- Thank you so very much, and thank you for being here with us this afternoon in our hall. It's my pleasure
- to introduce you to the 2018-2019 Singing Hoosiers. That last tune was an arrangement by Dr.
- Raymond Wise, who is a faculty member here. He works with the African American Choral Ensemble here
- at Indiana University. Dr. Wise, we had the privilege of working with him a few weeks ago.
- And he talked a bit about this music and gave us some context about the spiritual and the universal
- messages that are contained within it. And he talked specifically about these two seemingly contrasting
- ideas of suffering and hope, and that sometimes our suffering is the doorway through which we find hope
- and through which we find redemption. And so this program today is crafted around that idea. The title,
- How I Got Over, comes from a hymn written by Clara Ward in the 1950s.
- that was popularized by the great Mahalia Jackson, gospel singer, who famously performed it in 1963
- at the onset of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. And so that is where our program title
- comes from. And again, that was Dr. Raymond Wise's arrangement of I've Got a Robe. We'll continue the
- set with two pieces in the Latin jazz style that speak more to the newness of love relationship. The
- first is Cole Porter's Begin the Beguine, arranged by Greg Jaspers.
- And the next is Besame Mucho by Consuelo Velasquez, arranged by Paris Rutherford.
- Good afternoon, everybody. My name is April Varner, and I'm the student director of Resolution, aka
- the Singing Hoosiers Vocal Jazz Ensemble. This next piece you're going to hear is written by
- the ever-so-talented writer, arranger, and jazz vocalist, Rosanna Eckert. This piece is quite the challenge,
- but we've really, really enjoyed working on it, and we can't wait to perform it for you, and we hope
- it makes you want to dance around a little bit. So without further ado, please enjoy Evermore.
- of a face reveals how it used to be. On my own, steady to the stone, battling the great unknown. Across
- a desert land to find a river in the sand, a sudden miracle was right in front of me.
- about a year ago, I encountered this album called Planetarium, and it's a result of a collaboration
- by musicians who work seemingly in very different genres. One is Sufjan Stevens, a popular singer-songwriter.
- The other is Nico Muli, a British composer, and the third is Bryce Dresner, who is mostly known for
- his work as a drummer with the indie rock band The National. And the three of them came together and
- put together this album in which all of the music is based on themes of different planetary bodies and
- concepts. This piece, Saturn, is, I think, particularly kind of
- jumps off the page into the ear to me, for a lot of different reasons. It speaks to the sense of division
- that we find as a central theme within this program, too, and the way that division ultimately leads
- to redemption and transcendence. And so about a year ago, I was really fortunate to encounter one of
- our graduate students here in composition, Catherine Baudoir. Catherine's right here.
- And I had a conversation, and I said, what would you think about arranging Saturn from Nico
- Muli's planetarium for us? And she said, I think that would be a great idea. She's done a fantastic
- job with it, and we're really excited to premiere this arrangement of the piece today. This also features
- two wonderful violinists, Alina Rubio and Bryson Carer.
- Our rhythm section, along with Luka Marenkovich, this is not his debut on the synthesizer. It is his
- second time playing the synthesizer in performance. His debut was on Michael Jackson's Thriller last
- spring in the IU Auditorium, but we're very happy to be having him back doing it again. So without further
- ado, this is Catherine Baudour's arrangement of Saturn.
- you.
- Thank you. That was Sam Robson's arrangement of One Day I'll Fly Away. That song and the next song that
- we'll perform as well have to do with this idea of flight and flight again relating to the concept of
- transcendence. One Day I'll Fly Away will now be followed up by a song that was debuted on the 1992
- album by the singer-songwriter Annie Lennox. The album was titled Diva and the song is called Little
- Bird. Again, you'll hear a lot of bird and flight type imagery here. So without further ado, this is
- Kirby Shaw's arrangement of Annie Lennox's Little Bird.
- So, I, my name is Sophie Rhoats, and I am the student director of Shakapella this year. Now, if anyone
- is familiar with acapella music, it basically means that we sing with no instruments. So, that's kind
- of fun. But if any of you are familiar with the acapella realm of things, does anyone know pentatonix?
- They're pretty. They're pretty up there. So we will be performing this beautiful arrangement off of
- one of their solo albums entitled Light in the Hallway. It's a gorgeous piece, and it speaks to a lot
- of us, I think, in a lot of different ways. So with that, please enjoy Light in the Hallway.
- If you're scared of the darkness, I will calm your fear. There's a light in the hallway, so you know
- I'm here. So count your blessings every day.
- We had a power outage on campus last night, and we were rehearsing that during the dress rehearsal.
- I was sitting out in the back of the house, and they sang that line, you are not alone, and the lights
- flickered. And then they sang, I kid you not, make the monsters go away, and the lights flickered again.
- And I said, boy, if that isn't a sign of something, then somebody said, oh no, there's a power outage
- on campus.
- So thank you to Sophie and Shakapella. The next two pieces on the program share the commonality of being
- written by artists who defy convention, both musically and in their personal and artistic lives as well.
- The first is by the English rock band Queen, written by Freddie Mercury, Don't Stop Me Now, and then
- we'll follow that up with a medley of music by contemporary soul singer-songwriter Janelle Monae, arranged
- for us by Singing Hoosier's alum, recent alum, from the composition department, Alex Burko.
- Chalk it, break it, baby, electro-submissive.
- There's a powerful line in that piece by Oletta Adams, sing the hatred into love. And that's something
- that we have the pleasure of doing here today every day. And yesterday as we finished our dress rehearsal,
- I talked to this group and said, it's so important in the world in which we live every day that we realize
- that what we do makes a difference. And that when we perform, when we're in settings like this, that
- our audience becomes part of this family and part of this circle as well. There's a circular relationship
- that exists between us as performers
- and you as audience members as well, and all of our stories become part of this performance and part
- of what we do. Otherwise, the Singing Hoosiers family only exists for itself, and we want to extend
- it as far as we can. Speaking of which, some of our alumni were very, very, well, many of our alumni
- are here today. Make some noise if you're a Singing Hoosiers alum. Eight o'clock is usually where we have
- The first time I experienced it last year, I didn't know what I was in for, so I feel like I'm at a
- party here, not at a concert. But it's absolutely wonderful to have the support of our alums and all
- of you who are here to be with us today. There will be some alumni representatives sitting at a table
- outside here today. We can't do what we do without your support and help, and they would be more than
- happy to talk to you about ways that you can continue to support the Singing Hoosiers in what we do.
- As we conclude our program with our last three pieces, we're going to start with two songs about rivers.
- The first is Johnny Mercer and Henry Mancini's Moon River, which of course we can't hear without thinking
- of Aubrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany's. And Johnny Mercer wrote these lyrics actually as he was
- reminiscing on times in his own childhood, looking back, visiting a family home in Georgia together
- and a friend that he made there. So it's a song of reminiscence
- There's bits of melancholy in it, but also a song of hope as we look forward and think of this idea
- of the river as something that brings us forward, that carries life and that cleanses as well. We follow
- that up with a favorite of ours, a paying tribute to the great Hoagy Carmichael up a lazy river. And
- then we'll conclude our program today with Jason Burke's arrangement of Steppin' Out by Irving Berlin.