The Milligan Music Department held their spring joint concert outside of Derthick Hall at 6:00pm on Monday, April 19. The concert was originally scheduled for 6:00pm on Friday, April 16 but was postponed due to the anticipation of rain.
The concert was the first live performance of the school year for both the Concert Choir and the Orchestra. This event would have taken the place of two concerts that would have happened in a normal school year: one for the Concert Choir and Orchestra, and an acapella concert featuring the Women’s Chorale, Heritage and Herd Mentality.
The concert was divided into five parts, with the Concert Choir first performing renditions of Ndikhokhele Bawo, Do Not Be Afraid, Give Me Jesus, and Saints Bound for Heaven. The Women’s Chorale performed next with Celtic Gloria, Were You There, and Blessings. Heritage followed with performances of Great is Thy Faithfulness; Lord, Have Mercy; and Getting There. The Orchestra then performed Let There Be Peace on Earth, Danny Boy, and Celtic Roots. The finale included the Concert Choir and Orchestra combined for a beautiful performance of Be Thou My Vision.
This event was especially important for graduating members of both groups. Senior Shawn Allen, a member of both the Concert Choir and Heritage, loved being able to perform one last time,
“This performance was really important to me,” said Allen, “being my senior year, this is really the last chance I have to share my voice in the Milligan setting with my peers who I have worked with for four years, and to show that our hard work was well worth it.”
Senior and Orchestra member Michael Nickens also stressed the concert’s importance to the Milligan community,
“This is the first step in us getting back to normalcy, especially with music; it’s been so strange the last few semesters with COVID-19, and so it’s good to finally begin taking steps to get people back into seats and listening to live music again.”
Concert-goers were also pleased with the live performances, like senior Kevin Riley,
“It was an amazing and impressive performance, especially with limited acoustics that they had to face performing outside.”
Junior Garret Harvill was delighted to finally see more of the community back on campus,
“There’s a lot of people on campus right now, and it’s really great to see all the friendly faces of friends and family members that we don’t get to see as much, so it was great to see the community come together to support the concert members.”
This event concludes the Milligan Music Department concert schedule for the school year.
Headline photo: Friends and family members enjoy the live performances of the Milligan Choir and Orchestra.