OCU University Singers have been selected to perform in the Southwestern Region American Choral Directors Association (SWACDA).
The SWACDA conference will be held March 4-7 in Little Rock, Arkansas. 52 Students will be travelling to Arkansas to perform, watch, and participate at the conference. Students have been chosen through an audition submission.
Tony Gonzalez, Associate Director of Choral Activities and director of The University Singers, will be taking the choir to Arkansas and joining them at the conference as director of the choir.
“You can imagine, there are a number of exciting events that will be going on: workshops, lectures, concerts by professional choirs that have been invited, as well as a whole slate of concerts from 17 choirs that have been selected to perform,” Gonzalez said.
The choir was chosen from a video submission of recordings from the three previous years, and were selected among other choirs, as well as additional students whose names are submitted to perform in the honor choir. The selection varies from elementary, junior high, high school and college level students.
Additionally, some students have been chosen to participate in the Collegiate Honor Choir, which is made up of students from various choirs that attend the conference. Four students have been selected to perform in The Collegiate Honor Choir: Kristen Olmsted, vocal performance sophomore, Lizzie Pruitt, music education junior, Cassidy King, music education junior, and Rishi Malhotra, music education freshman.
“These students who were chosen for The Collegiate Honor Choir will leave with me on Tuesday, March 3, to attend the conference on Wednesday, and my choir, with the help of some other lovely teachers, will meet us on Friday, March 6,” Gonzalez said. “They are so excited to attend the conference.”
“The Collegiate Honor Choir students will be performing a musical composition composed about Matthew Shephard, and it is just such a beautiful piece,” Gonzalez said. “Another exciting thing for students at the conference is that The University Singers will be performing a part of a major work that our resident composer, Ed Knight, composed for the commemoration of the Oklahoma City Bombing,” Gonzalez said.
Kristen Olmsted said the piece written for Matthew Shephard has been a challenging but rewarding experience.
“The piece goes through every point of view and perspective of all people on the subject at the time, and it’s hard because I know that all four of us are accepting and loving people, so it’s been challenging to have to sing the point of view of someone who doesn’t agree with what you do,” she said.
The song ends with singers repeating the message of loving people and how love brings people up.
“I am so excited to go and see what other choirs will be performing and what they are working on, and I know our choir is excited to share with others what we can do!” Olmsted said. “We were blessed with the opportunity to be able to show that our school not only excels in musical theatre, but also in choral music,” Olmsted said.
Meghan Rooney, music theatre sophomore, is a member of the University Singers and is excited to be attending the conference.
“I am thrilled to be going to Arkansas, especially with Mister G. He cares so much about our music and about us,”Rooney said. “He is really open to hearing our feedback and what we think is working well, and really helps to make us part of the process.”
Jessica Vanek, community manager, and Francesca Iacovacci, staff writer/columnist, are members of the choir group. They were not involved in the writing or editing of this piece.
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