On 29th March 2019, I had the pleasure of attending a concert held by the University Singers and Wellesley College in St James Anglican Church in Downtown Eastside. In this concert, the University singers performed a selection of songs they would be performing in their upcoming tour to Italy in April-May. They are joined in this performance by the Wellesley College Women’s Choir, who also sang their own set and collaborated with the University Singers for a few songs.
The concert opened with Angelus Domini by Giovanni Gabrieli, and they sung this in the round, surrounding the audience. This standing formation made the already interesting piece even more fascinating to me as the way they were standing revealed different individual parts and because of how they were spaced in the venue it became easy to enjoy the piece fully but also pick apart the different parts as they were singing. There were parts where it sounded like the choirs split into two and it sounded like they were talking to each other in a call and response across the church, which made the performance incredibly engaging for me. One interesting thing about this piece that the conductor Graeme Langager shared – is that it was written to be performed in St. Mark’s Cathedral in Venice and that the University Singers will have the opportunity to perform this very piece at that venue during their upcoming Italy Tour.
One of my other favourite pieces from this performance was Rock-A My Soul (A piece which they also performed in their last concert, UBC Choirs: Stories). Having heard this piece before meant that it was easier to pay attention to the details the second time. This piece is incredibly catchy and I particularly loved how much dynamics there is in the piece. The piece opens with a contrast between forte parts and piano parts, and the first verse was sung in a neutral dynamic and the second verse contrasted that initial dynamic and was sung so softly. The detailed way the University Singers sang these dynamic contrasts made the performance much more impressive, as it made the moments where the choir sings in rich chords that ring loudly that much more special.
Another one of the fun pieces the University Singers sang was the classic folk song She’ll Be Comin’ Round The Mountain – this was so enjoyable because the piece is incredibly familiar to almost everyone in the audience but was a different arrangement rather than the straight way we’re used to singing it. The familiarity to the piece also made it easier to pick out the little interesting moments in the piece and pay more attention to the accompaniment and what the short little motives they were doing under the melody.
Part of what makes the University Singers so enjoyable to watch is how expressive the singers are when they perform. It’s easy to buy into their performance when the audience is able to see how invested they are in their performances and how excited they seem to be about their music, especially in pieces that are more upbeat. Overall, I thought the University Singers and The Wellesley College Women’s Choir put on an incredibly entertaining performance, and I thoroughly enjoyed every second of it.