The BW Conservatory’s upcoming Treble Choir performance might not be what audiences would expect.
“Elemental” has a through-line concept relating to the elements of the earth: Earth, Wind, Fire and Water. The program has approximately twelve songs with an intermission.
There are a wide variety of genres being covered, including classical, contemporary, extended techniques and a premiere of a new piece by a student composer.
“[This concert will be] more of production than audience members are used to for a typical choir concert,” said senior Caroline Prescott, three-year Treble Choir member. As the production chair of the Treble Choir, she is involved in planning all logistical and backstage portions of each concert. “It will be dramatic and showy, but appropriate to the message we are trying to convey,” said Prescott.
While the choir concert audiences tend to only be a portion of Conservatory students, Prescott believes that this concert will appeal to a larger audience.
“This concert is accessible to everyone at Baldwin Wallace University,” said Prescott. “The message we are trying to convey can be received by anybody… [and the concert] is open to individual interpretation.”
Mattea Williams, a junior composition major, has been a member of Treble Choir for three years. She described the choir as an ensemble with a “social connection in addition to a musical connection.”
The conductor of the Treble Choir is Professor Jordan Saul, associate director of choral studies and assistant professor of music education. Williams credits the choir’s unified sound to Saul’s passionate and caring personality. Saul asked Williams to select an element to compose a piece about for this specific concert.
In the piece she wrote for this concert, “The Embers Tell,” Williams wrote a campfire story told from the perspective of the embers in the fire. This story portrays a girl who gets lost in the woods and meets an elder woman who gives her stone. The girl doesn’t understand what to do with the rock so she throws it in frustration. The rock is flint, and it sparks a fire to guide her home.
Treble Choir is a community of women who actively seek to serve the community and collaborate with local organizations.
For this concert they are working with L’arche, a local Cleveland based organization that serves elderly and disabled people who are underserved because of their age.
“We are not afraid to tackle issues people are afraid to talk about,” said Prescott.
She explained that this Treble Choir performance is a unique opportunity to for listeners to “allow a concert to be a transformative experience.”
Williams agrees that this concert will be an interesting opportunity for the audience.
“This concert is for anybody who wants to hear a concert as a conversation, and is willing to allow themselves to be moved in several different ways,” said Williams.
The Treble Choir will perform “Elemental” on Sunday, Nov. 19 at 7 p.m. in the Kulas Musical Arts Building’s Gamble Auditorium.