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Concert Tuesday Features Outdoor, Hopeful Themes
The Rockbridge Youth Chorale will present its spring concert on Tuesday, April 9, at 7:30 p.m. at Lexington Presbyterian Church.
Doors open at 7 p.m. Admission is a suggested minimum donation of $5 per student or child, $10 per adult, or $25 per family.
For the spring concert, the Youth Choir will present music representing three main themes: land, sea and air.
They will travel the land with Philip E. Silvey’s arrangement of the traditional American folk song “Nine Hundred Miles,” and a familiar Chinese folk song, “Moh lee hwah,” arranged by B. Wayne Bisbee.
Diving into the sea, the treble voices of the Youth Choir will perform a difficult but fun popular Venezuelan piece titled “El Barquito” (“The Little Boat”) arranged by Alberto Grau. The tenors and basses of the Youth Choir, along with special guests from Washington and Lee University, will discover their “piratey” selves in Tim Y. Jones’ humorous piece, “Pirate Song.”
Moving finally into the skies, pieces will include “Hotaru Koi” (“Ho, Firefly”), a Japanese children’s song arranged by Rō Ogura; “Wau Bulan,” a traditional Malay- page B2 sian folk song arranged by Tracy Wong; Irving Berlin’s “Blue Skies” arranged by Roger Emerson; and Jacob Narverud’s composition “Lunar Lullaby” performed by both the youth and children’s choirs.
The Children’s Choir is embracing pieces in the themes of flora, fauna, hope and music that unites it all. Spring time inspires everyone to see everything in a new light. So does the song “Welcome, Spring” by Andy Beck. The choir will present the fauna theme in the songs “Animal Imagination” by Tom Shelton and “Nightingale” by Glenda E. Franklin, both directed by student-conductors.
The music theme will be featured in a jazz-infused choral piece, “Ja-Da,” arranged by Linda Spevacek-Avery, as well as the song “This Shall Be For Music” by Mark Patterson. The young singers will help the audience to feel the spirit of hope and new beginnings within the composition “O Rushing Wind” by Mark Patterson and an African-American spiritual, “Every Time I Feel The Spirit,” arranged by Reginald Unterseher.
The concert with conclude with another moment of unity when the RYC and Children’s Choir combine for the traditional spring concert favorite “How Can I Keep From Singing,” arranged by Ginger Littleton.
For more information about the RYC, contact RYClexington@gmail. com, visit on Facebook and Instagram, or visit the website at www.rcs. org.
