The DePauw choirs are holding a concert Wednesday, October 27 at 7:30 p.m. in Kresge Auditorium in the Green Center for the Performing Arts. There will be performances by three different choirs.
There are two auditioned chamber choirs: one mixed group (singers of all ranges) and one treble only group (singers in the higher range). The third group is a non-auditioned Festival Choir that is composed of both DePauw students and community members. All of these ensembles are under the direction of faculty member Eric Schmidt. The concert is expected to last about an hour.
This will be the first time a DePauw choir has performed in Kresge Auditorium since before the COVID-19 pandemic began. The last choir concert in Kresge was the Holiday Gala in 2019. According to Schmidt, the difficulty of the past 20 months is why the concert is called “Not Easy.”
“Preparing for an actual concert in front of a live audience fills me with excitement and gratitude. I will never take this for granted again,” Schmidt said.
For some students this will be their first time performing in Kresge Auditorium. Sophomore Festival Choir singer Sarah Weeks said, “[Rehearsing in Kresge] has been much more fun, especially rehearsing in the space where you’re going to perform because you get to hear the sound that’s going to be the sound.” Last year, the choirs rehearsed in Meharry Hall in East College, but no performances were held there.
The previous performance of DePauw choirs was at the inauguration of President Lori S. White on Oct. 1. They performed a medley of “America the Beautiful” and “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” and an arrangement of Maya Angelou’s poem “Still I Rise.”
According to Schmidt, “We will perform pieces from many different styles and eras, so hopefully there will be something for everyone in the program,”. There will be pieces from the medieval and renaissance eras, “The Great American Songbook” and Gospel music.
Weeks said her favorite song that the Festival Choir is performing at the concert is “All Through the Night,” a lullaby-like song published in 2013. “I’m very excited for that one, I think it has beautiful melodies and harmonies,” she said.