Joyous Voices

"Magnificant!" Simply, this word describes my evening at the Joyous Voices choir concert. It had certainly been a long time since I had attended such an event and going to this concert made me wish there were more performances of classical music such as this.

As the aisles slowly filled up, conversations covered the room with the soft rumble of voices and theatre chairs sqeaking. The darkness of Harlen Adams theatre gave me a comfortable sense of ease as I knew I anticipated being serenaded with some great classical music. My expectations for the night were honestly rather low because in my mind, Chico is quite a small town with not much money invested in the school of arts. Besides this, I know that Chico, though small, is chalk full of artists of all types ranging from beat poets to classicaly trained singers. Despite any of my misgivings about the performance, my expectations were most certainly exceeded by the time the curtain drew.

The first act to open for the evening was the Chico Acapella Choir. For their performance they focused on Gospel Mass. Apparently, Gospel Mass is a influx of traditional liturgical style mixed with contempory music of the African-American church. This style of music was created by Robert Ray in 1978 and premiered at the University of Illinois Urbana Campus Black Chorus. Since that time, Gospel Mass has been adopted by many different institutions such as schools, churches, and choral groups across the country.

The entire Gospel Mass program was stunning. Even the very thought of mixing classical with contempory does not often go well. However, in the case of thier performance and style I was very impressed of not only thier technical ability to keep good timing but express a very moving and organic performance.

Following the Gospel Mass program, intermission came at just the right time. The conclusion with Agnus Dei led the audience right into the climax of the performance and ended with a exuberent audience cheering.

Magnificat, a popular choral piece by composer John Rutter also had a definite resonance with the audience. Magnificant is a complex and moving piece intersparsed with the religious and secular songs, creating a seamless blend of beautiful and engaging music. For this performance, the Chico University Chorus gave a delightful and moving serenade for the audience to enjoy. Memorable songs for me that evening were the popular Gloria Patri. For this song, I particuraly enjoyed the harmony of the men singing bass and alto in perfect balance.

After that night, I felt refreshed and exhiliarated. I had no idea that going to classical performances such as these could be as invigorating as it was that night. It made me really appreciate fine art much more and realize that there comes a personal enrichment from going to experiences like these. In the future, when oppurtunities to hear classical works presents itself, I will certainly attend.