McIntyre Music Building hosted a choir concert on Sunday Mar. 9. This concert featured CWU’s University Chorale, Vox Divina, Wildcat Chorus and Chamber Choir. These groups in total performed nineteen songs for the concert, four performed by the University Chorale, four by Vox Divina, five by the Wildcat Chorus and five by the Chamber Choir.
The first group to perform was the University Chorale, conducted by Professor Vijay Singh. This group sang very melodic songs, three being performed acapella style while one included University Chorale singer Ella Melin on piano.
“It was really fun preparing [for the show],” Arturo Meza, University Chorale singer and a first year majoring in music education and secondary education, said. ” [I] run through the music in practice rooms just a few times, but then I get most of my memorization done in class.”
The next group to perform was Vox Divina, conducted by Dr. Nicole C. Lamartine as well as graduate conductor Christopher Lerch.
While this group also had that melodic feel to them, they differ from the University Chorale performance because there were much deeper tones to their voices, as well as the fact that each time had instrumental accompaniment. This included collaborative pianist Kathryn Amdahl, Vox Divina singer Isa Thornsley on cello and Vox Divina singers Anya Degroot and Aubrey Akers on percussion.
The third group to perform was the Wildcat Chorus, CWU’s tenor and bass choir conducted by Dr. Scott R. Peterson, as well as graduate conductor Maria Kramer.
Two singers from the Chorus talked about their feelings having completed the show. “The fact that it’s over and that I felt like I did a good job with the performance, I feel happy and relieved,” Nina Soetamin, a first year music education major and singer for Vox Divina and Wildcat Chorale, said. Lucas Clark, also a first year music education major and singer for University Chorale and a part of Wildcat Chorus agreed, stating, “I feel a lot of relief, and I’m happy to be looking towards new music. I’m proud of the work we got done with the circumstances we did.”
This group had the most variation in the kind of music performed, having renaissance, sea shanties and others. This group also had a mix of acapella performances as well as ones with instrumentals, featuring collaborative pianist Nathan Ortiz, and other choir singers and staff such as Lael Maddox on mandolin, Jeff Selden on banjo, Dr. Scott R. Petersen on guitar, Dylan Bell on cello and Rowan Morales on bass.
The last group to perform was the Chamber Choir, CWU’s premier choir. This group was conducted by the previously mentioned Dr. Lamartine and graduate conductors Kramer and Lerch.
This performance was truly unlike the rest, not due to the sound of the songs performed, but rather because there was a story being told throughout their performance. They did a performance of five songs, all coming together to tell the story of “Fire In The Meadow”. This performance was entirely acapella, and had many moments where the singers would quiet their voices for a moment just to come back with loud projections to create a contrast in the songs.
Soetamin left some parting words of encouragement, stating, “if you want to join any of the non audition choir. So that’s … [Wildcat Chorus], Vox [Divina] or [University] Chorale. They’re open to anybody on the CWU campus. So you should do it,” Soetamin said. To which first year musical theater major and University Chorale and Wildcat Chorus singer, Lily Kealoha, added, “and even if you can’t sing, you should still come out and support the arts and come to concerts…it’s really fun.”
