Mozart Memorial

    The music of Mozart was alive and venerated on Saturday, Nov.11 at the First Baptist Church of Milledgeville as Max Noah Singers and University Chorus filled the choir loft and the String Ensemble performed to celebrate the 250th birthday anniversary of one of music’s greatest composers.
    Under the direction of Dr. Jennifer Flory, choral director here at GCSU, the choirs and string ensemble featured three of Mozart’s many masterpieces composed during various times of his life: Te Deum, composed when Mozart was only fourteen years old, Ave Verum Corpus, one of his most popular and most performed work that took him eight years to compose, and Requiem which he composed shortly before his death in 1791.
    “ It was his (Mozart’s) birthday and I’ve always wanted to conduct his works,” Flory said. “… We had an orchestra big enough and good enough to pull this together.”
    Classical themed concerts usually attract more music aficionados than regular concertgoers. However, the Mozart Memorial Concert packed the First Baptist Church and drew crowds of community members from the sleepy little town of Milledgeville.
    Some students were in attendance in hopes of expanding their musical taste.
    “I felt that the music exposed me to some culture. It really stimulated my musical interest,” freshman nursing major Nicole Bryant said.
    Alumni, patrons, faculty and fan clubs of several performers were also among the crowd that enjoyed a taste of classical culture and harmonious performance sung in classical text. 
“I came to support the program because I was very fond of it when I was here,” GCSU music major alumna Sara Gard said.
Gard was also impressed by how much the program has grown in just one semester.
    “The choir has a much fuller sound, there’s more guys, and they just sound really good,” Gard said. “I’m proud on how much the program has developed. It really shows throughout their performance.”
    The performers worked extremely hard on the challenging pieces separately. In fact they had only a few practices together prior to the concert.
    “It was really interesting to put the choir and string ensemble together because we are not used to hearing them sing behind us,” sophomore music therapy major and cellist Andrea Johnson said. “ It took some getting used to but it all worked out.”
    Conducting two different groups however, and giving multiple cues at the same time proved to be another matter.
    “It was challenging because choral conducting is my background. Thankfully, I had a lot of practice,” Flory said. “It’s like being a traffic cop. You gotta look ahead and listen. You literally do everything at once.”
    The concert served not only to revere Mozart’s masterful and genius command of music but to also honor on Veteran’s Day the memory of all the living and fallen soldiers.
Donations were taken after the concert and benefited the Armed Forces Relief Trust.
    Up coming events for the choral department include a Christmas concert, “Mary Through the Ages” featuring the Women’s Ensemble and Max Noah Singers on Dec. 2, 7:30 p.m. at the First Presbyterian Church, and Max Noah Singers 2006 Tour Homecoming Concert on Dec. 16 at 7:30 p.m. also in the First Presbyterian Church.

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Jan 19 2007. Filed under Features. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry