Campus Comes Alive with Music this Month
Westmont student musicians and composers present diverse concerts this month, all free and in Deane Chapel on Westmont’s lower campus. For more information, please contact the music department at (805) 565-6040.
The Composer's Concert on Friday, Nov. 13, at 7 p.m highlights new works by Westmont student composers performed by both fellow students and the composers themselves. Robert Chu, Alexander Dill, Jonathan Lindsley, Jay Real and Jason Tong, will present their recently completed compositions, including works for piano, chorus, piano quintet and other ensembles.
Dr. Chan Ho Yun, director of Montecito International Music Festival and faculty at Colburn School of Music and Claremont Graduate University, teaches a masterclass on Saturday, Nov. 14, from 4-7 p.m. The performance is free and open to the public. Westmont’s top music students will perform pieces by Bach, Mendelssohn, Mozart and more.
The Vocal Chamber Concert will feature the Westmont Chamber Singers, a select ensemble drawn from the Westmont College Choir on Sunday, Nov. 15, at 4 p.m. The Chamber Singers will perform a varied program of a cappella literature, both sacred and secular, ranging from music of the Renaissance to recent compositions. Grey Brothers, professor of music, conducts the Chamber Singers.
The Jazz Ensemble concert, under the direction of John Douglas, is Wednesday, Nov. 18, at 7 p.m. The ensemble features Abby Polett and Michelle Quezada on vocals, Erik Fauss on violin and viola, Chris Fedderson on tenor sax, Calvin Chiang on guitar, and Katrina Whitman on string bass. Westmont jazz alumnus Jonathan Palmquist, who recently earned a master’s degree in music from Cal State Northridge, will play the drums. Douglas will lead the ensemble from the piano.
Polett and Quezada will sing standards such as “Honeysuckle Rose” and “These Foolish Things Remind Me of You,” as well as dreamy contemporary arrangements of Carol King’s “Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow,” and Christmas favorite “What Child Is This?” The ensemble will perform Bud Powell’s gnarly bop classic, “Hallucinations,” Charlie Parker’s “Scrapple From the Apple,” John Coltrane’s “Naima,” and several Vince Guaraldi Christmas classics featured in the iconic Peanuts television cartoons.
The String Chamber Concert, featuring top string student musicians, will include works by Shostakovich, Brahms, Dohnanyi, Mendelssohn, Beethoven and more on Friday, Nov. 20, at 7 p.m.