by Tim Baldi
Staff Writer
This Thursday, the Bryan Music Department will be holding its final Musical Showcase for the 2009-2010 school year. The concert will provide a glimpse of the Bryan Chorale’s upcoming European Tour and offer one final opportunity for senior music majors to perform on campus before graduation.
The concert includes performances from the Flute Ensemble, the Brass Ensemble, Bryan Chorale, Hilltop Players and soloists.
“The event is significant in that it provides a cost-free opportunity for the student body to be exposed to fine arts,” said senior Abram Roberts who will be performing with the Chorale.
For Roberts, who will also be playing Rachmaninoff’s Etude No. 5 as a piano soloist, the concert has significant meaning because it is his final opportunity to take part in a concert at Bryan before graduating on May 8.
The showcase will include Broadway show tunes, opera arias, piano music, a theater scene and choral music, said Professor of Music Mel Wilhoit.
“This is a wonderful variety show, allowing students to demonstrate their hard work and talent, said Wilhoit, “kind of frosting on the cake for a full and exciting year. What an amazing group of students.”
The concert begins at 7:30 p.m. in Rudd Auditorium.
According to Roberts, the chorale performance will include music that will be taken on the European Tour from May 10-24.
“We will be singing a song in French called ‘O Divin Redempteur’ ( O Divine Redeemer), as well as the two African-American spirituals, ‘Witness’ and ‘Sometimes I feel like a Motherless Child’ on Thursday night, all of which we are singing in Europe,” said Professor of Music David Luther.
The European tour group will consist of 34 students, Dr. Wilhoit and his wife, Sue, Dr. Luther and his wife, Dr. Sigrid Luther, Dr. Phil and Darlene Lestmann.
The tour will begin with two concerts in central England and London before ferrying across the English Channel to perform four concerts in southern France. Their final concert will be held in Vevey, Switzerland, near Lake Geneva.
The European Tour will also include sightseeing in London, Cambridge, Paris and near concert locations.
“I am so stoked to be going to Europe,” said junior Jason Hundley.