Monmouth music professor Justin Swearinger leads one of his ensembles during this fall's Family Weekend concert
MONMOUTH, ILLINOIS (November 8, 2024) — Monmouth College's Chamber Choir will be the featured ensemble at a concert on campus that will also include smaller performance groups and selections on the Ardell Organ.
Free and open to the public, the concert will be held at 3PM, November 10, in the Kasch Performance Hall of Dahl Chapel and Auditorium.
Music professor Justin Swearinger directs the Chamber Winds, although halfway through the final selection of the program, he will pass the baton to May graduate Eli Kelly, the college's director of athletic bands.
That concluding piece, said Swearinger, is Gustav Holst's "Second Suite in F," which he called "one of the most important and foundational pieces for wind band."
The concert will also open with a guest conductor, as the winner of a raffle contest will be announced. That winner will lead a performance of "The Trombone King" by Karl King.
"In between those larger works, we will feature many small chamber groups," said Swearinger. "Listeners can expect to hear mariachi to Minecraft to low brass quartet to percussion. It gives students a chance to really buy into what they want to perform, as far as who they want perform with and what kind of music they want to perform."
Swearinger said a campus mariachi group has even blossomed from that experiential environment.
Music faculty member Solee Lee-Clark and her husband, former faculty member Tom Clark will perform a few works for organ during the middle portion of the concert.
