The Viking Singers and the Viking Choral were challenged to learn to sing in Latin and French in only two months for a five carol song in the upcoming Holiday Choir Concert on Saturday.
The concert’s “A Joyous Holiday In Song” program will consist of thirteen songs, one of the songs being “A Winter’s Night” by Cecilia McDowall.
“Our music is always new, I have performed Cecilia’s works in the past, but it’s been a few years. I do have favorites that I like to bring back but nothing where my students would sing the same thing twice,” Skye Angulo, the vocal studies director, said. “Our large work, that’s what we’re really focusing on, is ‘A Winter’s Night’ by Cecilia McDowall it’s about a 25 minute work. We’re going to be singing in different languages.”
‘A Winter’s Night’ will consist of five carols that will be sung in Latin, French and English.
The Viking Singers and the Viking Choral had to learn the meaning of the wording and how to pronounce the words of these two languages in only a short amount of time.
“It’s been maybe like a month or two- no more than two months (since we started learning these languages),” Stephanie Ramirez, a Viking singer and soloist for one of the songs, said. “I’m still struggling now. The French piece especially moves pretty quickly and we have to get the vowel placements right while also making it sound good.”
Ramirez will have a solo of ‘Once Upon A December’ from the movie “Anastasia” in the program.
Ronin Del Castillo, the organ and piano player for the concert, said he has been playing the piano for around 18 years ever since he was in second grade, but has only played the organ twice. The second time being during the rehearsal that happened Tuesday night.
“I play for both (the Viking singers and the Viking chorals) rehearsals and concerts,” Castillo said.
Castillo stated that he was learning on his own how to play the organ as no one was teaching him. During rehearsals, Castillo struggled with adjusting the organ’s volume.
“It’s a completely different instrument. My main struggles were that I didn’t know how to work with the volume,” Castillo said.
Before the rehearsal had begun, Kendra Vuk, the instructor for the Viking chorale and the other director of the concert, helped the Viking Singers and the Viking Choral warm up both their bodies and their vocals.
“The body is our whole instrument so the voice is just a part of our body so we have to make sure our body is free of tension and stretching helps achieve that,” Vuk said. “We worked a little bit on breath control and holding air for a length of time we did some vocal easies that are called lip trolls where we allow the air to just flow.”
Vuk would help Angulo by finding errors with the balance between the singer’s diction and the bass’ volume, giving advice making sure the trumpets and organ wouldn’t drown out the voices of the singers.
Towards the end of the rehearsal, both Angulo and Vuk praised the singer’s and spoke to them reminding them when the next practice would be and what they should do to prepare.
To purchase a ticket you can search ‘LBCC Holiday Choir Concert’ and click the link that’s labeled ‘Holiday Choir Concert Fall 2023’ then click the ‘purchase tickets’ button.
Free tickets are available to students with an ASB card, and LBCC season pass holders. The price for general admission is $15 while students, staff and faculty pay $10.