Teens to peform at Bates College Chapel
By Daniel Hartill
Staff Writer

LEWISTON – In the moments between directions, the teens wandered the stage, plunked on piano keys or broke into song. Any song.

But as their 18-year-old director raised his hands, the chatter ceased. Postures straightened. Faces stiffened. And they sang.

“Carmina Burana,” a classical work by German composer Carl Orff, erupted from the 16 singers. The sound filled the Bates College Chapel, where the music’s grand, Gothic style seemed at home.

A minute later, director Colin Britt silenced them with a wave. The chapel echoed and the teens whooped at the sound they made.

For six weeks, the members of the All-Student Theatre Project have rehearsed the strange music, a 1930’s composition with eclectic twists in style. They’ve met on warm summer nights and sung along with rehearsal CDs, played in bedrooms and in cars.

On Thursday, they plan to perform the 90-minute piece with the accompaniment of a full orchestra. The choir will swell to 28. They will receive no money or school credit for their work. They don’t call it work, though.

“We get to hang out with friends,” said Andrea Bosse, a 19-year-old music business student at the University of Massachusetts. “And, we all know Colin, so we know this will be good.”

Britt, who just graduated from Edward Little High School, has directed the music for several Community Little Theatre productions. In the fall, he plans to attend the University of Hartford’s Harrt School of the Performing Arts where he’ll study voice and composition.

He chose this composition because it’s challenging. It also is one of those big classical pieces, yearning to be heard loud, he said.

For the accompaniment, Britt managed to gather orchestral musicians from around the area, including people from the Androscoggin Valley Community Orchestra and the Bangor Symphony Orchestra. The only grown-up help comes from these musicians and a local voice coach, who taught the singers how to pronounce the lyrics, some in Latin and some in Middle High German.

“It’s like Mozart on steroids,” said Seth Morton, a 19-year-old student from the University of Maine. “It’s not exactly toe-tapping.”

Its start, “O Fortuna,” is familiar though, used again and again in movies and their trailers. The music seems to complement epic battles and sweeping action.

Perhaps that explains the intense, furled-brow expressions on the singers’ faces as they began another rehearsal.

Bosse, however, says the concentration belies the fun.

“This is my getaway,” she said. “Some people play basketball. I sing.”

dhartill@sunjournal.com

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