Christine Menges |
Last weekend’s choir concert seemed like any other: There were a capella performances, accompanied performances, classical pieces and folk tunes. But there was one element that made this concert unique – the singers were all men.
“Brothers, Sing on!” was hosted in Buckley Center auditorium on Sunday, Feb. 8 at 3 p.m., the seventh annual concert at UP hosting men’s choirs from the Portland area.
Five different choirs with performers ranging from high school age students to retirees performed to a full house. The choirs in performance included: Vocal Attraction from Liberty High School, the men’s chorale from Parkrose High School, Tsunami from the Pacific Youth Choir, The Balladeers from the Multnomah Athletic Club, as well as the men from UP’s University Singers.
Michael Connolly, host and director of UP’s University Singers, said having an all-male singing event was particularly important as a solidarity-building exercise.
“For many men and boys, singing is not cool,” Connolly said. “But if you love to sing, it’s such a joy to get together in a situation like this with all of these other men and boys who love it.”
In fact, Connolly says he has run into the “uncool” stereotypes about male singers in his own life.
“When I was a boy, my older brother told me not to sing so loud, because it was not cool,” Connolly said. “I’m glad I didn’t care, so I just sang.”
The performance was also unique because the combination of choirs added up to a very large group.
Junior Aaron Carney, a member of University Singers, thought singing in a large group was a welcome new experience.
“It was really refreshing to work with many, many voices as opposed to a group of just 20 or 30,” he said.
Tymathy Nguyen, a freshman from Parkrose High School Men’s Chorale, was inspired by the other voices in the performance.
Nguyen said he was impressed by how advanced all the choirs were and that he was considering applying to UP in the future.
Along with a large quantity of voices was a diverse quality of voices, including retiree Andre Marechal, a member of Multnomah Athletic Club’s The Balladeers, who says he’s been performing in barbershop quartets for 45 years.
There is one thing Marechal wants students to take away from the performance.
“The goal of this event is to give students the idea that they can continue to sing into their senior years,” Marechal said.
Connolly, too, emphasized the long shelf-life of singing as a hobby.
“You might love playing soccer, but you might not be doing that when you’re 75,” Connolly said. “Singing you can do for the rest of your life.”
Christine Menges is a reporter for The Beacon. You can reach her at Menges15@up.edu or on Twitter @ChristineyBird.
