STORY AND VIDEO BY CAMILLE GUSHWAY
The SCAET lobby was filled with the vocal talents of second-year Bachelor of Music Theatre Performance students December 1.
The fifth annual Fall Choral Concert, conducted by Greg Andrews, featured songs by U2, Eric Whitacre, Harry Somers, Fergus O’Farrell (composer of the musical Once), James Mulholland and Kim Andre Arnessen.
“We had a class that we took for two hours a week where we prepared for the concert,” said Sam Bourque, an alto singer. “We spent the entire first semester, once a week, learning all the material and putting it together.”
Good acoustics were key for this performance – as well as creating harmonious sounds by the group of almost 50 soprano, alto, tenor and bass singers. The students made sure the emotional arcs of the songs were poignant and would be felt by the audience.
“Our rehearsal room was a basement room in G wing, however occasionally we would explore our choral sound by singing a few songs outside, or in a hallway,” said Lindsay Rolland-Mills, a mezzo-soprano. “We even had a quick 20-minute rehearsal the week before the concert in the S Wing, just to make sure we were sounding as well as we could in those surroundings and with those acoustics.”
“Our closing song was “Sleep” by Eric Whitacre, however, was actually (a) last-minute addition to the set list,” said tenor Braeden Soltys. “We originally weren’t going to perform that one. But because a lot of us really enjoyed that song, we practiced it enough that our teacher happily relented and put it in.”
With the Fall Choral Concert concluded, the second-years are preparing anew for another performance.
“Our class is preparing for a pop show coming up on March 19 where we’ll all be singing classic rock hits. That will be quite a change from the performance we just gave,” said Rolland-Mills.
Savannah Maxwell, an alto, says they all just love to sing and felt it showed in their performance.
“We wanted to put our best foot forward and I feel as though our work paid off. It was an honour to sing with our friends and family, and to present to our peers and faculty,” said Maxwell. “It is not extremely common for all of our year to get together and sing a piece of music, so when we do it’s special and rewarding.”