Southwestern College’s A Cappella Choir and SC Singers will present their spring concert, “Choral OPERAtion,” on Friday, April 23, at 7:30 p.m., in the Richardson Performing Arts Center. All performers will be masked and the audience members are encouraged to maintain social distance and wear face coverings to attend the performance. The concert is open and free to students and faculty of the college as well as the community. Part of the program will be live-streamed on the college’s Performing Arts Facebook page.

For the first half of the concert, SC Singers will perform a selection of excerpts from operas such as Mozart’s “The Marriage of Figaro” and “The Magic Flute.” A Cappella Choir will present in the second half a program of choral music that features well-known tunes such as “Simple Gifts” and pieces by Eric Whitacre and Craig Courtney. The Williams String Quartet will make a guest appearance to accompany part of the program.

 “For many of the SC Singers, this is their first experience performing opera and they have worked particularly hard to learn the very complex music,” says director Amanda Li.  “The excerpts are selected to not only suit and highlight the voices we have in our group but also for their remarkable storytelling music and accessible characters that appeal to concertgoers of all ages.  Audiences members may even recognize some of the numbers that have been featured in popular movies.”

Savannah Joldersma, a senior marine biology major, says she has enjoying preparing for this concert. 

“Although I've performed operatic arias before, it was only as a soloist and without staging,” Joldersma says.  “It's been really fun doing it with a group and with staging.”

Breanna Dittert, a senior English major, says that this experience has broadened her musical landscape. 

“I've always loved musical theater and the idea of telling a story through music, but I never really considered opera in the past since lyrics are a major factor in my enjoyment of a song and translating foreign-language lyrics has always felt inaccessible,” Dittert says.  “Even if the pieces themselves aren't something I normally am interested in, I'm grateful for the chance to learn something new and to make music with my friends. With the staging, the excerpts are very entertaining to watch. I hope our audience will come prepared to laugh at the sheer drama of it all, as our characters throw fits at weddings, scheme mischief against cheating husbands, whine about boyfriends ignoring them, and sing about adorable baby birds.”

Li says that despite the challenging circumstances of the past year, A Cappella Choir has continued to make music together throughout the pandemic with an abundance of caution and safety measures.

“We are particularly excited to give the campus and the community a program that shows our gratitude and brings everyone a message of hope,” Li says.