-Megan Cole, Reporter
Crescendo, fortississimo, sforzando! Audiences are invited to experience Mississippi College’s Combination Concert, a performance featuring many campus musical groups. On Apr. 19, Symphonic Winds, MC Singers, and The Women’s Chamber will be performing together in a joint concert. The event will take place in Swor Auditorium at 3 p.m. Admission is free for students, staff, and faculty to come and enjoy.
In preparation for this concert, there has been a great degree of collaboration between the groups. Milburn Price, MC’s interim director of choral activities, and Craig Young, director of MC band activities, have worked together in conducting the performance as a whole. According to Young, the groups practice separately and then join together for later rehearsals. “There is a combination, in that Dr. Price will come conduct us [Symphonic Winds] and then I will go and conduct them [Singers],” Young said. “I’m looking forward to the collaboration of student instrumentalists and student singers performing together,” Price proudly shared.
The choral collaboration will begin with the 1st movement of “Gloria”, a multi-movement work by John Rutter. “Oh Clap Your Hands” by Ralph Von Williams and “The Last Words of David” by Randall Thompson will also be included. Jordan Burns, a sophomore music education major and bassoon player of Symphonic Winds, shared that Thompson’s piece is her favorite out “of the entire program” for the night. “The music itself is great, but it’s when the choir joins in that will be so beautiful,” Burns said. “I get chill bumps thinking about it!”
One of the major Symphonic Winds highlights of the night includes Eric Whitacre’s piece, “Cloud Burst.” Young believes that this is an “especially neat” piece that listeners will enjoy. “It is an effect piece,” he said. “It brings about the feeling of a thunderstorm.” Other Symphonic Winds highlights include Suppe’s opera overture “Light Cavalry,” Percy Grainger’s “Children’s March,” and a repeated performance of “March to The Scaffold” by Hector Berlioz.
The combination concert will include collaboration in addition to several separate performances from each group. There will be solo performances of pieces by the Symphonic Winds as well as MC Singers. In a joint 4th piece, the Women’s Chamber will join the performance. The night will end with a grand finale of “America the Beautiful,” arranged by Carmen Dragon.
