Final concert of the semester approaches for Hendricks Chapel Choir

The Hendricks Chapel Choir will put on its 12th and final performance of the semester on Sunday at 7 p.m. The Annual Spring Concert will showcase a repertoire of mostly sacred music with secular moments. The show will bring together pieces from previous Sunday prayer performances of the traditional choir of Syracuse University. The concert is free and open to the public.

The concert is “a culmination of an entire semester’s worth of performances,” said Peppie Calvar, the director of the ensemble and Assistant Director of Choral Activities at SU.

“Whereas for other ensembles, an end-of-semester performance is the culmination of a semester’s worth of rehearsals,” she said.

Calvar will conduct alongside Anne Laver, the University organist and primary accompanist.

The Hendricks Chapel Choir is a 37-member audition-mixed chorus that operates as a class in the College of Visual and Performing Arts and performs in Hendricks Chapel every Sunday throughout the semester. Founded in 1929, it has over an 80-year legacy at Syracuse University and has been a resource for students seeking refuge through music.

The choir has the most non-music majors of any student ensembles on campus with members ranging from freshmen to Ph.D. students with diverse musical backgrounds. It also provides students who are not planning to be musicians the opportunity to perform.

The concert will open with an African-American spiritual by Jeffrey Ames titled, “I’ve Been in the Storm So Long,” a response to Hurricane Katrina. One of its recurrent lyrics exclaims, “I’ve been in the storm so long, oh give me little time to pray.”

“I’ve started the concert with that piece with the very choice text ‘so give me little time to pray,’ so that the rest of the concert can be that little time of prayer,” he said.

Junior music composition major Tyme Baez encourages students to appreciate the community the concert fosters and the music produced.

“Not only does it make you feel like you’re participating in this tradition of the Hendricks Chapel choir, but it’s also one of the most friendly and welcoming environments,” Baez said.

Ultimately, Calvar said the show provides both students and musicians an opportunity to detach from their daily academic routines and destress through beautiful music.