On April 24, the ETSU Department of Music presented their first ever concert featuring the student chorale and orchestra in the ETSU Martin Center for the Arts.
“This is a big deal, this is actually the first time to our knowledge that a full student orchestra and student choral ensemble teamed up to present a concert,” said Matthew Potterton, the department chair and choral co-director. We’ve hired orchestras before, but this is really the first time that we’ve had all ETSU student groups playing.”
The hour and a half long performance included ETSU’s Chamber Orchestra, Sinfonia and Chorale. David Kovac and Potterton switched directing roles in between performances. While some guests attended socially distanced in-person, many gathered online via the department’s YouTube channel and watched the livestream there..
The Sinfonia orchestra performed the first section of the concert, most notably performing “Paragon Rag” by Scott Joplin and “Hungarian Dance No. 5” by Johannes Brahms. Thirteen students performed spaced out on stage, masked up for safety precautions. Kovac explained that although orchestra has been “on the books” at ETSU since the ‘90s, it is not until the past few years that it has really made a comeback. Some students have even been a part of the orchestra groups since the beginning.
“The first time they came, about five years ago, a lot of them were about two feet shorter,” Kovac said. “ It’s really quite fun to see them grow. Some of them have been playing in both, some have been playing in the sinfonia orchestra and also play in the chamber orchestra.”
After switching performance groups, the chamber orchestra took the stage to perform “Sinfonia No. 3 in E Minor” by Felix Mendelssohn before a short, five-minute break to clear the stage and set up for the mass ensemble pieces.
At the concert, the groups premiered music by former department chair Maria Niederberger. Potterton approached her two years ago to see if she would be interested in providing some music for the opening of the Martin Center, and she provided not only one, but two pieces for them to perform.
“She was really the person in charge of our department while this building was being planned and constructed and a lot of work went into that,” said Potterton. “I thought it was just absolutely appropriate for us to ask world-renowned Maria Niederberger to compose a piece for our grand opening.”
The concert concluded with “Lux Aeterna” by Morten Lauridsen, who Potterton described as “one of the biggest composers of choral music right now”. The livestream received 542 cumulative views as well as comments from viewers in the chat as they watched.
To learn more about upcoming Martin Center events, visit etsumartincenter.org/.
