Troy University’s Concert Chorale will be performing its spring concert next week.
The spring concert will focus on lighter music, unlike its fall semester concert, which had music that would be performed during a Catholic Mass. Diane Orlofsky, professor of music, said she didn’t want to do something sacred for a spring concert and concentrated on lively themes.
The concert is centered on a “Masterwork,” which is a piece by a composer with several movements to it. Orlofsky said that she used “Fancies,” a work that’s based on Elizabethan poetry by John Rutter.
There are six movements to “Fancies,” and it was written in 1971. One of the pieces titled, “Tell Me Where Is Fancy Bred?” is taken from Shakespeare’s “Merchant of Venice.
Also included in the concert are three Spanish songs, which are all about spring and the land, which matches the current season. The program includes translations for the lyrics in English, which allows the audience to listen with context and understanding.
Orlofsky had a chance to see the St. Olaf choir, and they sang songs from Norway that she said she enjoyed. She found the composer and got permission to use it, and those two pieces were late additions to the performance.
These two pieces hold heavy themes, with one being dedicated to Tony Pike, a musician and teacher, who recently passed. This piece is called “Across the Vast, Eternal Sky,” which comes from Norwegian composer, Ola Gjeilo.
The other piece is called, “Even When He is Silent,” by Kim André Arensen, and it premiered days after the terrorist attacks in Oslo and Utøya, Norway, in 2011.
Thirty-six students are participating in the Concert Chorale, and two of the students, Travis Adams and Jordan Ratliff, are conducting the pieces themselves.
“For a concert of this magnitude, every voice is important,” Orlofsky said. “We had to learn the language, and a lot of the pieces are lush and full and big.”
Since the choir only consists of 36 students, every voice is heard, and the students are held accountable for their sound.
All of the musicians playing the accompaniments are staff from Troy, except for Caterina Bristol, an oboist from Alabama State University.
Orlofsky said that students should attend so they can see their peers put into action all of the work that they’ve done to make the concert possible.
“It’s really important to hear different things, and stretch your palette to things you’ve never listened to,” said Orlofsky.
The concert is on Tuesday, April 1, 2014 at 7:30 p.m., at Bush Memorial Baptist Church, and admission is free.
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