Stocked with fruit, banana bread, a variety of cookies, coffee, tea and a hot chocolate bar, the Baroque Student Group enticed hesitant and curious students to enter a party dedicated to classical music and dance on Sunday evening.
The entire evening worked to transport listeners back in time to a musical era when “rock stars” were male castratos who traded parts of their genitalia to maintain their prepubescent voices and composers such as Johann Sebastian Bach and Antonio Vivaldi reigned supreme. Although no castrato could be found to perform for “An Evening at the Baroque Salon,” a counter tenor’s high-pitched voice gave listeners a hint as to what listening to such a singer may have been like.
For an hour at the beginning of the night, in between the snacking and drink-sipping, the organizers invited guests to wander the beautiful, white- and gold-adorned Thompson Chamber Hall as a part of the Baroque Salon. Various stations throughout the building exhibited art and music from the seventeenth century to encourage and direct this wandering.
Of course, the guests could only wander for so long and talk to so many individuals about this artistic period before they grew tired. The Baroque Student Group, which organized the event, broke up this monotony with music and dancing performed by skilled artists trained in the Baroque style. Following the brief pieces, the performers encouraged attendants to join in, creating a scene reminiscent of the dances in Pride and Prejudice.
After the attendants were full and danced-out, there were fewer physical engagements for the rest of the evening. A Baroque-style music concert (think Bach), starting with a song about the dangerous effects of coffee, kicked off this half of the night.
While the following songs were less humorous, they were no less entertaining. Harpsichords, oboes and piccolos accompanied more well-known violins, violas and guitars in stand-alone musical pieces, as well in accompaniment for opera-style singers.
Rounding out the evening was a final dance and music collaborative piece titled, “Lentree D’Alollon.” As the last note sounded around 7 p.m., the attendants left the this blast from the past and back to reality.
The campus group The Party partnered with the Baroque Student Group to bring this innovative and unique experience to life.
@casey_koldewyn