Each year, the EMU Gala Concert is an opportunity to show that the EMU community extends far beyond the bounds of the campus. Musical groups featuring the talents of current students, alumni, professors, and members of the broader community come together to tell a story of shared humanities.
There was no single portion of the gala that was meant to be held above the others. Each piece had its own story to tell, and each performer had a part in telling that story. However, David Berry, Associate Professor and Director of the Music Program, wanted to highlight the student performers who helped make the night possible. Berry said, “Each year of these gala concerts, one of the big goals for them is that all of our student ensembles are featured.” This goal was reflected in the structure of the show. The performance began with “Illuminare,” a five-movement piece that brought together the EMU University Choir and Orchestra, directed by Benjamin Bergey, Associate Professor of Music. Throughout the piece, the audience is taken through a story that explores themes of joy, a descent into darkness and chaos, and peace. In the final movement, the choir sings out, “Illuminare his qui in tenebris,” which translates to “illuminate those in darkness.”
The Gala featured a performance from Tony Melendez, who was accompanied by the EMU Chamber Singers, jazz band, and Benjamin Guerrero. Melendez is a Nicaraguan American performer who learned how to play the guitar with his feet because he was born without arms. He gained notoriety after performing for Pope John Paul II. Explaining how Melendez became a part of the Gala, Berry said, “Tony Melendez was a longtime family friend of Ben Guerrero, so when we were trying to think of who are artists who would be a good guest for the gala, Ben brought his idea of Tony up… It’s really special when you can kind of bring people to your city and your home, who you knew from a different part of life or a different time, and then build with them and have them be a part of something.”
The Gala culminates in a single night of musical performances, but it takes months of preparation. During that preparation, the students who make up these ensembles get to connect with their community. Marianne Short, a senior at EMU, said, “It’s helped me connect a lot, especially in this last year, because with being a nursing major and in the clinical part of my education, all my classes are with the same people, so it feels a little isolating from the rest of the campus… [with choir] I get to see a lot of different people that I don’t normally interact with on campus, which I really appreciate.”
For Monica Ehrenfels, a first-year at EMU, being a part of the orchestra, wind ensemble, Chamber Singers, and jazz band has been a way to get integrated into the EMU community. Ehrenfels said, “I’ve been able to make a lot of really lovely friends from many years, and also meet a lot of different professors as well. I think it’s also nice that for some of the ensembles, there’s also alumni and community members as well. So I think just that spirit of collaboration is just so incredible, and I really love it.”
That spirit of collaboration was especially prevalent in the piece Our Story, which featured EMU President Shannon Dycus, David Berry, Benjamin Bergey, and various ensembles and performers who represented different cultural backgrounds. When asked about the significance of this piece, Berry said, “The sum of the whole is greater than the parts… it sort of started with this idea and this concept, then from there it was like, we’ll figure out everything else. Something really important was also the idea of how can we bring those things together? I think that’s where the real creativity and individuality and irreplaceable part comes in… I was like, how can we actually do something new? Like, what does it sound like when we put this with that together and find a different genre for a couple minutes?”
When asked about all the different groups involved with the Gala, Ehrenfels said, “It was really cool, and it’s so interesting to see how many different identities make up our community, and they’re all connected to EMU in some way… Those connections are just so different, and I don’t know, just seeing such a diverse group of people come together, it’s just so lovely.”
