MMC Choirs Prepare For Final Performances Of The School Year
April 2, 2018
Brandon Connell wants everyone to know that Mount Marty College’s (MMC) choirs are filled with talent.
In the past few weeks, Connell has been attempting to accomplish this by having the college’s Chamber Choir and Smooth Benediction groups perform at churches in the region. The first two performances were held at the Yankton Trinity Lutheran Church and Saints Peter and Paul Catholic Church in Hartington, Nebraska.
The music performed is a mix of traditional prayerful music with some Americana, Connell said.
The next two church performances will be at Yankton’s St. Benedict’s Catholic Church Wednesday at 7 p.m. and Bishop Marty Chapel April 12 at 7 p.m.
“It’s nice of the churches to open their doors to us and give us a place to sing,” Connell said. “Churches are one of the best spaces for choirs to sing, especially with the acoustics and the sacred music we perform. You couldn’t go to a place like a bar and hear that type of music.”
He pushed for the choir to perform at off-campus places to raise awareness of the opportunities MMC offers music-wise.
“We let high school singers know they can continue to sing in college and even get scholarships for it,” he said. “It’s hard work, but it’s also fun.”
In addition, MMC’s Choral Union will give its final concert of the year on April 26 at 7 p.m. in Bishop Marty Chapel. An all-choirs concert, the performance will unite the groups in a four-way requiem with an orchestra.
“It’s a pretty intense, beautiful work,” Connell said.
It’s also a difficult piece for him to conduct, having to jump back and forth between cuing the almost 60 choir members and all its sections, along with the orchestra.
“There are seven movements — one of which is a solo — which is a good chunk of music for the choir to learn,” Connell said.
The students have taken on the workload well, in addition to their other extracurricular activities, he added.
Read the rest of this article on the Yankton P&D webpage.