On Sunday, December 4 I attended the Ball State School of Music's Holiday Choral Concert. The concert featured six choirs from the university, including the chamber choir, concert choir, university singers, women's chorus, statesmen, and university choral union and displayed their talents at Sursa Music Hall. I was very much looking forward to this concert; I love holiday music and I love a good choir show. However, I was somewhat disappointed by the concert I received. The talent of the students was amazing, of course, but the show was rather long (over an hour and a half), with a majority of the pieces being sung in a foreign language. There was no break from the serious tone that those songs provided; all the songs were very somber Christmas songs or Christian hymns, which made the concert seem even longer than it was. While I'm glad I went, I did expect something very different from what I received.
The opening song was one of the most attention-grabbing pieces of the night. It featured a rhythmic percussion section and harmonic chanting. The choir members seemed to come out of the woodwork, each coming on stage when his/her part started in the piece. I really enjoyed this song; it had lovely harmonies and the percussion section added a great dimension to the work. The song following, Ave Maria, is one of my favorite hymns, and the choir definitely did it justice. It was beautiful piece, though long, that showed off the talent the choir possessed.
I was not a big fan of the women's choir or the university singers. In general, women's choirs aren't something I enjoy, and I didn't feel like the university singers were very impressive. They are a show choir, so I expected more of a show choir performance; the closest they got to that was donning costumes. The show choir could have been a great way to incorporate some Christmas carols that the audience might now, as well as ones that are upbeat and exciting. However, the university singers sang the same type of songs as the rest of the choirs, which didn't make their performance stand out at all. The best song they sang, in my opinion, was Patapan, a French carol, and that song was extremely short. I was very much looking forward to hearing Carol of the Bells, my all-time favorite Christmas song, but I was disappointed by their delivery.
The rest of the performances all blurred together for me. When looking at the program, it's easy to see why; the majority of the songs sung were in another language, so none of them were distinctive to me at all. I don't remember what the other songs sounded like, and I don't remember if I enjoyed any of them. I do remember thinking that the concert wasn't very audience friendly. The concert was extremely long with no intermission, allowing the audience to lose focus; there were also hardly any songs sung in English. It was a shame for me to walk away from the concert somewhat disappointed. It was not at all because of I found the talent of the performers to be lacking, but merely because the concert itself, I felt, was poorly constructed.
I would love to go see a concert of these choirs individually, especially the university singers. I felt their portrayal in the concert probably didn't give their talents justice, since, as a friend put it, they weren't really in their element. As I said, the talent that this campus has is astounding and I did not find it lacking in the concert. However, there definitely could have been some adjustments made so that the audience could see that talent more clearly.
Cultural Event Report #2
On Saturday, September 10, I auditioned for RENT at the Muncie Civic Theatre along with Malia. I had not known about the auditions much in advance; Malia was speaking to me of it only a few days before when I decided I would audition as well. We both participated in theatre throughout high school. Malia did much more by way of musical productions than I did--the only productions I was a part of, I did not have to musically audition for. Deciding to audition for a musical where I had to sing in front of a large amount of people, none of which I knew well, was extremely scary to me. I almost backed out several times, but in the end, I decided to stick it out, and I'm very glad I did.
We got to the civic theatre very early on Saturday, with enough time to walk around downtown Muncie and see what it had to offer. We stopped in a small shop to use the restroom and browse their jewelry before heading back to the theatre to get in line. We had both filled out audition sheets online, where I had stated I would be glad to take any role they gave me, even if it was just a chorus member (I had actually never seen the show before, so I had no idea what role I would best fit anyway). Malia was auditioning for Maureen, a lead role.
I didn't spend much time in the theatre while most people were auditioning, which was probably good; I would have psyched myself out. Instead, I went and auditioned for a play next door that hadn't received much interest before (the director was telling literally everyone to go audition because very few were waiting there already). Even though I knew the play had no role for me (I had searched online and found that it was a show about mainly older people), I auditioned anyway to calm my nerves. I'm much more calm when it comes to auditioning for a play than for a musical. After that, I went back to the musical auditions, where I once again flaked out twice before deciding I would go onstage and audition.
The song I used for my audition was a very slow song; if I could go back and change that to fit the show I was auditioning for, I would. The directors asked me to sing a more upbeat song, eventually deciding on having me sing the chorus "Rock and Roll All Night," which was extremely embarrassing for me. However, Malia said I did really well and the rest of the auditioners cheered, so I was satisfied that I even had the guts to go up there in the first place. I was not expecting a call back, but it turns out, I got one anyway.
Malia and I went back to the theatre the next day for call backs, which would include a lot of dancing (especially for the character I was called back for) and singing as well. We had practiced all night in the practice rooms of DeHority, learning the songs (for me) or perfecting the songs (for Malia). When we arrived on Sunday, I was extremely confident in my ability to sing the songs, but I was very nervous for the dancing. Mimi, the role I was auditioning for, is a dancer professionally; she works at the Cat Scratch Club where she dances, uh...provocatively, to say the least. I did not have ANY experience dancing, especially in the manner I was asked to that day, so I knew that part of the audition wouldn't go well--and I was right. They were not interested in seeing me dance again, and kept the girls onstage who actually could dance. But when it came to the singing part, I redeemed myself. I was one of four girls asked to do the final dance, which I wasn't excited about, but I gave it my all anyway.
It turned out that neither Malia nor myself ended up getting our roles, but I was extremely proud of us anyway. Most of the people who had auditioned had either been in a show at the Muncie Civic before or knew the director from a previous engagement, but we went in blind and still did very well. Getting to see that side of Muncie was extremely enjoyable.
Cultural Event Report #1
On Sunday, December 4 I attended the Ball State School of Music's Holiday Choral Concert. The concert featured six choirs from the university, including the chamber choir, concert choir, university singers, women's chorus, statesmen, and university choral union and displayed their talents at Sursa Music Hall. I was very much looking forward to this concert; I love holiday music and I love a good choir show. However, I was somewhat disappointed by the concert I received. The talent of the students was amazing, of course, but the show was rather long (over an hour and a half), with a majority of the pieces being sung in a foreign language. There was no break from the serious tone that those songs provided; all the songs were very somber Christmas songs or Christian hymns, which made the concert seem even longer than it was. While I'm glad I went, I did expect something very different from what I received.
The opening song was one of the most attention-grabbing pieces of the night. It featured a rhythmic percussion section and harmonic chanting. The choir members seemed to come out of the woodwork, each coming on stage when his/her part started in the piece. I really enjoyed this song; it had lovely harmonies and the percussion section added a great dimension to the work. The song following, Ave Maria, is one of my favorite hymns, and the choir definitely did it justice. It was beautiful piece, though long, that showed off the talent the choir possessed.
I was not a big fan of the women's choir or the university singers. In general, women's choirs aren't something I enjoy, and I didn't feel like the university singers were very impressive. They are a show choir, so I expected more of a show choir performance; the closest they got to that was donning costumes. The show choir could have been a great way to incorporate some Christmas carols that the audience might now, as well as ones that are upbeat and exciting. However, the university singers sang the same type of songs as the rest of the choirs, which didn't make their performance stand out at all. The best song they sang, in my opinion, was Patapan, a French carol, and that song was extremely short. I was very much looking forward to hearing Carol of the Bells, my all-time favorite Christmas song, but I was disappointed by their delivery.
The rest of the performances all blurred together for me. When looking at the program, it's easy to see why; the majority of the songs sung were in another language, so none of them were distinctive to me at all. I don't remember what the other songs sounded like, and I don't remember if I enjoyed any of them. I do remember thinking that the concert wasn't very audience friendly. The concert was extremely long with no intermission, allowing the audience to lose focus; there were also hardly any songs sung in English. It was a shame for me to walk away from the concert somewhat disappointed. It was not at all because of I found the talent of the performers to be lacking, but merely because the concert itself, I felt, was poorly constructed.
I would love to go see a concert of these choirs individually, especially the university singers. I felt their portrayal in the concert probably didn't give their talents justice, since, as a friend put it, they weren't really in their element. As I said, the talent that this campus has is astounding and I did not find it lacking in the concert. However, there definitely could have been some adjustments made so that the audience could see that talent more clearly.
Cultural Event Report #2
On Saturday, September 10, I auditioned for RENT at the Muncie Civic Theatre along with Malia. I had not known about the auditions much in advance; Malia was speaking to me of it only a few days before when I decided I would audition as well. We both participated in theatre throughout high school. Malia did much more by way of musical productions than I did--the only productions I was a part of, I did not have to musically audition for. Deciding to audition for a musical where I had to sing in front of a large amount of people, none of which I knew well, was extremely scary to me. I almost backed out several times, but in the end, I decided to stick it out, and I'm very glad I did.
We got to the civic theatre very early on Saturday, with enough time to walk around downtown Muncie and see what it had to offer. We stopped in a small shop to use the restroom and browse their jewelry before heading back to the theatre to get in line. We had both filled out audition sheets online, where I had stated I would be glad to take any role they gave me, even if it was just a chorus member (I had actually never seen the show before, so I had no idea what role I would best fit anyway). Malia was auditioning for Maureen, a lead role.
I didn't spend much time in the theatre while most people were auditioning, which was probably good; I would have psyched myself out. Instead, I went and auditioned for a play next door that hadn't received much interest before (the director was telling literally everyone to go audition because very few were waiting there already). Even though I knew the play had no role for me (I had searched online and found that it was a show about mainly older people), I auditioned anyway to calm my nerves. I'm much more calm when it comes to auditioning for a play than for a musical. After that, I went back to the musical auditions, where I once again flaked out twice before deciding I would go onstage and audition.
The song I used for my audition was a very slow song; if I could go back and change that to fit the show I was auditioning for, I would. The directors asked me to sing a more upbeat song, eventually deciding on having me sing the chorus "Rock and Roll All Night," which was extremely embarrassing for me. However, Malia said I did really well and the rest of the auditioners cheered, so I was satisfied that I even had the guts to go up there in the first place. I was not expecting a call back, but it turns out, I got one anyway.
Malia and I went back to the theatre the next day for call backs, which would include a lot of dancing (especially for the character I was called back for) and singing as well. We had practiced all night in the practice rooms of DeHority, learning the songs (for me) or perfecting the songs (for Malia). When we arrived on Sunday, I was extremely confident in my ability to sing the songs, but I was very nervous for the dancing. Mimi, the role I was auditioning for, is a dancer professionally; she works at the Cat Scratch Club where she dances, uh...provocatively, to say the least. I did not have ANY experience dancing, especially in the manner I was asked to that day, so I knew that part of the audition wouldn't go well--and I was right. They were not interested in seeing me dance again, and kept the girls onstage who actually could dance. But when it came to the singing part, I redeemed myself. I was one of four girls asked to do the final dance, which I wasn't excited about, but I gave it my all anyway.
It turned out that neither Malia nor myself ended up getting our roles, but I was extremely proud of us anyway. Most of the people who had auditioned had either been in a show at the Muncie Civic before or knew the director from a previous engagement, but we went in blind and still did very well. Getting to see that side of Muncie was extremely enjoyable.