FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Saint Mary’s Choirs Bring in Spring with Annual Concert
Contact:
Gwen O’Brien
Director of Media Relations
Saint Mary's College
(574) 284-4579
April 18, 2011 (Notre Dame, Ind.)—The Saint Mary's College Women’s Choir, Collegiate Choir and the acapella group, Bellacapella, will join forces for this year’s Spring Choral Concert. The concert will be held on Friday, April 29 from 7:30 to 9 p.m. in Little Theatre, Moreau Center for the Arts. The event is open to the public and free for Saint Mary's College, University of Notre Dame, and Holy Cross College students with a student ID.
Every year, the College holds fall and spring choral concerts, which are collaborations between the various choirs. This year’s Spring Choral Concert will feature songs from a variety of time periods, but will also include songs from the Women’s Choir’s recent trip to China. The choir spent their spring break touring various cities in China and performing with Chinese women’s choirs, made up of young women with whom the Saint Mary’s students had been communicating with as pen pals. Dr. Nancy Menk, director of the choir and associate professor of music, says that the China trip helped the choir to grow as a whole.
“The China tour allowed the students to increase their skills because they had to sing together often. This year’s Spring Concert will give the audience a chance to hear some of the music and flavor of the China trip if they missed our homecoming concert,” said Menk.
This year’s concert will also feature instrument and dance. Bethany Ledyard ’13 will play the trumpet and Jingqiu Guan ’11 will be a featured dancer in the concert. Ledyard and Guan, who is from Chengdu, China, accompanied the Women’s Choir to China and participated in the concerts there.
“I think dance makes a song more visual. For the song ‘Winter Solstice’ I did not set each movement of the dance to the music, but a general structure, so part of the dance is improvised. Every time I dance it is a little bit different depending on how I understood and feel the music at the moment I perform it,” said Guan. “The trip was a brand new experience for me to be in Suzhou, Nanjing, and Shanghai, three cities that I have never been to before. It was fun to introduce my friends from Saint Mary’s to the Chinese culture and I feel proud of Saint Mary's and proud of China.”
Anna Bax, ’11, a music education major and choir member added, “It was fun to sit with a different group of girls each night at dinner, not necessarily the girls we knew the best. Going to China was a life changing experience.”
Menk believes that participating in one of the Saint Mary's College choirs not only allows the students to develop their individual vocal skills, but to also develop their subordinate voice as part of a group. “Being part of a choir, you develop reading and vocal skills, but you also learn how to work with the group and fit yourself into that cohesive sound,” said Menk.
“Singing ‘The Bells of Saint Mary’s’ really means something to us about the pride and love we have for this school. It is something we shall truly cherish from this concert,” added Bax. (Saint Mary’s College students are affectionately known as the Belles.)
To purchase tickets, visit moreaucenter.com or call the Moreau Center Box Office at (574) 284-4626.
About Saint Mary’s College: Saint Mary’s College, Notre Dame, Ind., is a four-year, Catholic, women’s institution offering five bachelor’s degrees and more than 30 major areas of study. Saint Mary’s College has six nationally accredited academic programs: social work, art, music, teacher education, chemistry and nursing. Saint Mary’s College ranks among the top 100 “Best National Liberal Arts Colleges” in the U.S. News & World Report 2011 College Guide. Founded in 1844, Saint Mary’s is a pioneer in the education of women, and is sponsored by the Sisters of the Holy Cross.