March 19, 2024

UT choirs give interactive, unique performances during fall concert

UT’s College of Music held its fall choral concert Tuesday. All choirs worked together to give performances that ranged from “Here’s to Old Tennessee” to a tribute piece called “Immortal Bach.”

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UT’s College of Music choirs took the stage at the fall choral concert on Wednesday at the Cox Auditorium in the Alumni Memorial Building.

The concert was composed of UT’s Men’s Chorale and Concert Choir, conducted by Dr. Jaclyn Johnson, Women’s Chorale, conducted by Landon Paul, and ended with performances from the select auditioned choir Chamber Singers, conducted by Dr. Angela Batey.

Instead of being a two hour choral concert based around a single theme, the concert had multiple levels of performances. During different parts of the show, choirs would get up and move around the stage.

“The fact the performers moved around and interacted with each other made the whole experience more entertaining,” said UT student Leslie Durland.

The show began with the Men’s Chorale conducted by Johnson. One of the men’s stand out performances was a performance of “Here’s to Old Tennessee,” the official Tennessee Fight Song.

“I was not expecting the show I saw,” said UT sophomore Lauren Edwards. “I think it got the crowd pretty excited.”

Durland was also impressed when the Men’s Chorale got the crowd involved during their “Rocky Top” performance, adding that she “definitely got up and sang along with them.”

Another performance that stood out was that of the Concert Choir’s performance of “Immortal Bach,” a song that Johnson mentioned is made up of only 8 measures. The show fell on the 256th anniversary of Bach’s death, and the song is meant to honor Bach’s immortal compositions through the ages.

During the show, certain performances were not sung in English. “Libiamo ne’ lieti calici” (La Traviata), had four soloists who sang in Italian: Erin Sherwin, Elizabeth Geist, Breyon Ewing and Ben O’Neal.

“I was shocked they could sing so well even in different languages,” said Edwards.

Joining the UT choir offers many opportunities for student singers to perform in various concerts, and is open to all UT students.

For more information on UT’s choral ensembles, visit www.music.utk.edu.

Featured image by Thomas Delgado

Edited by Hannah Hunnicutt

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