The Music department live streamed a Student Spotlight showcasing the instrumental and choral music students on Thursday.
The event took place in the Cosumnes River College Recital Hall and featured musical performances by the orchestra, choir, concert and jazz bands. A small in-person audience was in attendance, while others watched through the live stream.
“This features all of our instrumental ensembles and all of our vocal ensembles,” said Music Professor Maxwell Kiesner. “I guess I would chalk this up as one of the first performances on campus since lockdown, or the pandemic.”
The show opened with the jazz band, directed by Kiesner, performing the upbeat tune “All Blues” by Miles Davis. The jazz portion of the concert closed with a strong rendition of “St. James Infirmary” by Joe Primrose, with incredible solos on trumpet and flute by Nate Jackson and Edson Saechao.
Nate Jackson, a 20-year-old music major who played trumpet for the jazz band in the Student Spotlight, said “St. James Infirmary” was his favorite song to perform.
“It’s been my favorite because I like when people have a reaction to my music and our music,” Jackson said. “It’s always fun to play too because it’s different every time we play it.”
The choir followed after with a series of rearranged songs from the early 1600s themed around animals, beginning with “New Oysters” and ending with “The Old Dog.” Music Professor Omari Tau said the choir consisted of the college chorus, chamber singers and other auditioned singers.
“It is just fun to put our voices together, something that has been very difficult to do again in the squares of the Zoom virtual sort of setting,” Tau said. “So we really jumped at the chance to sing together.”
The showcase ended with the student concert band and orchestra, featuring popular songs arranged by students. The orchestra opened their set with “Gusty Garden Galaxy” from the “Super Mario Galaxy” soundtrack, arranged by Armando Muse.
In an impressive and melodious ensemble, the orchestra was able to shine a new light on the chipper video game music, and followed with a fantastically rich performance of “Rey’s Theme” from “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” arranged by Evan French.
The concert band and orchestra closed the event with an experimental performance of two Tango tracks, a genre that Kiesner said the orchestra had only started to explore this semester. Despite their inexperience, the orchestra harmonized across both tracks.
While the event only included a small in-person audience of music students, the musicians and directors expressed excitement about the live performance regardless.
“I was just really excited,” Jackson said. “I just enjoyed being able to play in person again.”