre before the show began and took the front seats. The large ampitheatre was almost full but people were still streaming in.

The USA Concert Choir entered the stage at seven thirty. In a group of ten to twenty members, they stood still for a a few seconds before the conductor came in. The crowd gave them a loud applause as they began singing their first song. It was an acappela, which is a song without the accompaniment of instruments, titled To be Sung on the Water. The song had originally been created by Samuel Barber. The singing was wonderful especially in the way they combined choral variations of different voices in one song. The second song was also an acapella called From Lobet Den Herrn Alleluia originally done by Johann Sebastian Bach. The sound of the piano filled the large ampitheatre in the third song, From Les Chansons des Roses Conter Qui, Rose, by Morten Lauridsen. Their voices, in a perfect and harmonious movement with the piano, produced a great performance. Their presentation came to an end at 8 p.m with a moving performance of the song Cindy arranged by Carol Bennet and Nabeel Emaish playing the guitar.

A few minutes after the USA Concert Choir exited from the stage, the University Chorale took over. It was a large musical group composed of eighty to one hundred members. Their conductor was Laura M. Moore who was, coincidentally, the same conductor with the previous group. The first song they performed was Geographical Fugue by Ernst Torch. This was one song performed with very high energy levels with a combination of harmonised voices from both the right and the left sides of the group. I was amazed by the way each side would stop singing to give way for the other side side to take over. It was a really fantastic performance because it showed that the large group had done a lot of prcatice to perfect that style of singing. Their next preformance was the song Abraham and Isaac: A Parable of 9.11.01 by Roger Ames. A moment before the song was performed, the conductor explained the history of the song mostly about who created it and why. I learned that the song was written by a soldier. Their sorrowful voices made it one of the saddest and most emotional songs I had ever listened to. I felt emotionally relieved when the piano took over again in the song The Spheres by Ola Gjirilo. Their fourth performance was Z. Randall Stroope’s Amor de Alma. Their combined voices carried the deep meaning of the song whose title translates to The Love of My Soul. I hardly understood a single word of the song but by reading the translation script, and attempting to follow along with the singers, I was able to appreciate the fact that it was a love song. They concluded the show with a performance of Keep Your Lamps arranged by Andre Thomas. I liked the way Marcus Nobles played the percusions in this last song. He made it sound like an African song which was a completely new experience for me.

The University Chorale left the stage at 8.30 p.m just before the thoroghly entertained audience began leaving the theatre. I left fully contented that the show had been worth the cost of the ticket I had bought. The two groups had been quite entertaining especially the University Chorale which had used an assortment of instruments to create a well arranged performance. It was a perfect concert that I would recommend everyone to attend in support of both the music and the performers. I liked the experience and will definitely be attending another concert soon.