By JULIA OLSEN
As the home of one of the nation’s finest non-professional choirs, BYU welcomes a concert from the BYU Singers tonight at 7:30 p.m. in the de Jong Concert Hall at the Harris Fine Arts Center.
The BYU Singers have traveled the world, uplifting and amazing audiences with their music. Critics from Washington, D.C. to Israel have sung the choir’s praises.
Drawing on BYU’s rich choral tradition, the BYU Singers was established in 1984 under the baton of Director Ronald Staheli.
Tonight’s performance will combine the talents of 42 singers for a program featuring Psalms, “Agnus Dei” and George Gershwin.
The choir will perform the premiere of Maija Einfelde’s arrangement of Psalm 15. Einfelde won the 1997 Barlow International Composition Competition for the piece.
“It’s a wonderful piece and quite difficult,” Staheli said. “It’s very dramatic and fierce.”
Robert Lochhead, 23, a senior from Kaysville, majoring in economics, said the song is rich with the emotions of the Russian people.
“You can feel the emotions and you become very closely connected with the plight of the Russian people,” Lochhead said.
BYU Singers is the only non-professional choir in the world chosen to premier Einfelde’s work.
Staheli sat on the judging commission at the Barlow competition. He said he saw immediately that Einfelde was an expressive artist with something important to say.
“When she sent me the piece, she wrote a note that said, `I hope you like what I’ve written because I’ve written it with my whole heart,'” Staheli said.
“Angus Dei,” taken from the Catholic Mass, is a collection of three compositions of the prayer. “Angus Dei” conveys scripture saying, “behold the lamb of God who taketh away the sins of the world.”
The choir will also perform seven pieces from Gershwin’s repertoire. The tribute to Gershwin honors the artist for his 100th birthday, which was on Sept. 26.
“I’m very happy about the selection we have. The whole world knows Gershwin, so we found some of his work that the audience won’t know as well,” Staheli said.
Although Shane Warby, 22, a senior from St. George, majoring in vocal performance, has sung with the choir for four years, he said tonight’s performance will be the hardest.
“I’m excited to see it all come together, but it will be a hard concert. The audience will definitely see spontaneity tonight,” Warby said.
Both Staheli and members of the BYU Singers feel fortunate for being involved with such an uplifting experience.
“It’s about education, but it’s more than just that. It’s about life in general, about living together. It’s spiritual in the broadest sense,” Staheli said.
The group said that they hope the audience can be a part of that uplifting experience and partake of the spirit at the concert.
“I love the performing atmosphere,” said Joni Jensen, 25, from Houston, Texas, a graduate student in choral conducting. “It’s exciting to feel the energy coming from the audience. We can open up and share what we have and, hopefully, they’re uplifted.”
Warby said that it is probably the small size of the choir that assists with the success of the concerts.
“With the small choir, audience members can connect with a section or a member of the choir and relate. They get involved,” Warby said.
To prepare for concerts, the group practices each day. They also have devotionals and firesides throughout the year to help them unite.
“We have firesides so we can get to know each other better. The better you know each other then the better your music will be,” Lochhead said.
Although the choir goes through extensive training to be its best, Staheli the members’ training starts before they come into the group.
“So much of the preparation comes before they even come to the choir. It’s easy to see that in the auditions,” Staheli said. “As we work, I tell them to look at the people standing next to them, see their excellence and to let themselves be uplifted.”
