September 28, 2023
SIU concert choir, wind ensemble bring ‘Order and Chaos’ on Oct. 3
CARBONDALE, Ill. — The Southern Illinois University Carbondale Concert Choir and Wind Ensemble will perform a variety of works based on order and chaos when they present “PRISM: Order and Chaos,” at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 3, at Shryock Auditorium. The performance is free and open to the public.
The PRISM concert is a biennial event — a 1 hour and 15 minute performance — with ensembles set up in different positions throughout Shryock Auditorium presenting continuous music. The idea is to bring different moods throughout the seamless performance. The concert blends music, audio and video, and spoken word into a holistic artistic experience based on a topic or theme.
“We took the idea of ‘order and chaos’ and built a program around a theme of definitions of order and chaos and how that can be reflected in music, poetry and visual art,” said Susan Davenport, professor and director of choral activities in the School of Music.
The Concert Choir and the Wind Ensemble are School of Music groups made up primarily of students, both music majors and students from across campus majoring in a variety of other subjects.
Davenport said the concert choir will sing pieces that use a variety of texts that speak of the destruction of the earth through industrialization but also the peace of remembering loved ones. Additionally, they will sing pieces that speak of unity among peoples in Joan Symko’s “Ffe Mwe. Mwe Ffe” and Elaine Hagenberg’s “Nox.”
Christopher Morehouse, professor and director of bands in the School of Music, said in addition to collaborating with the concert choir on a few of the pieces, the wind ensemble will perform Vincent Persichetti’s “Pageant,” Timothy Broege’s “Sinfonia V: Symphonia Sacra et Profana” and John Orfe’s “Dowland Remix (Flow My Tears).”
“This year is unique in that the Wind Ensemble is joined by the School of Music graduate string players,” Morehouse said. “This provides an opportunity for the ensemble to also perform music written for woodwinds, brass, percussion and strings.”