Two different styles of vocal music will be on tap later this month in the Kasch Performance Hall of Monmouth College’s Dahl Chapel and Auditorium.
The Monmouth Chorale and Chamber Choir will present the “home” concert of this year’s spring tour at 3 p.m. March 23, followed by a 7 p.m. March 25 event featuring the music of the Beach Boys, which is part of the Maple Leaf Community Concert Series.
Presenting the latter show will be the ensemble Sail On. Performing all the Beach Boys’ classic hits, plus some treasures from the 1960s group’s brilliant extended catalog, Sail On faithfully recreates the timeless songs of surfing, cruising, dancing and dreaming for all ages – in short, for anybody who wants to have “Fun, Fun, Fun.” Based in Nashville, Sail On performs more than 100 shows every year, enjoying the unique challenge and privilege of bringing one of pop music’s greatest legacies to audiences everywhere.
Individual and membership tickets for the concert series can be purchased at the Buchanan Center for the Arts in downtown Monmouth or at the door. Tickets for students are free.
Back from St. Louis and Des Moines
During spring break, director Tim Pahel led his Monmouth singers on a tour of the Midwest, with performances in Oakville, Missouri, and Waukee, Iowa. Now, the Chorale and Chamber Choir are back on campus to share their sound with their home community during a concert that is free and open to the public.
The singers will perform a variety of styles, from Slovenian folk music to a tune from Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory.
“Ta na solbici,” arranged by Samo Vovk, is “a very fun Slovenian folk song with lots of clapping and stomping,” said Pahel. “The song is about a wedding, and the people clapped and stomped so loud when they were celebrating that the church bells were drowned out.”
The selections also include Dan Forrest’s “The Sun Never Says,” which Pahel called a “beautiful, expressive piece,” and a “strange, dissonant, powerful” song by Alberto Grau titled “Kasar mie la gaji,” which translates to “the earth is tired.”
Vea Vavrosky ’25 of Reynolds, Illinois, and Ray Shaul ’27 of Bourbonnais, Illinois, have solos in “So I’ll Sing with My Voice,” an “exuberant and exciting” song by Dominick Argento, and the Willy Wonka tune is “a beautiful vocal jazz arrangement” of “Pure Imagination.”
***Courtesy of Barry McNamara, Monmouth College***
