by Jamin Craig | Feb 6, 2015 | News Slider
The Department of Music celebrated the golden age of radio with a special concert called “Your Hit Parade 1936″ Thursday night in Shamblin Theater. The Great American Songbook concert series is devoted to showcasing classic American tunes from specific eras. For this concert, the music department put together a recreation of a popular radio show from the 1930s that played the weekly top 15 songs. This show was the precursor to today’s American Top 40 music charts. Patricia Roberts, a music department adjunct professor, created this Great American Songbook show. “I always try to come up with a new way to present it each year that’s kind of exciting and different,” Roberts said. “I got the idea to do the ‘Your Hit Parade,’ which was an old-time radio show, and I just started looking at all different kinds of music, and I began to see that I really loved the music from 1936, so then I picked out enough music to do a whole program with it.” A small jazz trio — composed of pianist Jeff Burnham, bassist Ike Harris and drummer Chris Nelson — provided the music for the evening. Music students came up to the front microphone to serenade the audience with the classic songs. Blake Farmer, news director and reporter for WPLN Nashville Public Radio, served as the evening’s MC. Farmer noted that as a radio personality, getting to host a 1930’s radio show was a huge joy. “When you’re in radio, this is sort of the era that everyone looks back to,” Farmer said. “This was literally when people crowded around the radio to listen...
by Janice Ng | Feb 25, 2014 | News Slider
Lipscomb University’s Rush Hour Concerts are aptly named, as people can pop in for a one-hour concert to wait for traffic to clear up before heading home. Gary Wilson, director of vocal and choral activities, first came up with the idea that soon became a reality last spring. “The idea was born while looking for a creative way to handle our performance schedule toward the end of the year,” Wilson said. The department of music sponsors over 100 concerts every school year. These include individual students performing a solo recital as part of their degree requirements, groups of students performing as part of an ensemble such as A Cappella Singers or Wind Ensemble and faculty or guest artists presenting professional concerts. “At the end of the year, there are so many students needing to give recitals and ensembles wanting to perform that it’s difficult to get everything done,” Wilson said. “We do not schedule two concerts at the same time, so the Rush Hour Concerts were created to alleviate some of our scheduling issues.” The first Rush Hour Concert last spring featured the ChamberMen ensemble, Lipscomb’s male choral ensemble that began as a quintet in 2012 and has since expanded to include 11 singers. This month’s concert featured the AronBerkner Duo, with Jane Berkner and Stephen Aron. “Rush Hour Concerts have become a very popular part of our concert offerings,” Wilson said. “No one is in charge, but any music faculty member can schedule a performance at this time. Typically, these concerts are less than an hour, and have no intermission, so they’re over by 6 p.m.” Photo courtesy of...
