Pacific Index

Pacific University’s Spring Choral Concert echoes with songs of bravery, action, and protest

   Pacific University’s Spring Choral Concert will deliver a reverberating evening of music themed around action, protest, and reflection. Under the direction of Choral Activities Director Katy Green, the performance will provide stories of activism and contemplation and encourage the audience to reflect on their role in the world’s ever-changing social and political climate. Green details the concert’s theme sharing, “This program is a narrative of hearing the call to action. Audience members can expect to hear protest songs, songs of contemplation and reflection, and songs of bravery.” Green continues, recounting the inspiration behind this theme of activism and change, “I’ll admit our current political and social climate influenced this narrative. But I hope this narrative can prove to be inspirational that we all have the agency to hear the call of action, awareness, and activism.  I’m excited that this narrative transcends from Concert Choir to Chamber Singers to tell this story.” 

   All of the pieces Green has selected have significance within the concert. Green highlights a few of them, explaining, “Concert Choir is singing two really impactful pieces: “On The Mountain,” a Ukrainian folk song and “El Pueblo Unido,” a Chilean Protest Song. Chamber Singers are singing a new piece by Canadian composer Francesca Hauser entitled, “That Shadow, My Likeness.” It ends with the poignant text, ‘Life is not sweet, one day it will be sweet.’” Green further explains how several of these songs have impacted both her and her chorus. “Both ensembles have had profound moments of reflection and interpretation with the text and historical significance(s) of their pieces. I think “El Pueblo Unido” and “That Shadow, My Likeness,” have really resonated with all of us.” 

   With these large chorus groups tackling so many powerful songs, the true culmination of effort can only be appropriately depicted after weeks of rehearsing. Green shares her thoughts, remarking, “Rehearsing this music has been immensely gratifying for me, and I hope our musicians as well. I try to program diverse music that reflects the lived experiences of our musicians, and I believe this program has done that. We’re excited to share it with the public soon.” She continues, “I love challenging our ensembles with new music and their own musicianship skills. Concert Choir, in particular, has really stepped up this semester with their portion of the program, and I’m proud of the progress all our choral musicians have made this semester and year.”

   Despite the rewarding nature of these choirs, the path to harmony has not been without its challenges. Green depicts the complexity of narrating this type of story through music, sharing, “These narrative programming concerts are often difficult to ascertain within an ensemble until we get closer to the concert when musicians begin to experience the arch of the story, which sometimes makes comprehending the narrative more challenging to our musicians. But, we’re very nearly at the point in the process where our musicians are seeing the lines of connection and I believe we are grateful for the opportunity to be a part of such a meaningful story.” The rewarding culmination of all of the parties’ hard work will only be more gratifying after overcoming challenges. 

   As the performance approaches, the various choirs and ensembles perfect their individual parts to come together for one harmonious evening of inspiration. “I hope our audience will feel seen and heard in music that speaks to us on our own individual levels,” Green concludes. “One of the pep talks I like to share with our musicians prior to performing is that while we certainly want to show our audience our progress and musicianship, we sing to inspire. And I hope this program does just that.”

   This Spring’s Choral Concert will take place on April 18 in the Taylor Meade Performing Arts Center.