{"id":47745,"date":"2020-11-23T20:09:10","date_gmt":"2020-11-24T01:09:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/?p=47745"},"modified":"2020-11-24T09:24:01","modified_gmt":"2020-11-24T14:24:01","slug":"dn-r-virtual-gala-crosses-genres-in-uplifting-message-of-hope","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2020\/dn-r-virtual-gala-crosses-genres-in-uplifting-message-of-hope\/","title":{"rendered":"DN-R: Virtual Gala crosses genres in uplifting message of hope"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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Did you miss it? View the Gala.<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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This article by Kathleen Shaw appeared in the Nov. 22, 2020, Daily News-Record.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dressed in a traditional black gown with hair neatly curled to her shoulders, senior soprano Kiara Kiah<\/strong> opened the annual Eastern Mennonite University orchestral gala with a delicate duet of Mozart\u2019s \u201cThe Magic Flute\u201d with professor and baritone James Richardson<\/strong>. But Richardson was nowhere near Kiah for her performance \u2014 in fact, he was miles away in Virginia while Kiah stood on the stage of First Presbyterian Church of Athens in Georgia alone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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On Saturday, the EMU music department hosted a made-for-broadcast special premiere of the annual gala concert on Facebook Live with the theme \u201cA Concert of Hope.\u201d The evening performance featured musicians recorded inside and outside, near and far, spanning various genres and brought together with a message of fortified perseverance amid a pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kiah, who moved to Georgia in September, is completing her studies online and said finishing her career at EMU by performing in the gala was a rewarding experience that pushed her comfort zone and flexed the boundaries of possibilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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EMU faculty members David Berry and Kimberly Souther perform their own arrangement of Argentinian composer Astor Piazzola’s “Libertango.” <\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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\u201cIt definitely felt weird because instead of having a person next to you, as you\u2019d sing a classic duet, you had to listen to the person in your ear. But, they\u2019re not actually next to you, so you have to be creative,\u201d she said. \u201cIt was a bare slate and was up to me to create the scene.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kimberlea Daggy<\/strong>, of musical radio programs \u201cAll Things Considered\u201d on WMRA and \u201cAir Play\u201d on WEMC, hosted the virtual gala.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Department chair and pianist David Berry<\/strong> said 2020 has been marked by countless loss and changes, so hope can feel easily diminished, but music is a universal balm for drained spirits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMusic speaks so well to situations like these in times when it\u2019s hard to find anything to latch onto. Music can lead the way and often be the thing that can speak to such a time,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As in years past, the gala featured the talents of EMU\u2019s Jazz Band, Wind Ensemble, Chamber Singers and the EMU Orchestra along with faculty soloists and special guest artists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Professor Benjamin Bergey conducts a socially distanced recording session earlier this fall for the gala’s broadcast event.<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Embracing the experimental nature of 2020, this year\u2019s special guests were notably not orchestral acts but offered a fuller scope of music\u2019s capability to intersect genres. The first, AppalAsia, is a Pittsburgh-based, world-folk group that blends instruments of Western and Eastern origins and performed an original song \u201cFour Hills.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Harrisonburg-based contemporary roots music group The Steel Wheels also joined to play alongside university students and bring an unfamiliar arrangement to a popular melody.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eric Brubaker<\/strong> is an EMU class of 2001 graduate, but he\u2019s better known for playing the fiddle and co-founding The Steel Wheels. Brubaker practiced both classical and folk styles of music growing up and was a concertmaster during his EMU days. He said returning to EMU and arranging \u201cSing Me Like a Folk Song\u201d along with the directors of Red Wing Academy, Megan Tiller <\/strong>and Kelly Wiedemann<\/strong>, to perform alongside the university\u2019s orchestra felt like coming full circle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTo bring my experiences in being a touring musician and also playing more informal styles, bluegrass-influenced styles,\u201d Brubaker said. \u201cTo be able to mesh that with the classical music setting is something that interests me in a way where you can find some common ground between the different styles, and that\u2019s exciting to me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Brubaker said \u201cSing Me Like A Folk Song\u201d is a metaphorical tune comparing folk music to the connection between people, but the orchestral arrangement reimagined the meaning to encompass the bridges between classical and Americana, bluegrass styles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTo be able to reach into those different worlds and create something that combines those two in a different way hopefully sort of gives a way we can continue to reach across all different kinds of divides,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Donations from the evening benefited the EMU music student scholarship fund.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere\u2019s something for everyone in this program but in a way I feel like it always comes back to those themes of hope,\u201d Berry said. \u201cIt\u2019s the best of technology coming together with that timeless sound of a choir, to still be able to do that in this season.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Thanks to our sponsor: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Did you miss it? View the Gala. This article by Kathleen Shaw appeared in the Nov. 22, 2020, Daily News-Record. 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