International relations and chemistry are reputed to be difficult classes. In comparison, courses involving music and art are usually unfairly assumed to be less challenging. But for members of the Tufts Chamber Singers, who are performing tonight in Distler Hall, music is something to be taken very seriously, both artistically and academically.
Chamber singing is a cappella music performed by a small group of people; in this case, 25 students.
"It would've been just functional, practical music for a party, but then it got more serious and people started doing it as concerts," Andrew Clark, who teaches and conducts the Chamber Singers, said. "We have a repertoire that spans 400 years."
While the Tufts Chamber Singers don't rehearse in large stone halls with roaring fires or go jousting on the weekends, they do get to travel.
Two years ago, they visited Prague and Italy. After their performance tonight, they will be going to Spain for a weeklong musical tour over spring break.
"I am very excited for the travel and language aspects [of our trip] as well as the opportunity to sing in 300-year-old cathedrals," singer and junior Diana Chang said in an e-mail to the Daily.
Chorus member and sophomore Michael Pfitzer agreed. "The trip to Spain is going to be one of the highlights of my college career," he said in an e-mail.
The choir will visit Seville, Cordoba and Madrid, and perform three times. One of their performances has been organized as a benefit concert for AIDS, and they will possibly collaborate with a Spanish choir for one show.
"It seems like a vacation, but it's not," Clark said, "The chamber singers are representing the department, the university and even the United States as artistic ambassadors."
Several of the pieces that the choir will perform tonight were chosen specifically for their upcoming travel.
"I wanted to find Spanish music as well as American music that we can perform for a Spanish audience," Clark said. Since it was chosen with Spain in mind, the music performed at Tufts will be quite diverse.
"The music we're performing on Friday night provides a nice mix of styles and settings," Pfitzer said, "Our pieces range from prayers to the Virgin Mary to a memorial about Sept. 11."
Several of the pieces the choir will perform were composed by Tufts alumni, including the one about Sept. 11, which was written by Tufts graduate Trevor Weston, now a professor at the College of Charleston. The Chamber Singers will also perform two pieces in conjunction with the University of Rochester Choir.
"Intercollegiate experiences are crucial to the college experience, allowing us each to listen to and learn from each other," Pfitzer said.
Clark said he is excited about the performance in the new music hall. "It'll be a really nice way to hear another group in this space and spread a little envy to other colleges in the country," he said.
"I can't imagine a performance venue in the United States more well-suited to a cappella, choral singing that we do than this space. The space will ultimately be one of the most sought after in the country."
The Chamber Singers have put in a huge amount of preparation for the concerts.
"Some people think that artistic talents just produce art, but the work we all have to put in to make a great sound come out of our choir is the most challenging part," Pfitzer said.
Although they spend hours each week rehearsing, students still feel pressured to perfect their singing, because the music they perform is so difficult.
"We sing a lot of music of a very high caliber, so being able to perform each piece to the best of our ability given our time constraints is sometimes a struggle," Chang said.
Despite the effort it requires, students embrace their music and say it is worth the time spent in class and rehearsal.
"There's something really special about coming together with other talented singers to form an experience completely unlike solo singing or performing in a hundred voice choir," Pfitzer said.
Clark allows that choral chamber music in unique, and can be as transcendent for its audience as for the people singing it. "There's something about the immediacy and the intimacy of choral music that goes not so much voice to ear, but heart to heart," Clark said. "We feel like there's a lot of drama and tragedy in the world and that, in a way, our concerts hope to both serve as a refuge: to let people just experience a big beautiful moment as well as get them back to a place of calm and beauty and reflection."
