Maryville College Community Chorus, Orchestra at MC cap successful year with April 23 concert
April 11, 2024
It’s a victory lap, of sorts, after the triumphant December performance of Handel’s “Messiah” in December, as well as a collaborative recap of another successful year for the Orchestra and Maryville College and the Maryville College Community Chorus.
The two ensembles will once again combine forces, this time for an April 23 spring concert in the Clayton Center for the Arts. It’s an interesting challenge, according to Dr. Ace Edewards — conductor of the orchestra — because while such a union opens up more possibilities, it also presents more options that need to be winnowed down.
“I think the energy in the room when we combine is always so great,” added Dr. Dwight Dockery ’05, who serves as conductor of the chorus. “It’s electric, for sure, but it’s also supportive. After rehearsal, I see singers and instrumentalists complimenting each other and telling each other how much fun it is to work with them.
“But one of the things that never ceases to delight everyone, I think, is the completeness of sound once we get it all together. By the time we get to our one or two combined rehearsals, we will have been working on just our own half of the music for months, so there is a real joy in experiencing the pieces in their fullness.”
As with most joint OCM and MCCC performances, the collaboration will include a combined repertoire of selections, and the orchestra will present a few instrumental pieces as a standalone ensemble. The Maryville College Community Chorus is open to area singers ages 16 and older of all talent levels and performs choral literature from various composers and in wide-ranging styles. The Orchestra at Maryville College was founded more than a century ago, performing under various names as a student ensemble before including community members in 1969.
Combined works on the April 23 program include, among others:
• “The Heavens are Telling,” from Haydn’s “The Creation” oratorio;
• “Hallelujah,” from Beethoven’s oratorio “Christ on the Mount of Olives”;
• “He Watching Over Israel,” another oratorio selection from Mendelssohn’s “Elijah”;
• “Va Penseiro,” an opera chorus from Verdi’s “Nabucco”; and
• “Anvil Chorus,” another Verdi opera chorus, this one from “Il Trovatore.”
In addition, the orchestra will perform select pieces, including overtures from both “Creation” and “Nabucco,” as well as two intermezzos: one from “Cavalleria Rusticana” by Pietro Mascagni, and another from “Adriana Lecouvreur” by Francesco Cilea.
“The theme is favorites from oratorio and opera, so it’s a smorgasbord of selections extracted from large works,” Dockery said. “The orchestra will have some pieces by themselves, then we will combine for several numbers. There should be pieces that are recognizable to audiences who have at least some familiarity with the kind of repertoire we do. For example, Haydn’s ‘The Heavens Are Telling’ from ‘Creation’ is one of those great pieces that we hear outside of the concert hall — in churches, in schools, and sometimes commercially.
“Furthermore, the ‘Anvil Chorus’ is a piece that anyone who watched cartoons growing up will probably recognize. I made a joke with the chorus while we were learning it that everyone had flashes of Bugs Bunny, but now they knew where that song came from. For me, I wanted to do some pieces that people just enjoy singing and hearing. I thought it would be a good follow-up to ‘Messiah’ and a great way to close out the year.”
“Repertoire selection is always a balance between many, many factors, but like Dwight said, it’s a combo of what we want to play and what the audience would enjoy listening to,” Edewards added. “The combination of forces makes for an exciting sound. And for the ensemble members, it’s also exciting to be part of something big.”
And the spring performance, Dockery pointed out, serves as a capstone to the academic year in more ways than one: It’s the final performance by a group associated with the MC Division of Fine Arts, and it showcases the evolution of talent and collaboration that comes from individual players and ensembles working together over the past year.
“As we get to know each other and our respective ensembles better, I think we are able to work together and appreciate each other’s strengths,” Dockery said. “Ace has a really strong knowledge of opera, whereas I know oratorios particularly well. We relied on each other for advice as we started to develop the repertoire list for this concert.
And, the two added, there’s always room for more. The OCM and MCCC will resume rehearsals after the start of the 2024-25 academic year, and members of the public are invited to lend their talents to either by contacting Dockery at dwight.dockery@maryvillecollege.edu and Edewards at ace.edewards@maryvillecollege.edu.
The spring concert by the Orchestra at Maryville College and the Maryville College Community Chorus will take place at 7 p.m. Tuesday, April 23, in the Ronald and Lynda Nutt Theatre of the Clayton Center for the Arts. Tickets are $10, and MC faculty, staff and students are admitted free, although a printed ticket is required for admission. For more information, call the Clayton Center Box Office at 865-981-8590.