Tres Epitafios

Fresno City College is home to an intimate concert venue housed inside its oldest campus building. The Old Administration Building (OAB) was host to a low-key choir concert headlined by the University of Southern California’s Thornton Concert Choir. The last and an unscheduled stop on the choirs return from their performance at the Fall Conference of the National Collegiate Choral Organization. The choir was in top form and put on a fantastic performance that was expected and executed.

To start the Sunday concert off was an energetic, composed group from the gateway to the Sierras city of Clovis. The Clovis North High School Choir was polished and proud to show their talent in front of the big city college singers. The group from Clovis sang three pieces, ending the set with “In the Light of a Clear Blue Morning.” During the last song, a student by the name of Kelly Dow was

Opening with a number titled “Tres Epitafios,” a song composed by Spanish and Mexican composer Rodolfo Halffter (1900-1987). Born in 1988, Wilma Alba Cal is a teacher, producer, and composer of the second song “Portico.” For their third song, the group from USC performed a song by a Venezuelan composer named Beatriz Bilbao. This composer happened to be a teacher of the conductor for the choir. In the final section of the song, the choir used mouth noises, “where the voices freely express sounds of murmurs, whispers, breaths, etc., while the dynamic contour moves from mezzo-piano to nothing” (writer). The last selection was a dedication to the 25,000 people who died and 400,000 who lost their homes from a terrible flood in Venezuela in 1999. Bin Nam Ma composed by Alberto Grau, was an interesting piece with choreography involved to simulate a vicious storm. From start to finish this number kept you engaged and told a great story portraying human struggle and