'Resonance' Showcases Alma at Detroit Opera House
A concert that will “resonate” to a varied audience at an historic venue in downtown Detroit will showcase the talents and accomplishments of Alma College students.
“Resonance: A Celebration of the Performing Arts” will feature the Alma College Choir, Percussion Ensemble, Pipe Band and Highland Dancers in concert at 3 p.m. Sunday, March 4 in the Detroit Opera House. They will be joined by as many as 200 high school performers on stage for a dramatic musical finale.
The concert represents the first time that any Alma College ensemble has performed in the elegant Detroit Opera House.
“Our students recognize that this concert in the magnificent Detroit Opera House will be something special,” says Will Nichols, Secrest Professor of Music and director of choirs. “We want to live up to the venue. This is like a bowl game for us.”
Tickets are on sale at Ticketmaster.com, the Detroit Opera House and the Alma College‘Resonance’ Website. High school students ordering through Alma College may request one free ticket to the performance.
Featuring more than 100 Alma College singers, instrumentalists and dancers, the performance is designed to serve a trio of functions. A recruitment event, alumni party and College visibility initiative all wrapped together, ‘Resonance’ will feature four of Alma College’s premier ensembles.
Alma Choir
“The Alma Choir has always been a microcosm of the College—choir members are also scholars and athletes, and they are part of all the things that make Alma College such an exciting place,” says Nichols.
Alma’s 30-member Percussion Ensemble has performed around the United States, including at the Detroit International Jazz Festival and on the main stage at Centrum’s Jazz Port Township Festival in Washington.
Percussion Ensemble
“Our students see this as another fantastic opportunity to perform in an excellent venue for an audience keen on hearing good music,” says Dave Zerbe, director of the percussion ensemble. “The audience can expect an exciting variety of music.”
Joining the Choir and Percussion Ensemble will be Alma College’s Highland arts ensembles—the Pipe Band and Kiltie Dancers.
“Resonance provides the Pipe Band with the opportunity to do what we enjoy most—play traditional and contemporary Scottish music,” says Drew Duncan, director of the Pipe Band. “We hope that the audience has as much fun listening to our performance as we will have preparing for and participating in the performance.”
The Alma Choir and Percussion Ensemble will be touring metro Detroit high schools in the week leading up to the March 4 concert.
“We are inviting high school students to attend and in some cases perform with our Alma College ensembles in the concert,” says Zerbe. “The best way for prospective students to know what Alma College is about musically is to hear our ensembles. Hearing is believing, and there is no more transparent and honest representation of a musical ensemble’s abilities than its performances.”
Preparation for the event began last fall when performing arts faculty and Alma College staff took a day trip to Detroit last fall to meet with Opera House officials and tour the venue.
“The participants in the Resonance Task Force are enthusiastically sharing their ideas and expertise in ways that will allow us to present a strong and positive impression of the College to that community,” says Ann Hall, special assistant to the president.
“Through this venture, we are able to bring constituencies together—faculty, staff, current students, prospective students and alumni—to show the life-long relationships that can be built at Alma.”
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Posted: Mon, January 23rd, 2012 at 1:14PM
