A night of premieres and a night of transitions, the Women’s Glee Club fall concert was fantastic. As a celebration of Hill Auditorium’s 100th anniversary, each song the club sang was composed or arranged in the year 2013, and the styles ranged from classical to operatic to pop.
The song choices were not the only demonstration of range in this concert, however, because there were little kids! Little, elementary-aged kids from the Ann Arbor Youth Chorale Descant Choir; older, middle school-aged kids from the Ann Arbor Youth Chorale Concert Choir; and even older, high school-aged girls from the Ann Arbor Huron High School Bel Canto Choir. It was a shocking, adorable transition when the Women’s Glee Club left the stage after a few opening songs and the tiny Descant Choir entered. Their first song, “The Path to the Moon”, remains one of my favorites of the concert because they all looked and sounded so adorable on the massive Hill Auditorium stage.
Each choir took the stage—getting progressively older, taller, and more mature voices—until we were back to the Women’s Glee Club, which proceeded to add another level to their program in the second act. A graduate student in the school of Music, Theatre, and Dance, the immensely talented Elizabeth Galafa joined the club as a soloist for a beautiful piece titled “BeNevel Vekinor”, which was composed by University of Michigan doctoral student Asaf Peres.
This one concert told a tale of the passion for singing that can span across decades of life. It just might be that some of the children who performed that night and heard the college students sing will be inspired to pursue music. Perhaps the next U of M graduate student studying voice or the next composer was sitting in the seats tonight after performing with his or her school choir. Concerts like this are important not just for the students who participate in them, but for the community to see and hear the talent that surrounds them.
Also, I can’t end this without saying that these women did a kick-ass version of the Bellas Final from Pitch Perfect. I mean it. Top notch.
Moral of the story: check out a Women’s Glee Club concert sometime, you guys.
