The Southeast Missouri State University Choir and the Chamber Choir held its first concert last Thursday in the Robert F. and Gertrude L. Shuck Music Recital Hall at the River Campus.

"I programmed a lot of this repertoire specifically for Shuck," Dr. Peter J. Durow, director of choral activities, said. "It's a very live space and, with a capella music, it's just a beautiful sound that is wonderful in this room."

The University Choir is the larger choir, which is made up of about 40 singers, and consists of both music majors and non-music majors. The Chamber Choir is a smaller choir and is made up of 17 auditioned vocalists.

This was the first and only concert that the two choirs will feature this semester in the Shuck space as they will go on to perform at their perspective holiday concerts in St. Genevieve and surrounding areas.

The choirs, led by Durow, started the concert with soft renaissance ballets sung by the Chamber Choir. The pieces chosen for this section were centered on love and emotion.

The choir brought the audience into the performance with tributes to composers Thomas Morley, Balthazar Donato and Thomas Ford.

The University Choir then followed up the Chamber Choir with their rendition of "Kyrie," a piece from "A Thanksgiving Mass." Three female singers started the piece from the balcony because the composer, Knut Nystedt, felt as if the voices should be coming from the furthest place in any room that it is performed. Durow joked that since the choir had a hard time figuring out if they wanted the singers to be in Jackson, Missouri, or in the balcony, the balcony was chosen because it was more convenient.

Durow then introduced the Chamber Choir back to the stage to give the audience a taste of what their holiday concerts would consist of. The choir went on to sing "A Virgin Unspotted (JUDEA)" by Williams Billings.

Durow provided the audience with a fun fact about Billings, saying that he liked chewing tobacco. He said that it had nothing to do with the concert but was something he just felt the audience should know.

The choir followed that performance with a jazz rendition of the classic Christmas carol "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen," an arrangement by Marilyn Shenenberger.

The concert concluded with the University Choir's powerful rendition of "Walk Him Up The Stairs," which was taken from the play "Purlie." This piece was accompanied by pianist Rebecca Nelson and was the only piece that was sung with any instruments.

Christian Boyd, senior in Southeast's Department of Music, performed in both choirs and believed that singing these different pieces will help him in his future career.

"It's great getting teaching experience in both choirs because I want to be a choir teacher, so its good having all these types of musical styles and getting experience leading the choir as well," Boyd said.

Boyd said it's exciting to be able to show students what the music department is all about.

"It's really good, it builds up to the combination of the semester, and it's just good showing what we've been working on for months now," Boyd said.

Sylvia Foster, senior in the Department of Dance, said that she loved the concert and always looks forward to seeing different types of arts at the River Campus.

"I love coming out and supporting all types of arts at River Campus," Foster said. "This is my first time coming to a University Choir concert, but I think they did an amazing job with incorporating the holidays in with traditional music as well."