The Baker University music department is gearing up for the first choir concert of the year Friday at Baldwin First United Methodist Church.
Director of Choral Activities Matthew Potterton is excited for the choirs to perform.
“I’m greatly looking forward to it,” he said. “The choirs are sounding fantastic and I think it is going to be an outstanding concert.”
While the Baker University Concert Choir and the Baker University Community Choir will perform, the Baldwin City Children’s Choir and the Baldwin High School Concert Choir will also perform.
“The other pieces are going to be great,” Potterton said. “Our big closure is going to be kind of fun. It’s a big gospel piece called ‘Worthy to be Praised’ and it’s going to be all of our choirs combined.”
While Potterton has organized a combined choir concert before, this will be his first at Baker University.
“I would like to, in the future, invite an area high school to come sing three songs, or so,” Potterton said. “I think it’s good for recruiting. I think it’s good for high school students to see what is happening here at Baker and it gets them performing more, too. Next year, I hope to invite Wellsville, and down the road, Ottawa and Eudora. For this fall concert, I want to keep different groups coming in.”
This is the first year Baldwin City has had a Children’s Choir, and this is the first time they will perform before their solo performance in December.
“We just started this fall,” Amy Potterton, Matthew’s wife who assists with the children’s choir, said. “I’ve just been amazed by the support I have from the Baldwin City community, and from Ottawa, and surrounding towns that we’ve advertised in.”
The Children’s Choir is also preparing for its own concert at 5 p.m. Dec. 12 at the Baldwin First United Methodist Church.
“There are 45 kids involved in the choir,” Amy Potterton said. “They range from 3 (years old) to 18 (years old) … there is a beginners choir, an intermediate choir and an advanced choir.”
While Amy Potterton is excited about performing with the Baker University choirs, she is looking forward to the spring when the Children’s Choir will travel to St. Louis for a choir competition.
“It is really fun,” she said. “I think that will help build our program and make it competitive with other children’s choirs in the area, and other states and stuff. I want to make it into a competitive choir, but one that strives for musical excellence.”
