Another year is drawing to a close, which means another group of Hamline seniors are preparing for graduation. To mark the end of the school year and say farewell to the students who are leaving, the various music groups on campus are putting on their annual spring concerts. The Women’s Chorale and the Wind Ensemble had their concert on April 27, and the A Cappella performed on Sunday, but there’s still a chance to see the Jazz Ensemble and the Orchestra. The Jazz Ensemble will perform on Friday, May 9 at 6 p.m. and the Orchestra will perform on Saturday, May 10 at 2 p.m.

Although the music groups also put on annual winter concerts, senior Savannah Dotson, who participates in the A Cappella Choir, says that the winter and spring concerts are very different from each other.

“The winter concert and the spring concert are usually pretty different, not necessarily in the quality or any kind of songs that we do, ‘cause they usually go pretty good. But the winter concert takes place in the church and the spring concert takes place in Sundin, so it’s a far more intimate concert, and it’s definitely an interesting concert as opposed to the winter one. The winter one usually has a lot of tradition, so we sing a lot of the same songs…the spring concert is a little bit less traditional; we do lots of very different songs,” Dotson explained.

John Koziol, Director of the Jazz Ensemble, said that the spring performance is also distinctive from their winter performance. Obviously they have different songs and some new additions to the band, but they’ll also be playing at a different venue.

“We’re giving the concert in a different location; we’re doing it in Sundin versus in Anne Simley Theatre. It won’t be as long— it’ll be a little bit shorter, and we’ll have less guest artists this time. For the winter concert, we had more people playing with the group who were not actually Hamline students. This time we have less of those,” Koziol said.

When asked why he chose to switch it up and have the ensemble play at Sundin for their last show, Koziol said that it’s a good experience to play at a range of places. He added that sometimes other locations are used by other groups, but it’s nice to have the chance to play at Sundin for their last performance.

 “I like to have the group play in a lot of different places. Some of our other places that we have played throughout the course of the year are occupied, and it’s nice to use the kind of in-house facility for our final hurrah,” Koziol noted.

Because this is the final performance for the class of 2014, the music directors want to give special credit to their senior students like Dotson. Although she’s looking forward to graduating, Dotson also said that she’s sad to leave something that she’s been a part of since freshman year.

“I love performing in a group like that. Individual performances are kind of hard and I’ve never been a super like in the limelight person; I get very nervous and I forget a lot of things that I was going to do. But I love being in a group and being able to connect and do all sorts of things with the people around me,” Dotson said. “And I think singing in a choir is a really unique experience that allows you to do a lot of really awesome things. Just being able to sing with people and have it sound really good at a performance is just an experience that I love and I’m gonna miss it a lot after this.”

The music directors echo that sentiment. George Chu, Director of the A Cappella Choir, said that he’s proud of the seniors’ accomplishments but at the same time will be sad to see them leave.

“My favorite aspect of this concert is the 10 graduating seniors who have contributed so much to the music program and to the campus community in their years here at Hamline. Most of these students traveled abroad in our Concert Tour of England and Wales 2013, and share memories of the beautiful music we brought to audiences there. But I’m really not looking forward to their graduation (much as they are!)” Chu wrote via email.

Koziol agreed; he looks forward to the spring concert and wants to give a good final performance but also said that it’s bittersweet.

“This concert is always both really fun and rewarding and yet kind of melancholy,” Koziol said as he described the seniors’ last performance.
“But I’m looking forward to a great final concert with the two graduating seniors, and kind of keeping the fires lit with the rest of the kids. So it’s basically a closure event for a great year; we’ve had a great year this past school year,” Koziol said.