The IUS Concert Choir and Community Chorus held their spring choral concert on Sunday, April 11 at 3 p.m. at the Centenary United Methodist Church in New Albany.

This was the first time the choir had sung at a different venue besides the Stem Concert Hall in the Ogle Center at IU Southeast.

“This is the very first time we have had a concert in a church because of our desire to really reach out to the community,” Mariana Farah, director of IUS choral activities and assistant professor of music, said. “My plan in the future is to do a concert on campus and one off campus.”

This is Farah’s second year as director of choral activities for IU Southeast, and she was pleased with the turnout for her choir’s concert.

“I think the concert went really well,” she said. “It was wonderful to see a lot of people here, the choir was engaged, and they sounded good.”

The concert showcased a variety of students, faculty, staff and community musicians singing and playing in the church sanctuary.

“Today what we had here was a collaboration between the community chorus made up of staff, faculty members and community people who love to sing, along with our concert choir, the IUS orchestra and two faculty member soloists and two members of the Louisville community who came to do a piece with us,” Farah said.

The concert choir is made up of primarily music majors, but non-music majors who are singers are also present within the choir.

“I feel the concert went really well,” Seth Duncan, music business senior, said. “We rehearsed well this week and it really paid off.”

The choir sang an assortment of music ranging from renaissance music to gospel music and from being accompanied by the orchestra to singing a capella.

“I thought it was a fabulous representation of all that IUS has to offer as far as the community, chorus, concert choir and orchestra that was here,” Tara Bassett, audience member, said. “It’s always a pleasure to hear the performers and I had a Sunday afternoon free and knew there was going to be some beautiful music.”

The decision to have the concert in a church, rather than at IU Southeast was a big hit for the singers and director, as well as audience members who attended the concert.

“The Centenary United Methodist Church was a great place to have it,” Bassett said. “I am so glad that the community is working together with the college to make everything possible.”

Farah chose particular pieces for the spring concert to help her students learn and appreciate all genres of music.

“I really believe that we have to pick music that is educational,” Farah said. “So the pieces with the orchestra are like staples of choral literature which is an opportunity for the students to learn another language from the sacred Latin text.”

The concert choir’s final performance of the year will be on Monday, April 19 in Stem Concert Hall for the Southern Indiana’s Women’s Choral Festival.

IU Southeast is hosting the choral event and Farah will be directing a choir of 250 high school students.