On Friday, Oct. 9, the music department of California State University, Stanislaus (Stan State) student singers resonated their opening season with a Fall Choral Concert.
7:30 p.m. The lights dim down at the Bernell and Flora Snider Music Recital Hall. The concert etiquette announcement is played. Backstage doors open. Here come the singers.
A tumultuous scatter of applause rose from the audience as the Chamber Singers of Stan State walked across stage. Alongside the chamber singers were accompanist Jared Eben and Conductor Dr. Daniel R. Afonso Jr.
The first piece,“Christ lag in Todes Banden, BWV 4” by Johann Sebastian Bach started with a powerful sound. The mix of the newly installed acoustics in the hall with the right mix of warm quality sung from the chamber singers was impressive.
Dr. Afonso was a composer-in-residence last year for a San Francisco semi-professional choral ensemble. He produced “Morena Faceira,” a Brazilian folk song, which was performed by the Chamber Singers as well.
Dr. Afonso mentioned he always has his Chamber Singers in mind to perform these compositions when he composes for other ensembles. Listening to Dr. Afonso’s dedication to his students was truly inspiring.
One of the performers from the Chamber Singers mentioned the influence the Brazilian folk song had on him.
When asked if there a piece from the concert that inspired him to develop his craft as a performer or composer, Michael Bernal (senior, Music Voice Performance and Composition) thought immediately of “Morena Faceira.”
“As a composer, actually Dr. Afonso’s piece, because I want to write a saxophone quartet using similar rhythms with his piece,” Bernal said.
Theresa Ramirez was introduced by Dr. Afonso as his assistant conductor for the Concert Chorale ensemble. Ramirez conducted a Traditional Gaelic Air song titled “Ae Fond Kiss,” arranged by Stuart Calvert. The song addresses the story of a man who writes a farewell poem to his mistress. The overall performance of the piece birthed an emotional understanding of the man’s poem.
The performers produced a warm texture by aurally reiterating Ramirez’s conducting style. Although her conducting focal point was low, the use of her proximity and motion from her arms made an effective aural reflection from the singer’s performance. The elegance in the conducting Ramirez entailed portrayed a smooth texture, which made it possible to hear the variety of harmony involved with the piece.
Both choirs shared some volume challenges throughout the program, due to the small number within some singing sections; more specifically, the altos in Chamber Singers and tenors in Concert Chorale. These challenges unraveled in a variety of sections within some pieces, but besides the nature of both groups, both ensembles held a dynamic energy that was inevitable to hear.
“Yeah, especially in the last song. I saw that they had all this energy. Just like the whole concept of the music as in the story, they really brought that song to life. They were very confident in what they were singing,” Marissa Ortiz (junior, Kinesiology) said.
Bringing the piece to life also showed an interesting vibe from the audience.
No shuffling. No clapping in between movements. No entering the hall in the middle of performances. We may not have developed our time traveling DeLorean, but the 2015 audience at Stan State has certainly evolved with concert etiquette.
Current musicians, in fact, found it surprising the audience vibe was attentive throughout the concert.
“I found that the audience was actually not bad. There wasn’t a lot of noise. People actually came in during the applause. There wasn’t a lot of talking. It was quite nice,” Kate Matson (senior, Music Violin Performance) said.
The numbers within the ensembles may have been small, but the department proudly holds a strong set of musicians everyone in the community should at least listen to for the exceptional and energetic performance they upheld.
