Members of the VOICE choral ensemble are getting ready for their annual winter concert, which will be held at Court Square Theater this weekend.
The ensemble will hold two performances: one on Saturday evening and one on Sunday afternoon. There is no price to enter, but attendees are encouraged to donate at the door to support the concert’s beneficiary, Cat’s Cradle.
Misty Newman, executive director of VOICE, said movies, and now-defunct video rental chain Blockbuster Movies, inspired the program. She said the show, titled “Be Kind, Rewind,” includes famous songs from movies across the decades.
“It’s kind of a play off the old-school Blockbuster Video feel,” Newman said. “We’re picking a popular song from various movies over the decades, so hopefully, when the song comes on, it’ll remind you of a particular movie that it’s from.”
Andrew Koch, a singer with VOICE, said he was feeling nervous as the show drew near, but remained optimistic.
“This last week, you always have jitters,” Koch said. “You always think, ‘It isn’t quite perfect, will it be more perfect on Saturday?’ You always think, it’s a miracle it always winds up good, no matter what you think six or seven days before.”
Koch added that the singers usually spend weeks preparing for each concert, rehearsing and planning out the show. Now that the end is in sight, he said he is excited to share the hard work with the audience, but also a little sad.
“It’s always a little bittersweet because it’s been a lot of work,” Koch said. “We’ve had a lot of fun. I really love the people in the group, and you get to a point where it’s almost over, and you want to do great, but you don’t want to be over. Once it is, you’re just looking forward to seeing everyone in four or five weeks to start getting ready for the June show.”
Sharon Randolph, who sings alto in VOICE and was one of the ensemble’s original members, said she enjoyed some of the upbeat numbers in the set list, as well as the few seasonal numbers that were included.
“It always comes together much better in the final week,” Randolph said. “All the final memorization comes together, and when you rehearse so many times in one week, it really gels. There are a couple [songs] at the end that are just really beautiful. ‘White Christmas’ is probably my favorite from the show.”
While Koch said he was looking forward to performing songs from across film history, there was one song he said he was drawn to more than the others.
“The first [song] is from ‘Barbie,’ from a few years ago, and then we have songs all the way back to the 1930s,” Koch said. “We’re doing ‘Sweet Caroline,’ that’s one of my favorite songs. The basses have a lot of melody in that, so that’s a nice change of pace.”
Benjamin Wilkins, creative director for VOICE, said the ensemble held a public vote to choose the beneficiary of the concert. Once the ballots were tallied, Cat’s Cradle was selected as the beneficiary of the concert.
“For the past 18 years, we’ve done all sorts of beneficiaries,” Wilkins said. “This year, it just so happened that our constituency voted, and Cat’s Cradle is who is going to get the funds from this concert. They do a lot of good things in our area, so I’m excited for people to hear about what they do.”
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