Blair,
I too enjoyed that Nadine came and spoke with our English class the day before and that we were able to hear her sing. It got me so excited to hear her at the performance on Friday! I couldn’t believe the grandness of their voices. She was right when she said that they honestly use every muscle in their body to produce such a loud sound. I was in awe. Loved the choral portion as well.

Absolutely my favorite performance all semester! Bravo to the UMS Choral Union, soloists and symphony orchestra! The energy and emotion was overwhelming and breathtaking. Since I am not a musician, I cannot fully grasp the hard work that goes into these performances. I thought it was incredible to be able to speak with Nadine, one of the soloists, before the concert to hear about her preparation for performances and her career as a professional opera singer. This made me even more excited to experience Brahm’s Requiem. Further, Blackstone was so enthusiastic, I found myself lost in his charismatic motions that complimented the music. I have gone to see the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Chorus sing at Symphony Hall (one of my most treasured musical experiences) and this performance was just as moving, especially the sixth movement. So happy I attended, and so impressed with the musical collaboration of the symphony orchestra, chorus and soloists.

Karishma,

I should have looked in the program booklet to see the translations! I would have loved to know what they were saying, although the music seemed to communicate a lot of emotion! I agree that it was wonderful to hear the different parts of the Requiem and having Nadine come and speak with us before the performance. It would be interesting to know what kinds of things go into the program…

Glad you enjoyed as well!!!

Laurel, I agree that the Alfredo Rodriguez group was very different than what I was expecting the jazz music to be, however, I found the mix of sounds (while a few of them too awkward for my liking) to be interesting and unique. The sound system could have been off with Pedrito’s group, but I couldn’t tell if the music was supposed to be louder than the voices to be more prominent. While it was annoying, maybe that is how it was intended to be? I was too bored by the lack of excitement/diversity in the music to pay much attention.

Hats off to Alfredo Rodriguez and his crew who KILLED IT (in a good way). While I am not a jazz aficionado, I was very impressed with their level of skill and emotion/commitment in their music. While the sounds were a little off when they were all played together, I was so captivated by the focus and visual performance of each of the musicians as they were playing that I could get past a few awkward notes. Pedrito Martinez was another story. Maybe it was because they followed after Alfredo, but I was just not feeling the music. There was nothing exciting about it for me, and I found myself waiting for it to be over. I felt like it was being put to sleep with how monotone Pedrito’s Group sounded. Overall, I was ready for bed by the end of the performance.

I totally understand what you are saying about how the simplicity of their performance makes it all the more thrilling because it makes the actions of the dancers all the more intricate (if that makes any sense). How do you think the performance would have been different had there been women in the group? Do you think it would have taken away from the “raw muscle power” that made Compagnie Kafig so enthralling?

How people can move like that, I will never understand. I was fascinated by the way the men had such strength and control over the movement of their bodies. I loved when they made their own beats because their movements and dancing was already so powerful and fierce that I think music may have detracted from the experience. The simplicity of the group in terms of music and dress really drew great attention to the muscular strength and ability of the dancers. Personally, I appreciated the precision and unity of the movements among the dancers. As a dancer myself, I understand how difficult it is to focus not only on the accuracy and intensity of your own movements, but also keep in tandem with the music as well as the rest of the dancers. With the portion of the performance using the cups, I found myself tensing in my chair anticipating a mistake. What a creative way to display their accuracy and talent! Compagnie Kafig did this exquisitely with physically challenging movements that were the epitome of entertainment.

While I do appreciate their unique sound, I personally did not enjoy the Kronos Quartet performance. From the beginning of the concert, I was captivated by the strong presence of the performers, but when I heard the synthetic background music, I was a bit irritated. I found the mixture of the string instruments with the technologic sounds and percussion to be disturbing. When I tried to lose myself in the beauty of the string instruments, I was interrupted by the awkward, inelegant recorded noises. To me, they were a distraction from the beautiful live talent on stage, especially during the piece with the star spangled banner recording. In my opinion, the two sounds did not mesh well together which made me feel very uneasy. Instead of adding to the impressively spirited music of the four performers, the recordings were sleazy and unauthentic to me. There were seemingly two performances occurring simultaneously—one which was captivating and another awkward and weird.
Nonetheless, I thoroughly enjoyed watching the musicians on stage play their instruments, as I could almost feel their passion and intent with each note. For me, it would have been a wonderful performance without the background sounds.