March 1, 2024 – The Santa Fe Singers will be joined by the Santa Fe Guitar Ensemble and the Voices Rising Community Chorus for the annual “Sing Into Spring” concert at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, March 21, 2024, in the Jackson N. Sasser Fine Arts Hall at the Northwest Campus of Santa Fe College (SF), 3000 NW 83 Street, Gainesville.
Tickets are $15 for adults; $9 for seniors, students, children and military service members; and free to SF students, faculty, and staff with college ID cards. Tickets are available from the Fine Arts Hall box office at 352-395-4181 or online from Showpass at showpass.com/sing-into-spring-2.
“This year’s ‘Sing Into Spring’ is loosely themed around care for the Earth and for each other,” explained Mitchell Rorick, who co-directs the Santa Fe Singers with April Basiletti. Both directors are adjunct associate professors of music at SF.
“We’re happy to welcome the Santa Fe Guitar Ensemble and the Voices Rising Community Chorus as our special guests,” Rorick continued. The Guitar Ensemble is led by SF’s new guitar instructor, Adjunct Assistant Professor of Music Edward White. Voices Rising Community Chorus is a Gainesville-based intergenerational choir that features singers ages eight and up led by Artistic Director Ruth Lewis.
The program includes songs that span centuries and different vocal styles. Featured music ranges from “El Grillo” (“The Cricket”), likely written by Josquin des Prez in the 1500s, to “Under the Sea,” Alan Menken’s and Howard Ashman’s song from “The Little Mermaid,” a 1989 Disney animated film.
Earth, Wind & Fire’s popular “September” is included as is “The Storm Is Passing Over” by Charles Albert Tindley, an African American Methodist minister and gospel music composer whose composition “I’ll Overcome Someday” is credited as the basis for the Civil Rights anthem “We Shall Overcome.”
The combined choirs will close the concert with Brian Tate’s “We Are One,” an anthem adapted from Bible verses in Deuteronomy that carry a message of love and caring.
“Sing Into Spring” is organized and sponsored by the Santa Fe College Fine Arts and Entertainment Technology Department.
For more information about “Sing Into Spring,” call Rorick at 352-395-5296. For ticket information, call the SF Box Office at 352-395-4181.