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?-?-2008
Music
Posted on April 3, 2008 12:00 AM

Oriana Singers take on new styles, conductor

The Oriana Singers may perform in matching formal attire, but their upcoming spring concert won't be quite as uniform.

The 65-woman choir will be performing a concert titled "All That You Hold" at 2 p.m. Sunday at the Esber Recital Hall in Music Building I, giving a concert that Oriana president Allison Gabriel called "eclectic."

"We have classical, we have spirituals, we have the Broadway show The Color Purple," Gabriel (senior-psychology) said. "There's going to be something for everyone."

Secretary Amy Gilbert (junior-electrical engineering) said the performance style is different this time around, too.

"Every other semester, we've done classical pieces and a more formatted structure with a set theme," she said. "This year, it's all thrown in together ... which will definitely make the audience happy, because it doesn't get so monotonous."

Performance style isn't the only change Oriana has endured. With their usual director on sabbatical this semester, the girls have been working with a new conductor, Anthony Leach, associate professor of music, who conducts the University Choir and Essence of Joy, a choir focused on African and African-American traditions.

"It's different adjusting to having a new director," Oriana Vice President Jess Angeline said. "Though he's always making sure we get everything right, he makes sure we're always laughing."

Gilbert said working with Leach is a "completely different experience."

"It's definitely for the positive," she said. "It's nice to have someone new."

There have been other changes in the group. Angeline (sophomore-economics) said she noticed different faces in Oriana this year.

"We did have a large influx of new members this semester," she said. "There's so much diversity in one group, yet we can all come together to work so hard, to have fun and to share the part of our life that's music."

Because members don't need to be in the School of Music, that diversity is apparent, Gabriel said.

"All girls in Oriana come from completely different academic backgrounds, different hometowns ... we're diverse in that way," she said. "We all have crazy schedules, we're all hectic, but when [rehearsal] hits, we're all there for the same reason."

12-12-2008




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