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‘Homeward Bound’ set as Maryville College Concert Choir’s spring tour theme

Feb. 28, 2023

Author Wendy Wunder once wrote that “the magic thing about home is that it feels good to leave, and it feels even better to come back.”

For the members of the Maryville College Concert Choir, the spring mini-tour that kicks off in March will serve as a reminder of that magic, with the song “Homeward Bound” by Marta Keen serving as both inspiration and theme. Not only will students carry their voices to area churches and schools, but they’ll also perform a homecoming concert designed to give MC patrons a taste of what international audience members will hear when the ensemble travels to Scotland in May.

“The program that we are preparing for the Scotland tour will be a version of the ‘Homeward Bound’ concert,” said Stacey Wilner, director of choral activities at Maryville College and conductor of the MC Concert Choir. “Traveling to Scotland has a sense of a journey ‘home’ for students who attend a Presbyterian-affiliated institution. From their institutional ties with Scottish founder Isaac Anderson, to bagpipes at ceremonies, to the athletic ‘Fighting Scots’ symbol, the students resonate with the culture, spirit and music of Scotland.  I have found over the years that MC students really connect to the sense of struggle that the Scots and Scots-Irish immigrants in America both historically experienced.”

The choir will kick off its mini-tour — which includes stops in Knoxville, Oak Ridge, Chattanooga and more — with a send-off concert at 12:15 p.m. Wednesday, March 8, in the Harold and Jean Lambert Recital Hall of the Clayton Center for the Arts on the MC campus. “Homeward Bound,” Wilner said, was selected as the tour’s theme because of the resonance of Keen’s description of her song.

“Keen says, ‘Finding your true calling in life; knowing that those who love you trust that you will return … I wrote this song for a loved one who was embarking on a new phase of life’s journey, to express the soul’s yearning to grow and change,’” Wilner said. “For obvious reasons, this song is inspirational to college students, for they are in the middle of a new phase of life’s journey. They also are experiencing younger siblings who are entering new phases of independence, and grandparents entering perhaps a last phase who have less independence.

“This is an eye-opening realization, and they develop a new appreciation for all of the different experiences, lessons and people who walk this path called life with them.”

Performances for the spring mini-tour include:

  • 10:40 a.m. Friday, March 10, at Bearden High School, 8352 Kingston Pike in Knoxville
  • 12:30 p.m. Friday, March 10, at Oak Ridge High School, 1450 Oak Ridge Turnpike in Oak Ridge, Tennessee
  • 7 p.m. Friday, March 10, at First Baptist Church of Tellico Village, 205 Chota Road in Loudon, Tennessee
  • 10:30 a.m. Saturday, March 11, at Garden Plaza at Cleveland Life Care Center, 3500 Keith St. NW in Cleveland, Tennessee
  • 11 a.m. Sunday, March 12, at Second Presbyterian Church, 700 Pine St. in Chattanooga, Tennessee; and
  • 5 p.m. Sunday, March 12, at Westminster Presbyterian Church, 6500 S. Northshore Drive in Knoxville.

The choir tour performances in area churches are free and open to the public, and many are in locations familiar to those who have kept up with tour stops in years past.

“We do have a repetitive schedule each year for a couple of reasons, first so that the community has an idea of when our concerts happen each year, and second, that our students — who are engaged in theater and other organizations — don’t have too many schedule conflicts,” Wilner said.

In addition, the MC Concert Choir will perform its annual Homecoming Concert at 7 p.m. Friday, March 24, in the Ronald and Lynda Nutt Theatre of the Clayton Center. Tickets to that performance are $10 for the public, which will help fund the ensemble’s May international tour to Scotland, and free for MC students, faculty and staff.

At 4 p.m. Sunday, April 16, the ensemble will also perform at New Providence Presbyterian Church, 703 W. Broadway Ave. in Maryville. In addition, the small ensembles Off Kilter and the Lads and Lassies will perform at 5 p.m. Friday, April 21, at Broadway Social, 102 E. Harper Ave. in downtown Maryville, and at 2 p.m. Saturday, April 22, on the Choral Stage at the Rossini Festival in downtown Knoxville. Admission to all of those performances is free. 

Maryville College is a nationally-ranked institution of higher learning and one of America’s oldest colleges. For more than 200 years we’ve educated students to be giving citizens and gifted leaders, to study everything, so that they are prepared for anything — to address any problem, engage with any audience and launch successful careers right away. Located in Maryville, Tennessee, between the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and the city of Knoxville, Maryville College offers nearly 1,200  students from around the world both the beauty of a rural setting and the advantages of an urban center, as well as more than 60 majors, seven pre-professional programs and career preparation from their first day on campus to their last. Today, our 10,000 alumni are living life strong of mind and brave of heart and are prepared, in the words of our Presbyterian founder, to “do good on the largest possible scale.”