The Cerritos College Music Department held their 4th annual Spring Sing concert on Tuesday April 27th in the Student Center. The concert featured the Cerritos College Community Choir and selected student soloists and ensembles. Dr. Anna DeMichele directed the concert, and was accompanied by Derek Gordon and Anne Shin.
The choir began the event by singing songs like “The Road Not Taken” by Randall Thompson, and paved the way for the soloists who sang after.
Soloists sang songs from the Opera as well as songs from the musical theatre and elsewhere. The concert had a wide range of performances. Charles Breidenthal, baritone, sang French composer Léo Delibes’ “Bonjour Suzon,” while other students like Josue Orozco, baritone, sang more recent and popular songs like Don McLean’s “Castles in the Air.”
The Cerritos College Choir is made up of different levels of vocal development. Students range from novice singers, who are new to the art form and just learning, to advanced students who are in the applied program. Those in the applied program take private lessons.
DeMichele created the annual Spring Sing concert in an effort to challenge her students. “In my second year, it was becoming more and more clear to me that the more advanced singers needed to be more challenged.” she said. “That’s why I chose to create the Spring Sing concert.”
The choir worked three hours every week preparing and putting together various choir selections. The soloists and ensembles prepared their selections earlier in the semester.
“We’ve been working on the choir pieces since the beginning of the semester. So we’ve had about 15 or 16 weeks to prepare.” said Archy Posada, baritone, who worked with Chris Moreno and Josue Orozco to perform their rendition of Maroon 5’s “Sunday Morning” at the concert.
As far as the preparation for the concert goes, DeMichele doesn’t stress over it too much. “I don’t usually consider the preparations for the concert nerve wracking in that the students are responsible for preparing themselves.” she said. “What’s a bit un-nerving for me is the time right before the performance. I’m always trying to get all the details right like where everyone should stand, where each student should go after each number, things of that nature.”
The Cerritos College Choir will have their next exchange concert this month.
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