Thursday, December 22, 2011

Madrigal Dinners 2011







This year, the Madrigal Dinner took place over a three-day span (Dec.9-11), bringing color and fanfare to both Peru State College and Nebraska City. As usual, on Friday and Saturday evenings, this annual and festive event took place in the Peru State College Student Center.

As this series of photographs from Friday indicate, I took photographs of the various entertainments and then after the show added a variety of set shots; these photographs include the Madrigal Singers' rite of passage for new members, the kissing of the pig.


Of course, some people simply enjoy putting a lip lock on a pig:






The second group of photographs includes both the Saturday dinner at the college
and something new, a Sunday show in Nebraska City at Camp Catron hosted by the Nebraska City Apple Corps, a wonderful Barbershop Chorus that performed last month at Peru State College.


On all three nights, the Madrigal Singers entertained the audiences with both songs and opera.


Saturday, I filmed a couple selections from a popular opera from years past that the singers reprised, including The Geek Who Would Be King, Part One and Part Two.

In addition to videos from the opera, you can also enjoy
three songs the Madrigal Singers offered, including the beautiful "Help Me to Say Amen" and a whimsical number about poison ivy.

The Madrigal Dinners bring to a close this year's blog entries for term at Peru State College.

More to follow, soon enough.






Fall 2011 Band Concert



On Sunday afternoon, December 4, the Peru State College Concert Band and the Hoyt Street Jazz Ensemble entertained an appreciative audience in the College Theater.



The Concert Band offered a challenging program, and you can
enjoy one of the numbers on You Tube, "Fortress."


The difficulty of Saturday's program attests to how much this band has grown and improved over the past four years.



The Hoyt Street Jazz Ensemble continues to entertain throughout the school year.



The group offered an exciting selection of numbers that included "
Hold On, I'm Coming," a song that featured the voice of Xavier Gibson.

I also recorded the group's final selection, "Chicken," which includes solos by pretty much everyone in the band.