By FRED KRONER
fred@mahometnews.com
Choirs sing. That’s what they do.
Mahomet-Seymour’s 51-member Chamber Choir took to the stage last Sunday at McKinley Presbyterian Church in Champaign.
The performance was not typical.
The entire 20-minute piece — Leonard Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms — was sung in Hebrew.
It was “a difficult feat for the high-school students,” said Joseph Baldwin, music director of the Baroque Artists of Champaign-Urbana.
The M-S Students were up to the challenge for a work they started rehearsing in November.
“They did beautifully,” Baldwin said. “Hopefully, singing a piece of that difficulty and such a high level will prove to be a transformative musical experience for them.”
Before M-S choir director Nicole Kuglich could teach the piece, which was debuted in 1965, she had to become familiar with it.
“I had heard of it, but hadn’t personally performed it, or attended a performance prior to ours,” Kuglich said.
The work was the ideal fit for one of her goals for this school year. She was immediately receptive when Baldwin contacted her last summer, extending an invitation to the M-S choir.
“I was interested in programming Leonard Bernstein this year as part of his 100th birthday celebration,” Kuglich said. “This seemed like the perfect opportunity.”
Kuglich started her research last September.
“I spent time researching the piece, and locating pronunciation guides,” she said. “I also attended several of the “BACH” choir rehearsals in order to ensure that details were in line with what the director was doing.”
Once the Mahomet-Seymour rehearsals began, the choir room became a classroom.
“The students had to take diligent notes throughout the learning process in order to remember how to pronounce some of the text,” Kuglich said. “It was definitely the largest choral work that our students have done in recent years.”
Baldwin never doubted that the M-S students would excel.
“BACH chose M-S because of their and Director Nicole Kuglich’s established wonderful reputation in choral music,” Baldwin said.
M-S was asked to perform Sunday as part of the annual Youth Baroque Artist Showcase Concert. The concert is held in celebration of local high school musicians who were chosen as winners or honorable mention selections in the Youth Baroque Artist Contest.
Those students — including one from M-S — were featured on the first part of the program.
M-S’ Nicolina Di Girolamo sang “Per la gloria d’adorarvi.”
The event is divided into two parts.
“Our annual Young Baroque Artists Competition Showcase concert always features the winners of our annual competition, performing Baroque music during the first half of the concert,” Baldwin said. “The second half features the renowned BACH Choir along with a wonderful regional/local choir, like the M-S choir, singing a classic choral work that our audiences will enjoy.”
When the M-S Chamber Choir took its position on stage, Kuglich accompanied the first song while Brian Lonergan directed. Di Girolamo accompanied the second song,
“Our portion of the program consisted of “I Believe” (by Mark Miller) and “The Runner” (by Joshua Rist).
Kuglich said the performance was one to treasure.
“Immense gratitude for the opportunity to sing in a beautiful space with talented adult singers and instrumentalists,” she said. “It was such a monumental moment for us.”
The M-S Chamber Choir was the only high school choir that performed in Sunday’s event.
Anyone interested joining the BACH Choir, can find more information about how to audition at the website, www.baroqueartists.org. Information about the concert season is also on the website as well as on Facebook.
