People lined up outside the Burnight Center Theatre in the rain to attend the Cerritos College Music Department’s 27th semi-annual Spring Faculty Gala concert on March 20.

The gala featured some of Cerritos College’s faculty performing classical music.

Complication arose in the beginning of the show when two musicians were not able to show up for the opening performance.

But it didn’t stop the concert from going on and Cerritos College faculty from performing.

After the show, there was a medical emergency for a student of Cerritos college that was not able get up right after fainting.

The Burnight emergency phone was not working when someone tried to call the paramedics.

Richard Crother, designer and stage technician, said, “it’s disappointing to see that the emergency phone was not working when this type of situation happened and not able to be called for help.”

The opening of the show was an opera piece performed by Conrad Immel, a part time instructor in Cerritos College .

After the show, Immel said, “I think it went really well. [There was a] very responsive audience, and in my performance, I did very well.”

He explained that he had done 40 opera roles in 40 years and sung eight years in Germany, Austria and Italy, and also studied there.

He also explained that it would be his last vocal performance for this semester. 

“I would like Cerritos to make an opera workshop for the students.”

One of the other performers was music instructor Sung Ae Lee, performing a classical musical piece named “Carmen Fantasy” for the audience.

After the show, Lee said, “I feel pretty great in this crazy weather, and we had a very great audience. That’s for sure.”

She explained that all her life she has been performing and practicing in classical music. After graduating from USC and getting her doctorate, she has been working at Cerritos College.

“I really want to concertize around the country or maybe around the world and collaborate,” she said.

One of the performers was Music Department Chair David Betancourt, who said, “We want to keep providing musical education.”

“Weather was an obstacle for some performers, but I think it went really great.”

He also added that they had been planning for this event since the beginning of this year.