Mission: Im-pop-able

“This is the 52nd year of one of the oldest and most prestigious things a choir can be accepted to sing at, and we had never applied before this year,” said Ethan Sperry, music department professor and director of choral activities, about the annual Seghizzi International Choral Competition.

This summer, Portland State’s Chamber Choir will make its first appearance at the illustrious international competition.

After submitting an audition tape, the choir was selected to compete in the Italian competition. According to Sperry, they are one of the first American choirs to have been invited to compete in several years.

Next Wednesday, the choir will team up with PSU’s Green Note a cappella group and special guests Naomi LaViolette, Ara Gehl and Celeste Amadee to raise funds for the trip.

In their show “Storm the Mission,” these music groups and soloists will “present a mix of strange and eclectic music,” according to a press release.

Celeste Goguen, a senior majoring in vocal performance, has been involved with the choir since the start of her undergraduate career and is one of the featured solo performers.

Goguen explained her emotions once she learned of the choir’s acceptance into the competition.

“It’s really exciting, especially for it being my senior year—it will be a great way to leave the group and school because this been a really fantastic part of my life,” she said. “We’ve been trying to go to international competitions, and now funding came through and we are able to go to this competition in Italy. It’ll be a really great experience. I’ve never performed in an international competition before, and I’m excited.”

The choir will compete in each category the competition offers, including folk, spiritual and pop music. Sperry explained the benefits the choir will enjoy by competing in Seghizzi.

“Music is not generally a competitive art form, but my students are going into a very competitive workplace as musicians,” he said. “With this competition, I think people gain both the chance to realize what we’re doing at an international standard, but also we will gain the chance to hear 20 different choirs from all over the world.

“When you get a chance to get exposed to all of the different ways of what you want to do, it helps you grow in your own way.”

Ian Adams-Dirks, a senior majoring in music education, is the music director of Green Note, PSU’s a cappella group. He began working with them in 2010 and originally joined as a beatboxer.

Later, Adams-Birks became the director and helped create a coed group in 2011. After being asked by the Chamber Choir to perform at the “Storm the Mission” concert, Adams-Birks shared his excitement about performing.

“Green Note has always been an underdog group—nobody took us very seriously, nobody thought we had members of extreme quality,” Adams-Birks said. “But I think this is our chance to show that we are a really good group and we’ve got talent.”

The emphasis of the Portland concert is three-fold: The first goal is to raise funds for the choir’s upcoming competition; the second is to raise awareness of the music programs at PSU; the third is to emphasize the pop genre performances of the groups and soloists.

Goguen explained that the selected music is the unique aspect of the event.

“It’s going to be a very different concert than our usual choir concerts because it’s a pop concert showcasing a lot of the non-classical talent that we have at the school,” she said. “Our goal is a fundraising for the Chamber Choir, and besides fundraising we just want to showcase the other talents that we have other than the opera and classical aspects of choir.”

Sperry said this type of pop genre concert is also unique in the number of performers being showcased.

“Pop singing is normally a solo art, and there’s just a difference in sound when you hear 36 people singing together in harmonies. It’s just a richer way of approaching the same music, and not one you get to hear very much,” he said. “That’s the joy of choral music—the people are able to work together and make things happen that they couldn’t otherwise do themselves. It’s beautiful and equally compelling.”