Crowell Hall was filled with the resounding sounds of singing Friday night as
the Biola Women’s Chorus and the Biola Chorale combined their musical talents.

The evening’s concert, “Soul Sounds,” was accompanied by pianist Lynette McGee and featured many spirituals, in addition to classical and contemporary works. The Women’s Chorus started the evening off as members filed onto the risers in their long black dresses and serenaded the audience with a piece by 18th-century composer George Handel. Julie Ramsey, who conducted the Women’s Chorus, explained the significance of the program’s music selection.

“The music in our Soul Sounds concert reflected four centuries of choral music, from various cultures and in various languages,” she said. “These pieces were meticulously chosen to reflect many eras, styles, languages, and texts.”

Freshman chorus member Kendal Metcalf, who treated audiences to her vocal talents in a solo, was pleased with the night’s music selection.

“The particular song selections sung by the Chorus made Crowell sound like a beautiful choir of nuns in an abbey lifting their spiritual songs to God,” she said.

After the women finished, the Biola Choral took the stage. Pristinely attired in black dresses and suits, the group was under the direction of conductor and professor Shawna Stewart. The group sang to the audiences in Spanish, Latin and English, performing pieces from the 1500s to the 1970s.

Student conductor Gina Cruz led fellow students in a 16th century piece, “If Ye Love Me.”

The audience also saw an obscure instrument called Harmonic Wheelies in action. These tube-like instruments are whirled around in circles, hence the name, and create pure and interesting sounds for songs like “Only My Dreams,” one of the songs performed Friday.

Sophomore Nathan Wagenet said the unison of the choir intensified the beauty of a song.

“As a choir, we can sing a piece like, ‘If Music Be the Food of Love’ and express the same emotion in so many different ways, from a sound so soft you barely hear it, to one so loud that it rings in the hall for seconds after we stop singing,” he said. “Music has so much power, but it’s most powerful when it can be shared with others.”