W&L Music Groups To Tell Friends’ Story
Washington and Lee University’s Cantatrici and the Glee Club, under the direction of Lacey R. Lynch and Shane M. Lynch, will present a Winter Choral Concert this Friday, March 20, at 8 p.m. in Wilson Concert Hall.
The performance is free and will be also be streamed online at https://go.wlu.edu/livestream. The doors to Wilson Concert Hall will open 30 minutes prior to the event.
Running from beginning to end in a continuous set of music, the concert will utilize the four paradigms of evolution (Divergent, Convergent, Parallel and Coevolution) to tell a journey of two friends at multiple stages of life.
Inspired by Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer,” which used black and white and the physics ideas of fusion and fission to tell the non-linear story of Robert Oppenheimer’s life, this concert will use fully integrated colors, movements and types of music to speak of the journey through life.
The concert will open with Michael John Trotta’s powerful “Dies Irae” from his requiem, which speaks to the divergent moment in our friends’ life journeys together. From there, earlier times in their lives will be seen through Victor C. Johnson’s “Murasame” and Kurt Bestor’s “Prayer of the Children.”
This will continue with each new song representing one of the types of evolution and how it describes the point of the life journey, with color tying to each evolution type as well. Works from musicians as varied as Joseph Jennings to Bob Dylan will continue to tell the story, connecting to each other and the audience in an evocative way.
Featured prominently throughout the concert will be members of W&L’s Choral Conducting Mentorship Program. The CCMP is a unique advanced training program for future conductors, providing podium time and a myriad of leadership opportunities for the students typically unavailable in an undergraduate setting. The CCMP members will conduct and sing throughout the concert after having helped set the program and prepare the choirs for this ambitious program.
