By JAMES BELL
Hays Post
Fort Hays State University Concert Choirs will take the stage Friday for the first FHSU music event of the year.
Under the direction of professor of music and director of choral activities Terry Crull, the free concert begins at 7:30 p.m. in the Beach/Schmidt Performing Arts Center, 600 Park.
“It's going to be a fun concert,” Crull said. “We're calling it Take Me to the Water because this summer, when I was looking at potential pieces, I found a great gospel, spiritual arrangement by Rollo Dilworth, an upcoming arranger called Take Me to the Water, and it features Wait in the Water and Down by the Riverside, two old spiritual hymns.”
All selections, he said, feature water, rivers or lakes as a theme.
“We've got River Run. We've got Walking on the Green Grass, which happens if you get rain,” Crull said. “And Wade in the Water by the Fort Hays Singers and At the River, a hymn arrangement, Flow Gently Sweet Afton a folk song from Scotland. And just every title has something to do in some way or other with water or rain or rivers.”
The concert will start with the FHSU Concert Choir singing the Fort Hays alma mater and then Take Me to the Water.
Following the adult community group, the Smokey Hill Chorale will offer four songs. The Fort Hays Singers will take the stage after.
They will offer songs prepared for the evening but also selections from their recent trip to the Renaissance Festival in Bonner Springs.
“We went in costume and sang a couple of performances on a beautiful warm day with lots of people at the Renaissance Festival,” Crull said. “We had a good trip and a fun stay.”
The Concert Choir will wrap the concert with several songs dealing with water.
Their selections will include, To the Old Mill, “about a guy who met a girl 20 years ago and he didn't make work of it, so now she married somebody else, and he's still waiting at the mill to grind his meal, and he's turned old and gray,” Crull said.
“That can be a nice fun folk story,” he continued, “And Water Night, a great piece for choral singers by Eric Whitacre. … That was one of his first ones, a big hit Water Night. Interesting text and beautiful music.”
“So that'll be, I think, an entertaining concert,” Crull said. “Something for everybody. ... Fun spirituals and folk songs for people who just want to hear a great story put to music. That's what we do, we tell stories.”
While the concert marks the first of the year for the students, some of the performers will be familiar to the audience as FHSU students return alongside new recruits.
Crull estimates that about half of the choir are music majors, with the others made up of students from across campus.
“You don't have to be a music major to be in either group,” Crull said. “Although, in the Fort Hays Singers, which was the top ensemble, most of them are majors or music ed majors. Not all of them, but most of them.”
Many are from Hays, he said.
“It's just a fun group to watch, perform, and to hear perform,” Crull said. “And so, I invite everybody to come on out and hear us.”