News
SMC Fall Choir Concert Leans on Love, Opera
Published on November 4, 2024 - 5 p.m.
“Song and Saga,” Southwestern Michigan College’s fall choir concert, was performed Nov. 2 in the theatre of the Dale A. Lyons Building on the Dowagiac campus.
Director of Choral Activities David Carew structured seven suites like the year-end Collage Concert, which unspools in a seamless stream of sound, unbroken by applause.
“In general, the theme is love,” Carew said. “In this day and age, we need to lead with love, which is the title of the first piece” performed by the Collegiate Chorale.
Adjunct instructor Megan Laine, a recent University of Michigan performance graduate, was featured throughout, as was collaborative pianist Christine Larson Seitz.
After operatic solos by Kirsten Carlson, Trystyn Little and Grace Bruntz, the Choral Scholars sang “Scarborough Fair,” by Simon and Garfunkel. Then came Chorllennium and Heidi Ferris, an operatic duet by Laine and Jersey Baker and Madison Sutherland’s “If I were a Bell” from the musical Guys and Dolls.
The fifth suite featured Trenton Smith on Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “Music of the Night” from Phantom of the Opera and the Men’s Ensemble rendition of “Johanna” from Stephen Sondheim’s musical, Sweeney Todd.
Coby Henslee and Trenton Smith teamed up on “Lily’s Eyes” from the musical The Secret Garden.
Brandon Maynard elicited chuckles with Cole Porter’s “Where is the Life that Late I Led” from the 1948 musical “Kiss Me Kate,” for the Shakespeare play within the play where a newlywed Petruchio laments the loss of his bachelor life.
Tressa Hullinger sang “Your Daddy’s Son” from the musical Ragtime.
The final suite contained “He Ain’t Heavy” by the Men’s Ensemble, “Every Time I Feel the Spirit,” with Carew pinch-hitting for Andrew Fisher on the solo with Chorllennium, and Hullinger’s “The Human Heart” with the Collegiate Chorale from the musical Once on This Island.
