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Kansas City's Online Journal of the Performing Arts

Last Saturday night at the Folly Theater saw an enthusiastic and supportive crowd for the Heartland Men's Chorus’s joint effort with the Portland Gay Men's Chorus.  These ensembles presented a wide offering of American music sourced from patriotic and traditional tunes to African- Mexican- and Native-American folk music.   

The guest ensemble was the first to perform, starting out with an enjoyable arrangement of the Woody Guthrie anthem This Land is Your Land.  This was followed by an arrangement inspired by Native America melodies, Friendship Dance, that was infectious and driving.  They lost a bit of the drive in Bread and Roses.  The soloist had a clear voice, but lost his pitch center, the entrances in the high voices were messy, and the middle voices didn't balance to the outer voices.  The barbershop quartet rendition of Joshua Fit the Battle of Jericho was fun with clear communication between the parts and crisp singing.  The messy and overdone choreography, however, distracted from the music and I wanted to hear more punch in the interjections.  De Colores put the group back into purely musical territory and it was a joy to watch director Bob Mensel conduct the dance-like melodies with light and fluid gestures.  The audience ate up the tongue-in-cheek Swish and Swagger - a gleeful piece full of puns and innuendo.  PGMC closed with another emotional number, The Great Peace March. 

The Heartland Men's Chorus had a less politically charged program, but was musically more settling.  They began with a tongue twisting Ching A Ring Chaw, performed with excellent diction and a very light touch.  Switching gears they moved to a sorrowful Hard Times with well blended lyricism and smoothly swelling dynamics.  Nicely contrasting were the pointed lyrics and chasing lines of Hark, I Hear the Harps Eternal.  The first show stopper of the evening was HMC's My Country, 'Tis of Thee which was softly stirring, a ringing rendition of a classic American song.  This was followed by three excellent a cappella pieces to complete their portion of the show: a delicate Pretty Saro, very difficult, being soft and high; a pensive Home on the Range; and a seriously fun Stars and Stripes Forever performed on vocables. 

After intermission, small groups from each chorus performed.  Cascades, from PGMC, were very controlled during their version of Deep River and a bit strident.  HeartAches, from HMC, were more free-wheeling in their cheeky Prideful Mary.  These two styles were evident on the combined piece of the two groups, Sound Off.  While fun, the piece was sloppy. Because they seemed afraid to be sloppy, it came off tense.  One of my personal peeves is to be informed before an event that "you threw it together yesterday".  That may be the case, but the audience doesn't need to know it.  In this circumstance, I would have been more forgiving.  The uber-controlled directing of PGMC conducting associate Mary McCarty further hindered the playful attitude of the decidedly kitschy piece. 

In the last set, the two choruses sang together; the curtain rose to reveal over two hundred men, a sight for which I could never have prepared myself.  Everyone Sang was the jumping off point - an antiphonal work jointly conducted by Bob Mensel and HMC Artistic Director Dr. Joe Nadeau.  While it seems an obvious programming choice for a concert featuring two separate choruses, this was the least effective piece.  The two choirs combated for supremacy, more sound was projected than necessary, and about half way through I wanted the piece over simply because of ear fatigue.  There just wasn't communication between the choruses and the heavy overlapping lines quickly became overwhelming.  However, once that piece was over, the rest of the concert was enjoyable.  Three beautiful pieces followed, Tell My Father, Zion's Wall, and An American Hymn, far more suited to the tremendous depth available to the combined ensemble.  Skip to My Lou had a light and pointed delivery, with Sign Language Interpreter Rick McAdams delightfully hamming it up in the "fly's in the buttermilk" verse.  O Shenandoah was another well blended piece, deeply resonant.  The Crawdad Song, while yet another lively selection, could have been cleaner and more effective by editing the gestures.  The clapping component was messy, with too many people and not enough room.  The finale, however, made up for it, a clear, stirring arrangement of America the Beautiful that highlighted the power and beauty capable by the ensembles.

The Heartland Men’s Chorus will be traveling to Oregon to join the Portland Gay Men’s Chorus 30^th anniversary celebration this coming weekend.  The performance here was an excellent musical offering, though the sillier portions needed more finesse.  Comedy needs to be prepared as seriously as the straight pieces to make it work; nothing should be added that detracts from the primary goal of making music.  The musical product is absolutely stellar and I hope every aspect of this performance can aspire to HMC’s capabilities.

REVIEW:
Heartland Men's Chorus with Portland Gay Men's Chorus
Go West, Young Man
Saturday, Jun 12, 2010 (Reviewed)
Sunday, June 13, 2010
Folly Theater
12^th and Central Streets, Kansas City, MO
www.hmckc.org

By Libby Hanssen

Traditional and New Classical, Theatre Contributor

Libby Hanssen holds degrees from University of Missouri-Kansas City (M.M.) and Ball State University (B.M.) in trombone performance and also studied music education at Indiana University. She has studied trombone with Carl Lenthe, JoDee Davis, John Seidel, John Huntoon and Denis Wick, and music education with Brent Gault, Estelle Jorgensen and Katherine Strand.

While at IU, she taught classes in general music, focusing on listening skills and music fundamentals through practical music usage and exploring new sound constructions. During the course of her studies at UMKC, she performed with many ensembles, including the Conservatory Orchestra and Musica Nova. She has also performed with the Kansas City Puccini Festival, the People's Liberation Big Band of Greater Kansas City, the New Jazz Order, the Indiana Wind Symphony and the Muncie Symphony Orchestra.

In 2010, she was a fellow (one of 23 journalists selected from across the US) for the seventh annual National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Arts Journalism Institute in Classical Music and Opera at Columbia University’s Journalism School in New York City.

Most of her free time is spent with her three boys (son, dog and husband) and camera, exploring the many fine aspects of Kansas City living. She enjoys listening to KKFI - Kansas City Community Radio and KCUR - Kansas City's NPR station, visiting Kansas City's fine collection of museums and galleries, and scavenging in thrift and antique stores to add to her collection of toy instruments.

She writes for the joy of words and the process of constructing a story, maintaining the blog Proust Eats a Sandwich (www.prousteatsasandwich.wordpress.com). She is working on her first book: Murray Goes to the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art.

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