Vocal Extravaganza
About the event
The Voice/Choral Area in the School of Music will present its 30th annual Vocal Extravaganza on Friday, November 6 at 8:00 pm in Bryan Hall Theatre on the Pullman campus as part of the celebration of Dad’s Weekend activities. This vocal showcase of the five choral ensembles in the School will feature short performances by the Madrigal Singers, University Singers, Concert Choir, Opera Workshop, and VoJazz along with many styles of vocal music. You will certainly hear music that you can deem as “your favorite.”
Vocal Extravaganza will open with the Madrigal/Chamber Singers performing English Renaissance madrigals by John Dowland, including “When Phoebus First,” “Stay, Time, Awhile” and “Say, Love,” and “On the Plains, Fairy Trains” by Thomas Weelkes. The ensemble, conducted by Lori Wiest, will also perform contemporary selection, featuring “O Filii et Filiae” by Ivo Antognini and “Adam Lay Ybounden” by Hubert Bird.
The University Singers, under the direction of Dean Luethi, will present three selections on the theme of “song.” Gitanjali Chants by Craig Hella Johnson is a song of two poems from Rabindranath Tagore’s collection entitled “Gitanjali (Song Offerings).” These chants speak of song being a way in which we interact with the world, teaching, feeling, searching, and guiding. In the second piece, the University Singers explore the use of song as a vehicle for expressing their joys and trepidations as they transition from life elsewhere to here in Pullman. Kim André Arnesen’s Flight Song was written with thanks and admiration to the St. Olaf Choir and conductor Anton Armstrong. Arnesen likens the conductors’ gestures to the rise and fall of wings and in using these wings; the choirs’ song can fly. Daniel E. Gawthrop wrote Sing a Mighty Song for the 1994 national convention of the American Choral Directors Association. This short song in seven sections begins “Singers! Awake and arise!” and is a call to action.
WSU Concert Choir, conducted by Lori Wiest, will perform selections connected by the theme “I Sing Because…” Featured selections include Minnesota composers Stephen Paulus’s “The Road Home,” Eric William Barnum’s “Jenny Kiss’d Me,” and Jake Runestad’s “Alleluia.” In “I sing because…” by English composer Will Todd, the composer sets this provocative text, originally in Greek written by Maria Polydouri, for choir and piano using a haunting but uplifting melody and harmonies from the jazz idiom to create a luscious and inspirational composition. Senior, Regan Siglin, piano performance in the School of Music is the accompanist of Concert Choir.
Opera Workshop will be performing portions of their program, Viva La France, which will be fully presented on Thursday, November 19 at 8:00 p.m. in Bryan Hall Theatre. As one would expect from the French, each of the scenes revolves around passionate love. The first two scenes are from Georges Bizet’s Carmen, the story of a fiery gypsy and her seduction of a naïve soldier, Don Jose, in 19th Century Seville. The next featured opera, Les Contes d’Hoffmann, was composed by Jacques Offenbach. An opera fantastique, it combines fantasy and horror to tell the tale of the young poet, Hoffmann, and his three great love affairs. The final scene is from Gaetano Donizetti’s opera comique, La Fille du Regiment or The Daughter of the Regiment. Marie, an orphan girl, raised by a regiment of French soldiers, falls in love with a young Tyrolean, Tonio.
The WSU VoJazz, under the direction of Dean Luethi will present four selections to end the concert. Kirk Marcy treats George Wallington’s bebop tune Lemon Drop in a fresh and exciting way. The vocal harmonies coupled with the quick tempo offer the audience a wonderful understanding of the way in which vocalists can present bebop, largely an instrumental style. Where Do You Start is a beautiful ballad by Johnny Mandel and arranged by Dave Barduhn. This song speaks of the strife one experiences and the challenges faced at the end of a relationship. Open Invitation, written and arranged by Darmon Meader, is a song of longing. The two characters in the story are separated over a long distance and throughout their own personal narratives they look to see the other again; welcomed with an open invitation. Johnny Mercer’s indulgent Goody Goody is a song that is a playful celebration of spite. Kirk Marcy’s wonderful arrangement of this tune allows the vocalists to use harmony, inflection, and timbre to present a text that describes a character’s feelings after witnessing the pain of a person with whom they’ve recently ended a relationship. This spiteful song is written in a playful medium/up swing.
Tickets for this family-friendly event will be available on Nov 4-6 from 10 a.m.-2 p.m., in the lobby of Kimbrough Music Building, and in Bryan Hall beginning at 6 p.m. on the night of the performance.
Tickets are $10 for adults, $5 for senior citizens and students with ID, and free for children 12 and under.
The Concert Choir and Madrigal Singers, who will also be holding a bake sale and a raffle of merchandise and gift certificates from local merchants during the intermission, are preparing for their upcoming performance and cultural tour in South Korea in May 2016. All proceeds go directly to the student ensembles for music, performances/productions, and tours.
All proceeds go directly to the student ensembles for music, performances/productions, and tours.