Family Weekend with University Chorale

by Eddie Sonnie

We rehearsed for our Family Weekend concert for about five weeks, and on Saturday, October 6, pretty much the entire Department of Music performed on stage together: University Orchestra and Band, Jazz Ensemble, Marching Captains, Chamber Choir and University Chorale (that’s me). There were antics, gimmicks and a lot of laughs on stage, as everyone was enjoying each other’s performances.

One particularly funny performance involved the trumpeters putting on taxi driver hats and acting like they were embarrassed because they had arrived late to the performance under-prepared. The song was supposed to mimic the sounds of a taxi roaming around, and it was hard to not laugh on stage when the cop came out and gave them tickets for “forgetting the key change.” We even had an appearance from Aphrodite. Yes, Aphrodite the Greek goddess, and she roamed across the stage to strums from a harp, throwing roses out into the audience and at the instrumentalists. You name it, Christopher Newport’s music department has probably done it.

In my estimation, the best part of the concert was when I started – I mean the University Chorale started to sing. We sang a really fun, upbeat song titled “Let the River Run” to the beat of drums, “The Prayer” which is a really beautiful song that we dedicated to our first lady Rosemary Trible, who was blowing kisses at us the entire time, and finally “God of our Father” which is a really powerful piece that made everyone in the crowd stand up and wave their miniature American flags.

I am so glad I joined the University Chorale this year because I really missed the feeling of performing on stage with friends. I missed having the music in my life. I missed the sense of community that emerges in a choir. But now that Family Weekend is in the history books, it’s time to get a move-on to Holiday Happening!