In a time when every club, team, and group is having their end-of-semester meeting/game/event, I want to steal your attention for a second and introduce you to some hidden gems of the MUN club community: the musicians of MUN’s School of Music. We’re tucked away over in the M.O. Morgan building across from Shiwak, so if you don’t know about the School of Music’s Fall Concert Series, that’s ok! Let me get you up to speed.
The School of Music runs concerts and events throughout the academic year, all of which are open to the public and have student pricing (or are entirely free!).
One of the best and most exciting of these events is the end-of-semester Ensemble Series, which offers the School of Music’s ensembles a chance to showcase their work to their family, friends, professors, and the general public. Seeing as our ensembles just took their final bows for the semester, let’s do a little performer recap!
Eda Lu: 2023 Concerto Competition Winner and Chamber Orchestra Soloist
Playing André Jolivet’s Flute Concerto No. 1 was certainly “a process” for Eda Lu, a 2023 graduate of the School of Music and the winner of that year’s MUN Concerto Competition.
When speaking about the work, Eda remarked that “the parts are crazy hard”, and that she’s been studying this piece on and off for over a year. “It’s tricky. It’s not like a Mozart concerto, there are a lot of tricky fingerings and a lot of tricky passages that aren’t exactly intuitive to the flute, so it was a process” she said, laughing. However, all the practice and study was worth it for Eda.
Though currently based in Montréal, she is glad to be home to perform alongside MUN’s Chamber Orchestra. “I haven’t been in the province for a while, so I really like interacting with all my old friends from when I was an undergrad. I really love playing with the orchestra. It was
one of my favourite parts when I was here, playing concertos with the soloists.”
To put the cherry on top, this performance is also a full-circle moment for Eda. “It’s really cool that I’m now the soloist”, she said.
Christina Acton: Masters in Choral Conducting student and Featured Conductor of MUN Chamber and Festival Choirs
“The focus was always the choirs,” said Christina Acton, the Featured Student Conductor of Let My Love Be Heard, the fall concert for the MUN Festival and Chamber Choirs.
Now completing their second year of a Choral Conducting Masters degree, Christina knows their way around choral repertoire and leadership. Therefore, the most rewarding moment of their time with the choirs was not conducting for the packed house of the 200-seat D.F. Cook Recital Hall. Instead, when new students expressed their appreciation for the safe and welcoming space Christina had created in the rehearsal room, “that was the best feeling ever.”
“Seeing people who normally would not care about choir, smiling and laughing and having fun, I was like, yes, yes, yes!” they said with a fist bump. “Choir is fun, I swear, I swear!”
Their second most-loved moment? Introducing new choral repertoire to eager audiences. “Getting to introduce more people to these choral pieces that aren’t, like, super super well known is really exciting.”
Christina will perform their self-conducted graduating recital in choral conducting in February of 2024.
Nicole Lambert: Jazz Orchestra Voice Soloist
Although Nicole has been singing jazz since her junior high days, her time as the Jazz Orchestra voice soloist was still full of learning.
“It’s not like classical at all, you have to completely rewire [your voice]” said Nicole, comparing the balancing of her jazz and classical singing to a kind of musical code-switching. Furthermore, training her ears was just as important as training her voice. When preparing to sing with the ensemble, Nicole spent as much of her practice time as she could familiarizing herself with this semester’s repertoire and the musical catalogues of the featured composers.
“My favourite part was being exposed to so many different composers… there’s a lot of trios I wouldn’t have come across, lots of material that I wouldn’t have found.”
Like Eda, Nicole found this work difficult but incredibly fulfilling. Recalling her first rehearsal with the ensemble in October of this year, she said, “I think it was about a month in, they put the vocals with the band and it was just, I was just really happy. I couldn’t stop smiling.”
Reanne Chapleau: Jazz and Wind Ensemble Trombone Soloist
Reanne is a Wind Ensemble and Jazz Orchestra veteran. She’s been a member of these ensembles since we started our degrees together in 2020, and she survived the proverbial dark ages (music school online), so catching up with her about the final fall concert of her degree was a big moment.
Her biggest takeaway from these ensembles? Community.
“[Wind/jazz ensemble] builds community with the faculty,” she said over the phone from her home in Ontario (we love a short exam season).
“We (faculty and students) come together twice a week throughout the entire semester, so it’s so rewarding to show everyone exactly what we’ve been working on and how much we’ve grown.”
The concerts are clearly a team effort, as “you feel close and connected because you just performed all your work together onstage.” Of course, the ensembles offer incredible learning opportunities in addition to community-building. When I asked her what stayed with her from her time with the groups, Reanne quickly and easily listed every lesson she’s ever learned, including but not limited to, “time management, ensemble awareness, ensemble etiquette, hard work, ensemble tonality, personal technique, tone improvement, aural distinction…” etc., etc. When I asked for a final quote about the groups, she offered, “I just love it.”
Clearly, the MUN Ensemble Series is the highlight of the semester for students. We love preparing our repertoire and love performing it for you even more. So, the next time you’re looking for something to do, take a look on the MUN Music website and find the next Ensemble
Concert. We’d love to see you there, or even welcome you into the ensemble! Remember, all MUN Music ensembles are open to any MUN student who passes the (super relaxed) audition process. Get your next elective credit with us! See you soon!
Song suggestions/Listed music:
- Orchestral
- Flute Concerto No. 1, André Jolivet, 1949
- Choral
- “Ring Out, Wild Bells” from The Passing of The Year, Jonathan Dove, 2000
- Esto les Digo, Kinley Lange, 2001
- Sing, my Child, Sarah Quartel, 2017 (*see if you can find a video featuring the 700 person choir this piece was composed for!)
- Jazz Ensemble
- Orange Coloured Sky, Milton DeLugg and Willie Stein, 1950
- Watch What Happens, Michel Legrand, Jacques Demy and Norman Gimbel, 1965
- Wind Ensemble
- Urban Light, James M. David, 202