Voices and generations will unite tonight at the Barrus Concert Hall in a combined choir concert between BYU-Idaho's Collegiate Singers and Vocal Union and special guests from Bonneville High School, the Bonnevaires.
They will sing a combination of hymns, gospel and choral art songs with advent themes, as well as music that has never been heard before and will never be heard again as the choir practices improvisation.
Collegiate Singers Director Dr. Randall Kempton is excited to introduce improvisation to their concert for the first time.
“We'll pick a tune sometimes, or we'll pick an idea, and we just begin singing and everybody listens to each other, they respond to each other,” Kempton said. “We just create music sort of as a collective choir without any notes being on the page or without a director giving instructions. It’s different every single time but everybody there is actually creating music on their own that they've never done before.”
The choirs were also coached in gospel music and choreography by Shannon Winkle, a former soprano section leader and assistant director of the Gladys Knight Choir. The concert will feature some gospel-styled choreography elements.
“She's helped us, you know, get our sound and our look a little bit more like authentic,” Kempton said. “That's something that I think our audiences will, I hope, really enjoy.”
Collegiate Singers members James Montague and Annie Ramsay can’t wait for the audience to watch the performance.
“I'm really excited to perform with our choir I know the lord will make a way, which is a gospel song,” Montague said. “In the middle of the song, every part will have their own choreography and different words that they sing. So, every part gets a chance to shine here.”
“We've been working really hard all semester to get everything as beautiful and precise as possible so that the audience can have a good experience, and we can connect well with them,” Ramsay said. “So we'd love to have as many people there as possible to experience it.”
The show starts tonight at 7:30. You can buy tickets at tickets.byui.edu.