PSU Magazine Winter 1999

B y L S A L ii ethnically, a chamber choir is a vocal ensemb le suit– able for perfo rming in a chamber or mall room. But the PSU Chamber Choir's 40 soaring vo ices might rip the roof off such a place. So it's for the best that the ensemble' venue -and their audiences-are enormou and getting bigger all the time. The PSU Chamber Choir has a lot to celebrate. Last January, they presented the West Coast premier of an important original work, "Tombsongs" by Margaret Garwood. The ensemble's 20th anniversary reunion performance, held in October, was a smash , and prompted a new challenge grant by generous benefac– tors. Also, this spring the choir will travel to Eu rope, where they're the only Americans invited to the festi val of Tora Vieja, a chamber music compe– tition in Spain. While there, they've also been asked to dedicate a new chapel in a small Span ish village. After two decades of dynamic lead– ership by director and fo under Bruce Browne, the PSU Chamber Choir is today considered one of the very best in the nation, which is a bigger accomp lishmen t than it seems. These are not prima donnas but students after all, sometimes learning and performing 500-year-old songs with elaborate harmonies, sung in Latin, French , and panish. By all accounts it's Browne's leader hi p and love of teaching and performing, in that order, that has kept the group together and on track all these years. Browne is PSU's director of C horal Studies. "I think he's a musica l genius and a wonderfu l director. He just jumps into 0 v N G every opportunity to teach," says PSU student and choirist Melinda Garner. "l think that has to do with hi pass ion for teaching-he wants students to succeed and that's what happens." The world of chamber choirs is bounded by the very old and the very new-musica lly, spatially, and geographica lly. It's true that originally such groups produced sac red music in all the languages of Eu rope, in pe rfor– mances designed for intimate audi– ences, often accompanied by the quieter stringed instruments. Today's chamber artists are freer to redefine the genre, yet they also cling to the very oldest precedents. This gives them appeal to teen audiences-the chamber choir tours to high schools all over O regon-as well as the thou– sa nds-strong crowds they encounter in Eu ropean cathedra ls and concert halls. "In Spa in, they want us to sing contemporary music, American music," Garner says. So, the PSU choir will sing Lennon and McCartney's "Baby You Can Dri ve My Car" and "Come Together, " as well as an "Ave Mari a" by a modern Ameri can composer. Bear in mind th at there are many styles of "Ave Maria," but the song remains the same class ic prayer, and it's always in Latin . A ccording to Ga rner, "There's something Bruce always says, 'You might not be Catholic, you might not be Christian , but when you sing this music-beli eve someth ing!'" And that goes for the Beatles tunes as well. D Under music Professor Bruce Browne' direction, the PSU Chamber Choir has reached international succe . ESCENDO Amid the incredible sound of two score voices raised in seven-part harmonies at the PSU Chamber Choir's 20th Anniversary Concert, Pat and Trudy Ritz announced a $25,000 challenge grant for the PSU Vocal Scholarship Endowment. The Ritz Family Foundation will give the amount if PSU supporters can raise an equal amount in contri– butions to the program. This poten– tial $50,000 will join another grant of $50,000 given by the Ritz family last year. The money goes toward scholarships for vocal students, such as the Chamber Choir members. To give to the PSU Vocal Scholarship Endowment and meet the challenge, call 725-3396. (Lisa Loving, a Portland freelance writer who recently returned from Europe, has written for PSU Magaz ine in the past .) WINTER 1999 PSU MAGAZINE 9