Musical Numbers

MONMOUTH, Ill. – While discussing the outlook for Monmouth College choral ensembles in the coming year, music professor Tim Pahel sounded a bit like a Fighting Scots coach.

TIM PAHEL: With a larger Chorale roster, the music professor is looking forward to diving into this year's "playbook." “We only lost six members to graduation and we have around 15 new members coming in,” said Pahel, who directs the Monmouth Chorale and Chamber Choir. “We haven’t been over 40 members since pre-pandemic. We’ll lose even fewer students to graduation in 2025, so our numbers should stay good for the next several years.”

And there is abundant quality within that quantity.

“I’m very excited about the repertoire we can do and the talents of the group,” said Pahel. “We’re seeing those increased numbers across the music department, as well,” such as enrollments in music courses and piano lessons.

Included in the Chorale’s repertoire will be “A Silence Haunts Me” by composer Jake Runestad, which is based on a letter written by Ludwig van Beethoven as he was struggling with going deaf.

“It’s very powerful and dramatic and cool and moving,” said Pahel. “I look for things that are going to grab the students. The Beethoven piece has so much to grab onto emotionally and dramatically, as well as a story they will engage with.”

“I look for things that are going to grab the students. The Beethoven piece has so much to grab onto emotionally and dramatically, as well as a story they will engage with.” – Tim Pahel

The department has also commissioned a new choral work by an “up-and-coming” award-winning composer.

“The plan is to have him attend the premiere and work with Monmouth students,” said Pahel.

A Family Weekend concert is scheduled for Sept. 21, and the Fall Choral Concert will be Oct. 19, both at 7:30 p.m. in the Kasch Performance Hall of Dahl Chapel and Auditorium.

Marching musicians

Numbers are also up for an ensemble that supports Monmouth athletics – the Fighting Scots Marching Band, which will be directed by May graduate Eli Kelly.

ELI KELLY: The May graduate is the new director of Fighting Scots athletic bands. “I’m so incredibly excited for the upcoming season,” said Kelly, who noted many of the students double up as members of the Pep Band during basketball season. “It looks like we’re going to have a very large incoming freshman class. We’ll be in the 47-member range, which is significantly higher than it has been.”

The band will offer a sneak preview of its repertoire at 6:30 p.m. Aug. 20 in the newly renovated April Zorn Memorial Stadium. The home season opener will kick off under the lights at 7 p.m. Sept. 7.

Kelly said alumni are encouraged to join the band in the stands at home football games and “relive their glory days” by playing an instrument.

Other instrumental developments

Music professor Justin Swearinger said the outlook in his area in the year ahead is also positive, in terms of the selections the various instrumental ensembles will perform, as well as special programming.

JUSTIN SWEARINGER: The music professor directs the Wind Ensemble and Chamber Winds. “At our Sept. 29 Wind Ensemble concert, we’ll perform the whole Second Suite, a cornerstone wind band piece,” he said, “but we’ll also perform new stuff like Kate Nishimura,” the Asian-Canadian composer behind Great Lakes Suite.

For a Chamber Winds concert on Nov. 10, Swearinger said his students will break off into smaller performance groups.

“You might hear a brass quartet or a woodwind choir or a percussion ensemble all featured at this concert,” he said. “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.

All three directors agreed that one of the strengths of Monmouth’s music program is its encouragement of participation by non-music majors.

“Now more than ever, we’re championing that we have ensembles made up of music majors, but also a considerable portion of non-majors who just want to keep playing and are really good students in their own right,” said Swearinger.

November-December events

The Monmouth Civic Orchestra, directed by Rich Cangro, will present an Americana concert on Nov. 3, and the Jazz Ensemble, directed by Stephen Jackson, will also stage a concert that month (Nov. 22).

The following month is the college’s annual “Christmas at Monmouth” concert, which brings together both the choral and instrumental students. This year, students won’t be the only performers.

“We’ll feature our alumni, as well, for the performance of Alfred Reed’s Russian Christmas music,” said Swearinger. “Reed’s piece starts out quiet but ends in this really bombastic nature. … We’re going to have to figure out where to put all the alums, but it’s a really nice problem to have.”

“It is by far the best-attended concert of the year, year after year,” said Pahel of the traditional holiday event, which will be held Dec. 7. “It’s cool to feel that all the work we’ve been doing is really being appreciated.”

Listen Up …

Hear Tim Pahel, Justin Swearinger and Eli Kelly ’24 preview the 2024-25 music season on the “Monmouth College Conversations” podcast.