CONNOR HOFFMAN
Managing Editor
On Nov. 14, the Ring Road Singers, formerly known as Whitachoir, performed their first fall concert after their recent rebranding.
Dave Waterland, the group’s music director, explained the idea behind their group’s decision to rebrand themselves.
“When you base your group’s name off one composer, it really limits your repertoire choice,” said Waterland. “[The new name] really allowed for more repertoire choice, and it kind of made us seem less exclusive … When we named ourselves the Ring Road Singers, we sat down, and we thought hard about what kind of name can we give our group that will make us seem appealing and open to the rest of the campus.”
The show started off with an introduction from the group’s president Jess Wilson, and then Waterland came out to conduct the choir.
First, the group started off with “The Lamb,” a song composed by John Tavener. It started off with a very harmonious and soulful choir. The song started off with only a few singing, but soon after the entire choir joined in. The group had strong harmonies throughout the entire piece.
Next up, they played “Ave Verum Corpus,” a song composed by Mozart. This song also started off with a very soulful, harmonious choir. By the middle of the song, the choirs vocals became more divided, and there was less harmony. The song ended abruptly with a loud clash between the choir’s different vocals.
The group then played the “Song of Gailee,” a song composed by Julius Chajes. This songs starts off very ominously with only a few of the male singers. This piece also heavily featured the piano. The different tenors of the choir really started to collide towards the end of the piece. After the entire choir’s energy reached a peak, the song ended abruptly.
They then performed “Mary Had a Baby,” a song composed by William Dawson. The song started off with a very soulful choir, and the female singers voices pierced the male singers. The male vocals then start to get much louder as they question “where was he born.” The piece then featured a solo performance by Nicole Brendel. The entire choir then joined together in a loud and abrupt ending.
Next up was “Praise His Holy Name,” a song composed by Keith Hampton. This piece features such a gospel tone to it with the entire choir asking for the audience to show their praise. This song was particularly heavy in dialogue and featured two powerful solo performances by Breanna Bryce and Phoebe Lachenaure.
The group then performed an additional song called the “South African Medley,” which is a piece that Waterland put together and taught the group. This piece got the most reception from the entire crowd.
Waterland felt that the show went “swimmingly,” and Wilson was excited over how well the show was received.
Tye Granger, a senior music education and sophomore performance major, really enjoyed the show, and “Praise His Holy Name” was his favorite song. Granger admitted that although he really enjoyed their concert, he does miss some of the Whitachoir songs and wishes the group could incorporate at least one or two Whitachoir pieces in their next show.
Nicholas Williams, a junior music education major, also enjoyed the show, but he felt they should look at a more diverse repertoire. He explained that this Fall concert was very “Christian centric, and there are choral pieces that are not as religious as what they had on the program, so that was my only complaint.”
He also explained that he “very much enjoyed the African melody” and that he “thought it was one of the best put together pieces that they had on the program.”
Waterland explained what his big musical influences are.
“My influence comes from my boy choir experience back in Philadelphia,” said Waterland. “That South African number, I learned it there … I’m definitely influenced by Robert Shaw and William Dawson.”
Wilson also explained that with their rebranding they’re trying to appeal to all kinds of people, and they are open to different composers.
They both also explained their goals for the group this year.
“To really enjoy our first year as a rebranded choir,” said Waterland. “We want to get as many people involved in choral singing as possible.” Wilson mentioned that the group is trying to reach out to non-music majors and that they also will be holding mid-semester auditions to welcome new potential members.
They both feel that the rebranding of their group has went quite well.
“We look more professional,” said Wilson. “We’re taken a little bit more serious than we have been in the past because of some past issues, but that doesn’t affect us anymore, we’ve moved past it. We’re now Ring Road Singers.”