Annual Maryville College holiday performance features collective musical might of MC ensembles
Nov. 28, 2022
The combined might of the Maryville College Division of Fine Arts will be on display Dec. 6, but coordinating the plethora of ensembles whose music and voices will serenade the audience for the Maryville Christmas Concert requires next-level logistical planning.
Fortunately, Dr. Eric Simpson — associate professor of music and director of bands for MC — is something of a savant when it comes to organizing all of the moving parts, which will include the Orchestra at Maryville College, the Maryville College Concert Choir, the MC3 Band, Off Kilter, the Maryville College Community Chorus, the Lads and Lassies, Tartanband and the MC Youth Choirs.
“Dr. Simpson is really good at programming, and that’s key,” said Stacey Wilner, director of choral activities at Maryville College and the leader of many of the MC Concert Choir, Off Kilter and the Lads and Lassies. “That’s the key, thinking of how one selection flows into the next one, how they contrast, and how they connect. He’s really good at looking at the overall picture and what each ensemble is doing, and I think we all contributed ideas about ways to flow things well.”
“There’s a reason we only do this once a year, and it’s because getting everybody in the Department of Music on stage in the (Ronald and Lynda Nutt Theatre of the Clayton Center for the Arts) at once is a really big deal,” Simpson added. “We have a master flow chart that tells people where to be and when, as well as an audio sheet, a visual sheet and an equipment sheet. All of these things involve who and what have to be in each location, so the performers can sing and play, and the audience can just sit and watch what’s happening and don’t have to wait for lengthy stage changes or anything like that.”
A holiday extravaganza by College musicians has been a rich tradition at MC for almost a century, dating back to a 1932 performance of Handel’s “Messiah” by the Oratorical Society of music instructor Frances Henry. Band and orchestra teacher Ralph Colbert added a 30-piece orchestra to the mix four years later, and by the 1950s, the production included some 300 performers and audience members who sat on chairs outside the old Samuel T. Wilson Chapel just to be able to hear it.
“Messiah” is still a semi-annual offering during the holiday season, but this year marks the second in a row that the “Maryville Christmas” theme has been adapted. The key to a successful presentation, Simpson and Wilner said, is finding the sweet spot between tradition and innovation that pleases both audience members and performers — and how to present it in a way that meets logistical demands.
“The challenge is the diversity we want to show off compared with the performance space,” Simpson said. “The performance hall is designed to be a room where everything is focused on the stage, and everything is supposed to happen on the stage, and during a normal show with curtains, that’s somewhat accessible.
“For us, we have to put things in different places and get creative. For this concert, we’ll have groups singing from the aisles and instrumental groups playing from the balconies, for example. We need more space than we have if we’re just using the stage, or this concert would be four hours long. This way, we’re able to keep things moving, and we can use the stage for one song; the balcony for the next; and the next one might be right beside your seat.”
The variety of performance spots in the Nutt Theatre will be reflected by the diversity of the program as well. The MC3 Band will showcase the 1963 R&B classic “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home),” as well as a “jazz waltz version of ‘O Christmas Tree,’” Simpson said. The Orchestra at Maryville College, directed by Dr. Ace Edewards, will present the “Farandole” from L’Arlesienne Suite No. 2 by Romantic-era composer Georges Bizet, Simpson added, which will provide a lovely counterbalance to more contemporary pieces. In addition, some lesser-known smaller groups will get an opportunity to step into the spotlight, including the Tuba Euphonium Ensemble ( playing “Pat-a-Pan”), Flute Ensemble (playing “Christmas Morning Suite”), Trumpet Ensemble (performing “Holly Jolly Christmas”) and Percussion Ensemble (with a version of “Feliz Navidad”).
The vocal groups, Wilner added — including the MC Community Chorus, led by Dr. Dwight Dockery ’05, and a combined ensemble made up of members from the youth choirs Scottie Singers and Highlander Chorale, led by Hannah White Strong ’18 — will also take the spotlight, as well as provide some accompaniment for instrumental arrangements of classic holiday songs that are sure to evoke nostalgia.
“We look for arrangements of carols and songs that are fresh and new versions of these traditional melodies,” she said. “That way, we can appeal to both the choir singers with a variety of voicing and instrumentation, and the audience by including those familiar melodies that evoke holiday memories of childhood. A song like ‘I Wonder As I Wander,’ for example, is something the Lassies are performing.
“It’s a very different arrangement, in that it’s just for treble voices. It features a clarinetist who musically creates this lonely feeling of wandering through life and trying to figure out your place in the world and what the role of faith is during this season.”
Other selections on the program include “It’s Snowing!,” arranged by Audrey Snyder; “Lully, Lulla, Lullay” by Phillip Stopford; “Good-will to Men and Peace on Earth” by Dobrinka Tabakova; “Veni, Veni Emmanuel” by Michael John Trotta; “Carol of the Bells” (Wilhousky version); “Sussex Carol,” arranged by Elaine Hagenberg; “We Wish You a Merry Christmas,” arranged by John Rutter; and more.
For Wilner, the music will be special, but the highlight is holding the first Christmas concert in all its opulence and splendor after two years of COVID restrictions and cancellations.
“I have to say, what I’m most looking forward to is having a normal ‘Maryville Christmas’ experience, where the audience doesn’t have to keep its distance, the singers are performing without masks, and the worry is just not there,” she said. “I’m looking forward to having a lot of people together to create this beautiful music, and not having this concern hanging over us all.”
“This is kind of the only time of year you’ll get a big cross-section from the Department of Music,” Simpson added. “The feedback we get whenever we do this concert is always great, and everyone loves how cool it is that the sound just bounces around the hall, and the focus changes from place to place.”
The Maryville College Christmas Concert will take place at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 6, at the Clayton Center for the Arts on the MC campus and is open to the public. Tickets are $15 for adults; $10 for seniors and Maryville College faculty and staff; $5 for non-MC students; and free for MC students with ID.
For more information, call the Clayton Center box office at 865-981-8590.