They’ve sung on the Eiffel Tower. They’ve sung in “the county.”
They performed seven concerts in three days over March break, but it was all just practice: the USM Chamber Singers have been touring the state as a warm-up for their European tour.
Next month, they’ll sing in Prague, Vienna, Slovakia, Auschwitz and Krakow.
“They don’t hesitate to stop and sing where the feeling strikes them,” says Dr. Robert Russell, who has been directing the group since he came to USM 29 years ago. “We have six established concerts over the 14-day (European) tour, but we perform much more. We stop and perform in markets and town squares, in churches and yes, even atop monuments.”
The Maine tour over vacation began in Augusta, stopped in Ellsworth, and then headed into Aroostook County before swooping back to Bangor and heading home. The 34-member troupe tours this area throughout the school year.
It’s a highly selective audition process to get into the a cappella group, and it requires a full year commitment to the group.
Russell also directs the USM Chorale, in which about 100 students participate each year. While the Chorale has one major performance each year, the Chamber Singers perform at least a dozen times a semester, according to Russell, and they often tour the region and give concerts for the community.
Jon Coons, in his 10th semester as part of the group, said that the Chamber Singers has been an important part of his path toward becoming a professional opera singer.
“Without a doubt, aside from training me to become a better singer, it has opened me up to a whole world of networking,” he said. “In fact, it was through a Chamber Singers contact that I wound up in my current job as a church choir conductor.”
As far as the pressures of auditioning, he admits, “it’s easier for a guy to get into the group,” which is just a matter of the ratio of male to female students.
Jon traveled Europe with the group during his sophomore year at USM. He describes “goosebump moments” when they sang at St. Mark’s Basilica in Venice. “There is no way that you could recreate that experience.”
Their tour will stop in large venues and small town concert halls, and perform for many different kinds of crowds. They’ll sing for worshippers in church services and to heavy applause in the smaller towns, which are usually thrilled to have a young group from afar perform for them.
“The members of the Chamber Singers have really become a family to me,” says Coons. “Sometimes we fight, sometimes we are best friends, but at the end of the day, we all know that we’re coming together to create music, in a unique way that we could never do simply by ourselves.”
This week, catch their Saturday performance in Corthell Hall. If you miss it, see them next fall when they perform with the Portland Symphony Orchestra.