As we celebrate our 50th Anniversary of singing to audiences in Marion and the surrounding towns, we also begin our 51st year, venturing into an unknown future, but one filled with wonderful promise.
It feels new. It feels different. We have a long rich history now to draw on, and a pretty good repertoire, but now … now a new direction may be opening for us, an opportunity to explore different genres of music. We’ve sung a lot of classical stuff, spiritual music too, and years ago we also sang music from the American and British theatres. We sang folk music — mostly American — sea shanties, some jazz too.
We even semi-staged performances — like Gilbert & Sullivan’s H. M. S. Pinafore. I’ll never forget Bill Maxwell dressed up as The Rt. Hon. Sir Joseph Porter, K.C.B, strutting in front of the crew, boasting how he became First Lord of the Admiralty. He was absolutely perfect for the role in an incongruous sort of way!
But now we look ahead to our future, not back to our history.
We have an exciting, talented, young new Musical Director, whom I suspect will take us places musically we’ve never been before, and I, for one, am eagerly looking forward to the voyage. In Dr. Tianxu Zhou, or Tian as he likes to be called, we have a highly educated,trained, and experienced choral conductor, but much more than that. He actually can sing! In fact, he’s performed all over the world. From China and Japan to the US, and across the pond to Europe, he has sung with numerous opera companies and symphony orchestras. Just take a look at his biography!
I think we are lucky — blessed — to have him, and I welcome him into our midst with hope and expectations for a wonderful future with us. Welcome Tian!
It feels new. It feels different. We have a long rich history now to draw on, and a pretty good repertoire, but now … now a new direction may be opening for us, an opportunity to explore different genres of music. We’ve sung a lot of classical stuff, spiritual music too, and years ago we also sang music from the American and British theatres. We sang folk music — mostly American — sea shanties, some jazz too.
We even semi-staged performances — like Gilbert & Sullivan’s H. M. S. Pinafore. I’ll never forget Bill Maxwell dressed up as The Rt. Hon. Sir Joseph Porter, K.C.B, strutting in front of the crew, boasting how he became First Lord of the Admiralty. He was absolutely perfect for the role in an incongruous sort of way!
But now we look ahead to our future, not back to our history.
We have an exciting, talented, young new Musical Director, whom I suspect will take us places musically we’ve never been before, and I, for one, am eagerly looking forward to the voyage. In Dr. Tianxu Zhou, or Tian as he likes to be called, we have a highly educated,trained, and experienced choral conductor, but much more than that. He actually can sing! In fact, he’s performed all over the world. From China and Japan to the US, and across the pond to Europe, he has sung with numerous opera companies and symphony orchestras. Just take a look at his biography!
I think we are lucky — blessed — to have him, and I welcome him into our midst with hope and expectations for a wonderful future with us. Welcome Tian!
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