Goshen College hosted the annual Low Voice Festival at the Music Center on Tuesday. GC’s Vox Profundi was joined by tenor-bass choirs from four area high schools and a tenor-bass choir from Goshen, the Open Fifths.
The high school tenor-bass choirs present at the festival were the Logansport High School Berrytones, the Manchester High School Squire Choir Low Voices, the Elkhart High School Roaring Blue and the Goshen High School Crimson Men’s Choir. They were followed by the Open Fifths and Vox Profundi. Each choir sang one to two pieces alone before joining everyone onstage for two final combined pieces, the risers overflowed with over 130 singers for the final pieces.
A sizable crowd of community members and people connected to the many singers attended the concert. One the attendees was Ruth Schrock of Goshen, who said, “It was nice to see and hear the different sized groups and even the different ages.” The singers ranged from ages 14 to 80, and the ensembles ranged in size from six singers to just under 40.
Anton Alstrom-Brookhyser, a junior music education major who performed with Vox Profundi, discussed the things that make this concert special. He highlighted the fact that while Vox Profundi does perform, the focus is on bringing in the guest ensembles, which creates a unique atmosphere. He also appreciated the huge sound that the combined choirs were able to produce in the final two pieces.
Preceding the concert, the four high school choirs spent most of the day at GC in preparation. After beginning with a welcome from Scott Hochstetler, professor of music and director of Vox Profundi, they spent the rest of the day participating in workshops and clinics with Hochstetler, rehearsing both in their individual choirs and as a whole group and even taking a break to play some ultimate frisbee.
Hochstetler believes this festival is important because it celebrates the rich history of tenor-bass singing and works to get high school low voice singers excited about choral music, while combatting the stigma surrounding men in choir. He explained that bringing all these choirs together provides the opportunity to produce an extremely impactful sound and build camaraderie amongst the tenors and basses from across the region.
Isaac Moore, a senior at Goshen High School, reflected on his takeaways from the day, said, “One thing that I really like that Dr. Scott Hochstetler helped us to do today is take a step back and think about just how meaningful music has been to us in our lives, and how music is actually something that I don’t realize that I take for granted very frequently.”
Hochstetler echoed this sentiment. “Coming together in this beautiful hall with all these beautiful people, singing beautiful music and moving people is really special.”
