University of Indianapolis: Songs of Harold T. Burleigh, Robert Owens, Margaret Bonds, William Grant Still, Leslie Adams, Mark Fax and Moses Hogan Heard April 5

Photo by Badar Alageel

H.T. Burleigh, Margaret A. Bonds, William Grant Still and H. Leslie Adams are featured at AfriClassical.com

Reflector

University of Indianapolis

April 13, 2016

“Evening of Song” performance takes place in Ruth Lilly Performance Hall

By Alexis Stella | Staff Writer

The University of Indianapolis presented “Evening of Song” on April 5 at 7:30 p.m. in the Ruth Lilly Performance Hall in the Christel DeHaan Fine Arts Center. Staff accompanist Haruka Ostajić accompanied the concert and Professor of Music Kathleen Hacker directed the performance. The performance included arrangements by African American Heritage and African American composers.

The concert included 13 UIndy students who performed solo arrangements from composers Harold T. Burleigh, Robert Owens, Margaret Bonds, William Grant Still, Leslie Adams, Mark Fax and Moses Hogan.

The concert began with arrangements composed by Harold T. Burleigh. Sophomore music major Meghan Farris started the performance by singing “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot,” followed by freshman music major Hunter Wells singing “By ’n By.” Freshman music education major Rachel Harden sang “Give Me Jesus.” Freshman communication major Morgan Ellis performed “Sometimes I Feel like a Motherless Child” and freshman business administration major Amanda Huffman completed the first set of five solos with “There is a Balm in Gilead.”

The next set of five performances were arrangements from multiple composers. Freshman vocal performance major Brenden Everett began the second set by performing “Heart,” composed by Robert Owen. Junior music technology, recording and communication major Sarah Smith followed with “Minstrel Man,” composed by Margaret Bonds. Sophomore music education major Tara Bradley performed “Grief,” by William Grant Still. Then sophomore music education major Ivy Bott sang “For You There Is No Song” composed by Leslie Adams. Senior performance major Shannon Christie completed the second set of performances with “Cassandra’s Lullaby,” by Mark Fax.

The last set of performances were arrangements composed by Moses Hogan. Junior music education major Katie Gajewski sang “He Never Said a Mumblin’ Word,” followed by junior music education major Natalie Covert who performed “Were You There.” Junior general education music major Ron Dukes completed the third set of performances with “Deep River.”

Huffman, who performed in the first set, said she thought the concert went well.

“I really enjoyed being a part of the performance,” Huffman said. “Everyone did great. I especially enjoyed the theme of the concert. Usually when you take a bunch of solo performers with no theme, it [the concert] doesn’t fit together. For our concert, we all had the same theme, so we all fit perfectly together,” Huffman said.