Sunday’s voices of Spring Choral Concert marked a premiere performance and the end of a premiere season.
It was Baker University Community Choir’s first-ever performance and the last Baker choir concert of Director of Choral Activities Matthew Potterton’s first year.
Baldwin First United Methodist Church had a packed house as attendees came out to see the Concert Choir, Chamber Singers and the Community Choir.
“I thought it was probably one of the best concerts that we’ve had in my four years here at Baker,” senior Emily Speicher said. “I think it’s just because of the complexity of the songs that we were singing, and the stamina that it required for each of the performers to produce the music that we produced.”
A wide variety of pieces were performed, with everything from the early renaissance to modern vocal jazz and folk.
“I just really liked how all the different songs were from a lot of different genres, but they still all came together as one cohesive concert,” Speicher said.
Potterton said he enjoyed seeing the Community Choir’s first performance.
“I thought they did the best they had done,” he said. “They want to be there. They’re not there because of grades or for any other reason. They sang with all the heart and spirit that I would have hoped and they hit a home run. I thought they did a great job.”
Senior Avaree McDonald joined the Community Choir due to a busy semester schedule, and had fun singing with the ensemble at Sunday’s concert.
“It was really cool getting to sing with some of the community people,” McDonald said. “I think it was good for the Baldwin community to see college students and community members sing all together at the same time.”
Speicher hopes the Community Choir’s performance will encourage others who are not a part of Baker to get involved with the campus.
While Potterton is already planning new pieces for next year’s choirs, he said his first year at Baker was everything he hoped it would be.
“I had a great time. I really was looking forward to building what was already here,” he said. “We already had a strong choral program with (John) Buehler, and I was anxious to take over what he had spent 25 years building, and hopefully he is proud of, would be proud of, what we’ve done.”
