The Singing Hoosiers of IU will perform Saturday at Auer Hall for their fall concert, titled “Carry On.” There are two showings with one performance at 2 p.m. and another at 7:30 p.m. Tickets can be purchased at the Jacobs Opera and Ballet Theater website for $27 each, with $12 tickets offered for students.
The Singing Hoosiers last formally performed this past April in a concert that celebrated the ensemble’s 75th anniversary. Saturday’s concert will feature 13 songs, with the entire ensemble performing 10 altogether. Two of the smaller ensembles within the Singing Hoosiers, ResoluSHion and SHacappella, will perform the other pieces.
The fall concert is built around the song “Carry On,” a powerful piece with elements of gospel, disco and funk. The song was popularized in 1992 by vocalist Martha Wash, one half of the musical duo The Weather Girls (of “It’s Raining Men” fame) and known as “The Queen of Clubland.” The song’s lyrics -- “When the valley’s deep I’ll be strong/With a mighty love to carry on/I’ll never sleep ‘til the new day dawns/I carry on” -- hold sentiments of empowerment and powering through adversity that drive the overall theme of the entire show.
Senior Leah Corcoran, marketing manager of the Singing Hoosiers, looks forward to closing out the show with “Carry On.”
“It’s a beautiful, powerful gospel song. I love gospel, I think it feeds the soul,” she said. “It’s one of our ending pieces, and I really feel like it’s a showstopper and it will go out with a bang. I’m really looking forward to it, and I really hope our audiences like it as well.”
Many of the songs featured in the concert’s program deal with themes of embracing change and new milestones in life. “Carry On” is the most straightforward expression of this theme in the set list. Although multiple songs address a similar idea of moving forward, their musical styles vary immensely, including ballads, upbeat pop tunes and even a samba piece.
The fall concert will also feature a performance of “World O World” by contemporary musician Jacob Collier. Defined by its unique song structure and loud, powerful ending, the piece adds an element of complexity to the concert program.
Ben Wegner and Lida Bourhill are the ensemble’s assistant directors for the fall semester. Bourhill, a second year masters student in choral conducting, said the harmonies and themes of “World O World” make it her favorite piece in the program.
“It features a lot of really cool harmonies, and we split into two separate choirs at the end, which is really cool,” Bourhill said. “And the message is really pretty. It’s kind of about leaving this life and moving on to whatever comes next and finding the beauty in that transition.”
Senior Emma Grim serves as the student manager of the Singing Hoosiers. She has been a member of the ensemble since her freshman year.
Grim said “World O World” is, in her opinion, one of the set list’s best embodiments of the concert’s theme of carrying on.
“We got to sing it in the Auer Hall space for the first time on Tuesday, and it was absolutely breathtaking. Just the harmonies, the meaning behind the song,” she said, “it’s one of the songs that more represent carrying on, like, in a spiritual and mental space. It’s just so gorgeous.”
“Lazarus Drug,” written by Australian musician Meg Washington for an episode of the children’s show “Bluey,” is one of the program’s ballads. The piece accompanies an episode with a storyline that deals with processing a move and coping with change. In keeping with that theme of moving forward into change, the song frames the biblical figure of Lazarus as a representation of rebirth and continuing forward.
The ensemble will perform the piece standing, without choreography. Director Chris Albanese said the song is both sweet and introspective.
“Washington uses that figure as a metaphor for a lover or person in her life that metaphorically brought her back to life, you know, providing new hope and a new way of seeing the world,” Albanese said. “It’s just really cool, really atmospheric, with very layered texture.”
The ensemble is also performing Daniel Alfonso’s “Para los tin-tun-teros,” a samba based off a poem by Brenda Cardenas. It is an upbeat, rhythmic addition to the show’s dynamic set list. Its performance will feature body percussion, Spanish lyrics and a baritone solo.
Albanese described this piece as a one of his favorites and a sonic representation of the rhythms found in everyday actions.
“It’s supposed to be like an homage to people who are always finding rhythm in everyday life, like tapping on desks or tapping pencils on their head, things like that,” he said.
In addition to new performances, the concert will also feature multiple songs that have become cemented as Singing Hoosiers classics. These songs are often brought back to be performed at different concerts, year after year. Specifically, Irving Berlin’s “Steppin’ Out With My Baby” is performed at every fall and spring concert.
Other pieces in this concert include Duke Ellington’s “Caravan,” which was featured in the film “Whiplash.” The set also includes an adaptation of The Beatles’ “Let It Be.” The full show will have a run time of about an hour and 30 minutes.
Corcoran hopes the music will inspire and uplift audiences who hear it.
“I feel like, with the world that we live in right now, it’s very important to remind ourselves of the good in humanity,” she said. “I feel like that’s what a lot of our concerts do – we choose to uplift, rather than to dwell on all the negative. And we choose to uplift our audiences.”
