Music filled the halls of the Alumni Memorial Building Tuesday night during the Fall Choral Concert.
Families, friends, faculty and students gathered in the Cox Auditorium to hear UT’s choral ensembles. They filled the crowd with energy before the full performances, pre-concert entertainment included Four O’ Clock Shadow, reVOLution, VOLume and the UT Singers. The women’s contemporary acappella group, reVOLution, sang “Clocks” by Coldplay and the men’s accapella group, VOLume, sang a medley of “Jump Right In” by Zac Brown Band.
Now that the audience was energized, it was time for the show. The first group to perform was the Men’s Chorale under the conduction of Gene D. Peterson. Men in suits and Tennessee bow ties came down the aisles with the crowd’s attention on them. They sang the first three songs with energy and passion. Peterson left the stage before their second to last song and came back out a minute later with a pirate hat and parrot on his shoulder to set the scene for “Pirate Song” by Tim Y. Jones. The Men’s Chorale filled the audience with laughter as they wore their eye patches and had a member walk the plank. They ended with an interactive Vols Medley, with the audience standing and singing.
Thomas Neuefeind, an undecided sophomore and member of the Men’s Chorale, enjoyed performing Gwyneth Walker’s “Crossing the Bar” the most.
“I enjoy being a part of this group,” Neuefeind said.
The next group to perform was the Concert choir also under the conduction of Peterson. The group captivated the audience through the beauty of song. Courtney Frederick, junior in English, and Salina Haynes, junior in biological studies, were thrilled to perform with their ensemble, including their favorite song “Let Everything That Hath Breath” arranged by Jeffery Ames. They both stressed a lot of preparation goes into perfecting the show.
“We practice twice a week for two hours with some after school practices and dress rehearsals,” Haynes said.
After the Concert Choir, the Women’s Chorale group performed under the conduction of Jordan Cross. They joined in on the fun of the night by performing two lively pieces called “Cripple Creek” arranged by Tom Porter and “Appalachian Fiddler” by John Purifoy, bringing smiles to the East Tennessee crowd.
To close the evening, the Chamber Singers took the stage under the conduction of Angela Batey and graduate conductor Lindsey Cope. They opened with “Non nobis Domine,” based off a Latin hymn. The Chamber Singers took a more traditional approach to their performance than the earlier groups, allowing the concert to introduce the audience to multiple genres.
Batey believes all the groups performed well and was amazed at the growth of all of the ensembles with their varying genres and song selections.
“The song selection is chosen carefully so that the performers have a variety of experiences every concert,” Batey said.
Brittany Proxmire, a freshman in biological studies, attended the concert and appreciated the diverse types of music performed.
“I thought the song selection was picked out very well and the atmosphere that the ensembles created was amazing,” Proxmire said. “You could tell from being in the audience that the seats were filled with attentive listeners ready to hear beautiful music.”
