The Moores School of Music was occupied by faculty, students and seniors citizens who came to enjoy “Collage 2012” Thursday night. The annual fall concert exposed the University and the surrounding community to what the college has to offer for the upcoming season. | Joshua Mann/The Daily Cougar
Moores School of Music hosted its annual season-opening concert, “Collage 2012,” on Thursday evening.
“Collage” is held at the beginning of each year as an effective sushi sampler, previewing shows that will be held throughout the season.
The show demonstrates the sheer range of the programs at the Moores School of Music, as well as the range of its patrons. Elderly music veterans sat beside high school students and freshmen, and all were abuzz with excitement as they spilled from the doors at the end of the show.
“I thought it was phenomenal, I can’t stop smiling,” said vocal performance freshman Anna Montgomery.
“I just had so much fun watching, and in a way it made me want to be on stage, but at the same time I was happy to not be on stage so that I could enjoy it.”
The show was a mixture of both classical and contemporary, as symphony renditions Michael Jackson works were sandwiched between classical piano and a full steel drum band, its members bouncing and dancing along to a Caribbean-esque beat.
“The steel drums were my favorite part,” said music and vocal performance freshman Victoria Flores.
“I love steel drums, they’re so much fun. (The performers were) all dressed up, and they were dancing and were really, really into it. It made the audience get more into it.”
“Collage” blended different mediums together to bring a whole new type of musical show, which further distanced itself from the traditional.
A short, silent film of a mosquito trying to get a meal was shown as a pianist sat underneath, playing the film’s frantic soundtrack.
The concert chorale took off their formal attire, unfazed, to reveal T-shirts, jeans and sandals underneath as they sang an a cappella rendition of the Beatles’ “Ob-la-di, Ob-la-da” and the AURA boom-box group created a song by filing down the aisles to the stage, each holding boom-boxes that played a different radio station.
“It was (creator John Cage) finding music everywhere,” said AURA member and musical arts doctoral candidate Mark Buller about the radio performance.
“The cool thing about this is that he was sort of rebelling against the idea of performance sounding the same. If you take a Brum’s sonata, it’s always going to have the same notes, but with ‘Radio Music,’ no two performances will ever be alike at all.”
The evening was rounded off with a wind ensemble, which was soon joined by the Spirit of Houston marching band. The two groups came together to produce a tremendous sound that threatened to shake the room, which was joined by the audience, who stood and clapped along.
“We have an amazing music program here, we’re just so lucky,” said Ashly Neumann, a vocal performance graduate student, who sang in the show.
“We get to do four fully staged shows with orchestra, which is just almost unheard of these days. To be able to get major roles and major stage time, you just grow so much when you’re on stage. We have amazing teachers here, amazing coaches. We’re just really fortunate to do what we do on a daily basis, and to have the kind of support from the community that we get here, too.”
