The U’s A Capella Choir’s spring concert was everything you’d expect it to be — full of goosebump-raising, beautiful music.
The choir, founded in 1962, is composed of around 40 freshmen and sophomore student singers who perform music from the Renaissance era to the 21st century. This range was displayed in their spectacular concert.
The program opened with a Requiem, as the choir sang “Out of the Deep,” “Pie Jesu,” “Agnus Dei” and a few other famous titles by the British composer John Rutter. What was beautiful about this set of songs was the fact there was only a cello and a piano to complement the emotively pleasing voices of the choir.
Cassie Olsen played the cello so smoothly that it echoed about the room and touched the hearts of the audience. Similarly, Ran Duan, the pianist, struck every note effortlessly. They transitioned from each song so easily that my body didn’t get enough time to rest from the constant goosebumps caused by the music.
After the requiem, the choir sang a unique song titled “Nyon Nyon” by Jake Runestad. It started off very smooth and melodic, but as they kept singing, it became more upbeat, sounding like the musical score from “The Lion King.” As an added treat, the choir surprised the audience with an impromptu dance performance as a physical extension of the show’s upbeat turn.
Next came “If I Loved You” by Richard Rodgers, reflecting the hair-raising, unearthly quality of the rest of the performance.
The next song they sung, which was a personal favorite of mine, was “In the Still of the Night” by Cole Porter. I closed my eyes for a moment while they were singing this and imagined myself driving through the city at night. As I looked around the room, I noticed some couples getting closer and cuddling to this romantic song.
The last song they sung was “I Can Tell the World,” a spiritual piece by Moses Hogan. The last surprise came when the U’s Chamber Choir came onto the stage, which allowed music to swell to a beautifully loud finale.
Conductors were Barlow Bradford, a professor at the U, and graduate students Eric Schmidt and Brett Rasmussen.
All future School of Music concerts will be located in Libby Gardner Concert Hall in David Gardner Hall at 7:30 p.m. unless otherwise noted. To purchase tickets visit music.utah.edu.