Music

By Cathryn Dutton

Loyola University Maryland has many outstanding liberal arts programs and among these programs, is the fine arts department, home to theater, art, photography, and music. Though it is a very small part of Loyola’s culture, the music program of the fine arts department is a thriving part of the college, important to both students and faculty.

Read more: Loyola Music Department

By: Stephenie Tucker

The lights dimmed and a hush filled the air, each silent face was visible only by the light of elegant candelabras and sconces. Darkly clothed choir members entered the chapel, each with a single candle in clasped hands, and proceeded down the center aisle, stopping halfway, the director stood in front of them and suddenly a soprano voice pierced the silence with “Once in Royal David’s City, stood a lowly cattle shed…”

Read more: Lessons and Carols

by Stephenie Tucker

The lights dimmed and a hush filled the air, each silent face was visible only by the light of elegant candelabras and sconces. Darkly clothed choir members entered the chapel, each with a single candle in clasped hands, and proceeded down the center aisle, stopping halfway, the director stood in front of them and suddenly a soprano voice pierced the silence with “Once in Royal David’s City, stood a lowly cattle shed…” This was the beginning of the Loyola University Maryland’s twenty-second annual “Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols”, held in the Alumni Memorial Chapel on December 4th.

Read more: Lessons and Carols

Chordbusters belt it out at McManus

By: Billy Solano

The Loyola University Maryland Chordbusters a capella group performed at a sold out McManus Theater on December 4^th, 2009. The Chordbusters, featuring both the male Chimes and the female Belles performed for about two hours, exemplifying their talents through skits, solos, and even beat-boxing. For the Chordbusters, it was the first of two concerts this year, with the latter taking place at the end of spring semester.

Kevin Chadwick, a sophomore at Loyola who is now in his second year performing with the Chordbusters was amazed at the turn out. “This year compared to last, we really worked hard to advertise the winter concert, whether it was by word of mouth or posting flyers. Since we only have two concerts a year, the public doesn’t really get to see us perform too often, so we wanted to make sure that the turn out for the winter concert was huge. The amount of people at this concert far outweighed the past concerts and we were all really ecstatic about that.”

The performance began with the ensemble of the Belles, singing past hits such as “Faith” by George Michael coupled with more recent tracks like “Happy” by Leona Lewis. The encore performance however was truly one of a kind, as the Belles donned sunglasses to performance the latest chart-topping hit, “Bad Romance”, by the notorious Lady Gaga. The crowd, set into frenzy, cheered the Belles non-stop as they left the stage. “Bad Romance was absolutely awesome. Whether you like her or not, all of Lady Gaga’s songs seem to just light up a crowd and the Belles version was no different. They are truly amazing”, said Justine Matthews, a student at Loyola who attended the concert.

After a short intermission, the Chimes took the stage continuing the upbeat tempo provided by the Belles by performing a one-hit-wonder from the 90’s in “Zoot Suit Riot” by the Cherry Poppin’ Daddies. The Chimes however did eventually turn the dial down a notch, as Chadwick provided a solo to the 50’s slow jam, “Earth Angel” by The Crew-Cuts. “I actually was really nervous before my solo”, said Chadwick. “My throat was bothering me all week, I’m just glad it came together for the concert. I had some great background help behind me.” One of the pieces in the background that Chadwick refers to would be sophomore TJ Devane, who provided a steady beat-box sound the entire night. Other notable performances included, “I Will Follow You Into The Dark” by Death Cab for Cutie and “Angel” by Shaggy.

Another crowd friendly performance was Pani Stavrou-Wilson’s rendition of “The Joker” by The Steve Miller Band. “I was really excited when I found out I was going to be singing “The Joker”, said Stavrou-Wilson. “Besides the fact that The Steve Miller Band is amazing, the song just really gets people going, I don’t think it matters that it was written 35 years ago or so.”

Once again, the Chordbusters managed to entertain a theater full of students, although this time may have been there best performance yet. “This was my third concert so far since I’ve been enrolled and they just keep getting better”, said Matthews. “I can’t wait to see what they come up with this spring.”