Written by: Anaya Parker
Southern’s Symphony Orchestra went on tour to Andrews University last month.
Laurie Redmer Cadwallader, associate professor at the School of Music, said the orchestra, which has been busy visiting locations around the globe, had not been to the Michigan campus in two decades.
“We haven’t been up there since 2003, which was just before their Howard Performing Arts Center was open,” Cadwallader said. “So we [had] never actually gotten to perform up there; it’s been a long time.”
“So we [had] never actually gotten to perform up there; it’s been a long time.”
The approximately 75 students performed in a total of five concerts over the four-day tour, which occurred Nov. 14-17. The orchestra also performed on campus with the Andrews University Symphony Orchestra at Howard Performing Arts Center on Saturday night. Much of the student’s time in Michigan was spent practicing for that combined performance.
“We don’t get to do it very often because there aren’t many spaces that will hold both of our groups.”
“It’s just fun to…[collaborate] with another university’s orchestra,” Cadwallader said, “and we don’t get to do it very often because there aren’t many spaces that will hold both of our groups.”
The combined group of Southern and Andrews students played several pieces that Southern’s orchestra performed during its previous concert in Collegedale, such as Dukas’ “Fanfare for Brass” and Barber’s “Adagio for Strings” with the Andrews University orchestra’s string section.
There were approximately a combined number of 120 string players, according to Cadwallader. By themselves, Southern students played Mendelssohn Symphony No. 3 from their October concert.
On Saturday afternoon, the group made a short excursion to Lake Michigan, spending time at the beach in St. Joseph for a couple of hours before the evening performance.
“I enjoyed going to Lake Michigan,” Emily White, a senior music theory and literature major said. “I don’t know what other people did, but I went and walked along the pier with some friends, played ultimate frisbee and jumped into the lake with Josh Issa.”
“One of the things that a tour does is it really bonds the students.”
Ava-Caroline Schmidt, a freshman mass communication major, is a violin player who went on tour with the orchestra. She was excited to meet new people at Andrews and play music with them. According to Schmidt, the Southern and Andrews students were placed intermittently at the music stands.
“One of the things that a tour does is it really bonds the students,” Cadwallader said. “It’s intense together time. But because of the many concerts, and because of the forced togetherness, we come home bonded, and our sound changes because we play together more.”
“I know on the bus it can get crammed, but it’s just so much fun,” Schmidt said.
Cadwallader sees the orchestra tours as not just a musical event but a social one, as well. It’s a team-building opportunity for the orchestra and something she says graduates remember about their time in the orchestra.
Orchestra is a special group for many students, according to Schmidt, who heartily recommended that students join the group. “[Orchestra is] a way to get exposed to a lot of different genres of music, and also, you get to play together as a team,” she said. “It’s just really fun.”
