Montana Tech Copper Hill Choir Presents Virtual Concert

11/12/2020

The Montana Tech Copper Hill Choir virtual concert, Songs in the Key of Quarantine, will be held on Sunday, November 15th at 3:00 p.m. The virtual-only concert can be viewed via YouTube here

This brief concert of five pieces is meant to provide a story arc of the incredibly challenging year of 2020. The concert begins with Eric Whitacre’s “Glow,” from the Walt Disney World show, World of Color: Winter Dreams. This piece begins the concert in the present, as we observe the peaceful blanket of snow that seems to be here to stay.

In the next piece, Richard A. Williamson’s “Cool Moon,” we look to the night sky and ask the cold winter moon to sooth our anxiety and heartache over the chaos of the past several months as we wonder how many others are doing the same.

Quite non-traditional for a choir, the full despair of this story arc comes through in “To Touch the Hand of God,” written by the New Orleans, Louisiana “sludge” metal band Crowbar, arranged for full choir by Fred Crase. In this concert, it serves as an acknowledgement of the brokenness of the world as a result of Covid-19.

Things get brighter with the singing of “Hold Your Head Up High,” a song by the band Darlingside, again arranged for full choir by Fred Crase. Through nostalgic reflection we are asked to look through the chaos and remember what is good in this world, as is punctuated by the lyric, “Misery’s no rest for weary gentlemen.”

The final piece of this virtual concert is another song performed by the band Darlingside, a cover of Muse’s “Knights of Cydonia,” also arranged for choir by Fred Crase. Featured in the Copper Hill Choir’s performance of this piece are the instrumental talents of Braeden Beck on piano, Austin Seyer on guitar, and Rebecca Bryan and Chase Jamieson on ukulele. This final piece represents our determination to defy the current chaos, uncertainty, anger, and inequality currently facing our global society.