photo by Gloria Diaz
“Music of the USA” was the theme for the choir concerts on Friday and Saturday. Sophomore Chelsea Boyd, freshman Ashley Miguel along with the rest of the choir, which entertained audiences with a number of American classics. “Route 66,” written by Bobby Troup, “Amazing Grace,” written by John Newton, and “That Old House is Ha’nted,” written by Jester Hairston, were among the choir’s repertoire. Associate professor of music, Scott Farthing, managed the concert, as well as conducted the ensemble.
Last Friday and Saturday night were very sweet dates if you were in or near Founders Auditorium, as the University of La Verne Chorale, Men‘s Ensemble and Women’s Ensemble filled the air with some fabulous tunes.
The occasion was “Music of the USA,” a celebration of distinctly American music and ideas.
The show also marked the world debut of a new single from ULV’s own Reed Gratz.
Scott Farthing, associate professor of music, coordinated and conducted the concert for the evening
However, Farthing found himself doing triple duty on both nights, as both the rehearsal pianist and the regular pianist had to cancel at the 11th hour.
Farthing and his students began working on the show during the second week of the semester, with each of the three ensembles spending about four hours per week in rehearsal.
“I started with pieces about democracy, then went to pieces on the U.S.,” Farthing said.
He had originally planned to tie the show’s material into the upcoming elections, but eventually broadened the scope.
The range of compositions in the program was incredibly diverse, ranging from the solemn and serious to the airy and lighthearted.
The concert began with the Chorale performing Leonard Bernstein’s “Chichester Psalms,” a series of hymns written and performed in Hebrew.
This entire portion of the program was beautiful and exceptionally well done, and the solo by junior Tera Forrest was simply incredible.
The Men’s and Women’s Ensembles then joined forces to introduce the audience to Frostiana, a series of seven Robert Frost poems set to music by the late Randall Thompson.
The pieces were all performed in succession, but the duration and difficulty of the compositions certainly did not seem to faze the singers.
The Women’s Ensemble treated the crowd to a stunning rendition of the National Anthem, followed by Aaron Copland’s “Simple Gifts” after the intermission.
“Women for the Truth” was unveiled to close out the set, with Gratz accompanying on piano.
Gratz said Farthing had approached him for an original composition for this event and presented him with the theme.
“I wrote about half the lyrics first,” he said.
The song took “probably a week, plus a few days to finish the odds and ends,” he said.
The end result was a top-notch musical tribute to the women that have been admired by and inspirational to Gratz over his lifetime, women like Dolly Madison, Florence Nightingale and Susan B. Anthony.
The Men’s Ensemble took to the stage and sang “Amazing Grace” and “Kansas City Jones” after the women.
“Kansas City Jones” was a more diplomatic and less scathing version of the ubiquitous “The Ballad of Casey Jones.”
For the final two numbers, the University Chorale returned to perform the Broadway-esque “That Old House is Ha’nted,” and the ever-popular “Route 66.”
Needless to say all of the performers, as well as the no doubt exhausted Farthing, received enthusiastic applause at the end of each set and the end of the show.
“It was very good,” junior Rebecca Fredrick said.
Gratz was extremely pleased with the Women’s Ensemble and its performance of his song, especially considering the rather limited time the women had to rehearse it, but he was also impressed by the whole choir’s performance of the entire show.
Farthing went one step further, calling it “the best group I’ve had since coming here.”
Tom Anderson can be reached at tanderson1@ulv.edu.