Voices and instruments will ring out Friday during the SUNY Oswego music department’s Collage Concert, which will feature a wide variety of musical genres and styles performed by both students and faculty.

The concert, which will take place in Tyler Hall’s Waterman Theatre beginning at 7:30 p.m., incorporates several student and faculty ensembles, ranging from jazz to classical, as well as a handful of student soloists and faculty performers. It will also be the first concert of its kind held since March 2020.  

“The Collage Concert, I consider it a music department showcase,” Molly DeMarco, a senior at Oswego and performer in the concert, said. “It’s really exciting to see people perform again, especially because of COVID and everything.”

For the student-led portion of the concert, the main student ensembles performing are the Wind Ensemble, the College Community Orchestra, Laker Chorale, State Singers, the Oswego State Jazz Ensemble and the Latin Jazz Ensemble. Additionally, the show will feature student solos and small group performances ranging from electronic music to musical theater pieces. 

The faculty section of the show will see new faces, with several of Oswego’s new music department instructors getting some of their first chances to perform in front of the broader campus community. Music faculty members like Eric Schmitz, Robert Auler, Trevor Jorgenson, Paul Leary and Juan La Manna will feature, as well as new professors Ben May and Amanda Li.

Eric Schmitz, associate professor of music and director for the jazz and Latin jazz ensembles on campus, expects a frantic pace and brief transitions from piece to piece, aided by the stage design crew from Oswego’s theater department.

“The idea of a collage concert is to go from one act to the next without pause,” Schmitz said. “The idea is to go from large ensemble, to soloist, to small ensemble, to choir, with minimal time in between and just give a nice tour of the whole music department.”

This format, while keeping things moving quickly and smoothly, does pose some problems — particularly for those who will play multiple parts throughout the concert. 

“When we were constructing the program, we had to think about, ‘if this student is in this group, they can’t be on the other side of the stage at the same time,’” Schmitz said. “When it works, though, and we’ve done it several times, it’s really a special thing… it’s pretty exciting from an audience perspective to have these different things coming at you, one after another.”

For faculty, the concert is a rare opportunity to subvert the typical teacher-to-pupil or performer-to-audience format, instead sharing the stage with their students as musical equals.

“There are some faculty recitals throughout the year, and some of us play in groups that are featured, but it’s not often that we get to do all that in the same concert with the students,” Schmitz said. “It also makes us as faculty members pretty excited because we get to see our students really kind of stepping up in terms of their energy.”

The Collage Concert promises to be as much of a spectacle as it has been a challenge for those involved.

“It seems like all the groups are preparing pretty well,” DeMarco said. “It’s just going to be so hectic, but so awesome.”

Photo via oswego.edu