By Siobhan Kenneally
Staff Writer
On Saturday, April 22, the Simmons College Concert Choir, directed by Danica A. Buckley, will host a joint concert with the West Point Glee Club, directed by Constance Chase, in Alumnae Hall. The concert is called “Together in Song.” More than 80 students and cadets will perform. The concert will begin at 7:30 p.m. Admission is free but donations are welcome.
The Choir hopes to entertain and enrich Simmons students, faculty, and staff. The Choir also extends an invitation to members of the public. A reception will follow and all are invited. The reception is provided by the West Point Society of New England.
The concert will also feature performances by three a cappella groups, the Simmons Sirens, the Knightcaps, and the Knightingales.
A variety of music will be performed, such as school songs, Broadway classics, folk songs, Schubert, Mozart, and more. The singers will be accompanied by a small orchestra and a jazz drummer.
The Concert Choir, being a women’s choir, features soprano and alto voices. The Choir’s repertoire is normally limited to songs for these voice parts. In preparation for “Together in Song,” the group has studied mixed choir music, meaning music written for four parts – soprano, alto, tenor, and bass (SATB).
The West Point Glee Club has approximately forty tenors and basses and twenty s
opranos and altos. West Point’s sopranos and altos are looking forward to singing with Simmons on a piece for four-parts, while the Simmons singers are looking forward to performing pieces such as the haunting “Lacrimosa” from the Mozart Requiem (requested by senior Becky Belo) and the closing number for SATB, a luscious arrangement of “Bridge over Troubled Water.”
This concert will be unlike any held at Simmons in decades. For many years, Simmons and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, along with Harvard University, joined forces for choral concerts. The groups performed on campuses and served as the chorus for the Boston Symphony Orchestra before the Orchestra had a dedicated chorus.
The Simmons Glee Club, as it was then called, often had as many as 100 members. Today, the group has around 20 members and is always hoping to expand. The Choir rehearses every Thursday evening and has one to two concerts per semester. The group aims to do more collaborations in future and to travel on tour, possibly to Europe. If you are interested in joining or would like more information, email danica.buckley@simmons.edu.
“Together in Song” is made possible in part by an Alumnae Association Innovation Grant. Innovation Grants are awarded twice a year to fund innovative projects organized by Simmons undergraduate students. The Choir greatly appreciates the Association’s generosity.
