Julianna Keiter
Staff Writer
The sounds of music have rung here at ESU through the Spring Choir Concert, Jazz Band Concert and Concert Band Concert.
The Concert Choir, directed by Mariann Cook, started the spring concerts on April 17. With their concert theme being “Sing! Spring,” their song selection ranged from the beautiful “Sing Gently,” by Eric Whitacre, to the jazz classic “Sing, Sing, Sing,” by Louis Prima.
There were also selections played from the musical, “Sweeny Todd,” because Cook mentioned that, “the kids wanted to do ‘Sweeny Todd,’ so I just said, ‘Just call it Sing Sweeny.’”
“By the way, there is no music major, so none of these are music majors. Not a single person here is a music major,” said Cook during her closing statement. “These are all students from across the university that have amazing high school choral directors. And the choral directors developed in them a love for music, and so they wanted to continue that, and they’ve done that through this choir.”
The next concert was the Jazz Band Concert on April 25 directed by Dr. Brian Hodge with the theme, “Latin Jazz.” Some selections played include “Caravan,” by Duke Ellington, Juan Tizol and Irving Mills, “Black Orpheus,” by Luiz Bonfa, and “Despacito,” by Luis Fonzi, Erika Ender and Justin Bieber.
Along with a guest singer, Arianna Nguyen, for three of the pieces, the last piece played, “La Virgen De La Macarena,” by Bernardino Bautista Monterde, featured an ESU Animation Studio original presentation that was played alongside the music.
The last of the concert trio was the Concert Band concert on April 27 with the theme “Patriotism?” featuring the fourth movement of “Symphony no. 5,” by Dmitri Shostakovich, “A Lincoln Portrait,” by Aaron Copland and “The Leaves are Falling,” by Warren Benson.
For the band’s performance of the first and fourth movement of “Testament of Freedom,” by Randall Thompson, the Concert Choir joined the band on stage to sing as the finale before the encore of “The Stars and Stripes Forever,” by John Philip Sousa.
In the conductor’s note in the program, Dr. Hodge described his decision for the theme of the concert.
“This program was selected in August 2024. The divisive nature of the election season coupled with increasing incivility between political factions inspired me to create a program which questioned the nature of patriotism from multiple angles to explore with the performers and audience,” said Hodge. “What is patriotism? What is our unique historical perspective of being American? Are there times when patriotism can be corrupted, and what does that look like? Are there times when patriotism is a requirement, where we put aside all differences and come together for a common moment? To whom are we patriotic – our nation or our community? And where do we go from here? This concert seeks to look at these issues through music as we question the nature of patriotism.”
Future Fall of 2025 performances at ESU include Tartuffe, ESU Theatre on Oct. 23-26, “Video Games Live!” by the ESU Concert and Jazz Bands on Nov. 9, ESU Choir Fall Concert on Nov. 21 and the President’s Holiday Concert on Dec. 7.