With songs spanning over centuries from composers all across the globe, The Food of Love concert on March 29 will bring together the City College concert choir and VOCALe for an evening of live music.
Preparation for this event was long and arduous for the choir. During the semesters of online learning, the choir program had to quickly adapt to a format that wasn’t suited to live music education.
After a couple weeks of practicing online, the choir returned to campus in late January and started practicing for their performance in a live setting again.
“Singing out and projecting in person is very different. Everything dynamically is very different in person,” said Grace Clark, an alto for the choir.
Sky Carlos, a soprano and mentor for the choir, explained the challenges that came the choir’s way. “There’s [also] extra software and equipment involved in being able to synchronously perform and/or practice,” said Carlos. “So the investment necessary to make this class work both online and in person in the same semester is really not great for the students or anyone involved.”
In the face of these challenges, however, the group’s members say they stayed close-knit and their intrinsic sense of community, craftsmanship and collaboration has kept morale high. This is especially apparent in the case of soprano Hibah Ahmed.
“This is my first time in choir and these people have been really supportive and helpful in helping me sing the songs because I can’t read music but they’re taking their own time to help me get all the songs ready and prepared,” said Ahmed. “They’ve been very supportive.”
During the choir’s recent evening dress rehearsal, conductor Daniel Paulson addressed the members of the choir in an effort to fortify them for the performances ahead.
“You guys embody that [community] and it’s the work that you do here that creates that synergy for us,” Paulson said.
Paulson says he takes pride in his choir and their ability to follow through with his process. From practicing chord changes to practicing which hand to hold a choir book in, Paulson’s process for a spectacular performance requires a cooperative team of individuals, who each want to see the process come to fruition.
The music is composed by well experienced musicians, and Carlos called many of the pieces“emotionally present,” adding that the singers really play with the music.
Clark described the concert as a “sonic journey” with music spanning from the 16th century to the 20th from artists all over the world including Bach, Brahms, Copland, Shubert and many more. The assortment of songs will be performed in a variety languages including German, Latin, French and Italian.
This concert is free to the public and will take place on the City College campus Tuesday, March 29 at 7 p.m. in the Performing Arts Center. The concert will also be livestreamed on the City College website.
The event can be found on the Calendar & Events page on the SCC website.
