WMU choirs prepare for national performance

By Alyssa Herter
Western Herald

The Western Michigan University Chorale and Cantus Femina will perform a free concert Sunday, Oct. 26, at 3 p.m. in the Dalton Center Recital Hall.

The event is offered as a preview of the performance that the choirs have been invited to perform at the bi-annual National Collegiate Choral Organization (NCCO) National Convention on Oct. 30 at the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music in Ohio.

“This group which is called the National Choral Collegiate Organization … was formed for college choirs … so they could discuss issues related to college choirs … at the convention there will be choir performances … lectures, exhibits … it’s a kind of an all-encompassing convention,” said University Chorale Director James K. Bass, Ph.D.

Choirs from across the country are selected by “blind” auditions to perform at the convention. Each choir group sends a sample CD to the convention board who selects each choir judged purely on sound performance; the CDs are not labeled, so there is no bias.

Though this highly competitive audition process, University Chorale and Cantus Femina were chosen to have the opportunity to perform for every influential choir director in the United States. Over 30 choirs auditioned to perform at the NCCO convention and of only 11 were selected.

Of those 11, WMU is the only school in the nation to have two choirs represented.

“It has been so much fun. I am just a freshman … to really feel a part of something special … it’s been incredible,” said Cantus Femina member Kirsten Schaffert.

“This choir is almost exclusively undergraduates and most of the other colleges [performing at the convention] are graduate students, so this is kind of a feather in Western’s cap,” said Bass.

Cantus Femina is WMU’s oldest choir group. Though not always under the same name, the women’s ensemble has had a presence at WMU since 1909.

“I am ecstatically proud of them, you have no idea,” said Dee Gauthier, Ph.D. who has been directing the ensemble for 10 years. Gauthier will be the only female choir director at the convention.

“It’s really great how much we’ve actually progressed in the past six weeks … I wasn’t expecting us to be this prepared one week from the convention,” said Mary Haskins who has been singing with Cantus Femina for two years.

The University Chorale is a “mixed choir” comprised of 21 men and 21 one women, while Cantus Femina is an all-women’s ensemble. Both choirs have been rehearsing for this event since  the fall semester began.

“We have a very interesting and difficult concert … one of the pieces they’re doing is 20 minutes long, it’s non-traditional harmonies … and the piece deals with very emotional content,” said Bass when explaining how hard the students of University Chorale have worked.

“I’m really looking forward to getting to NCCO and getting to sing in a space made for us to sing in … we’ve put a lot of work into it and it’s definitely paid off,” Haskins said.

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Posted by HeraldAdmin on Oct 23 2008. Filed under A & E. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry

Cody Kimball
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