Over the lats year, new choir director Nathan Thompson has resurrected the tradition of Masterworks. The Masterworks concert will feature the whole choir program, some band members and the chamber orchestra performing Cyrillus Kreek’s “Requiem in C minor.” The 45-minute concert will take place on Dec. 12 in the MAC.

The choir program has started working on the music. Thompson first discovered this Estonian piece when studying for his master’s degree. It resonated with him, and he decided to pick it for this year’s Masterworks.

“There’s something about the Estonian spirit of singing, and the Estonian tradition of singing that is embodied in this particular piece of music that just speaks to me,” Thompson said, “and I
think it has a very or it can have a very universal appeal.”

Senior Zane Wiggins, a member of the meistersingers choir, has been in choir throughout his four years at McCallum and is excited to be a part of Masterworks. Wiggins thinks that singing in the concert is fun, and likes how all the songs seem to come together in the end. He also believes that it takes a lot of effort for everyone in choir to learn their music.

“This is the longest concert, easily, and it’s the one where we have to put the most effort in to learn the most amount of songs,” Wiggins said. “It’s really fun to see that all come together and put out something beautiful.”

Sophomore Camilla Miculek, who is in the concert choir, has been in choir for two years, also enjoys the Masterworks concert. She likes singing in the concert because of the people she gets to spend time with, and the director’s artistic decisions.

“I really enjoy choir because of all the people, and I really like to sing,” Miculek said, “and I enjoy Mr. Thompson’s directing because he’s really talented, and I love the finished result of Masterworks.”

While the result of Masterworks sounds really pretty according to both Miculek and Wiggins, it doesn’t come easily. Thompson says that it’s difficult to get all the moving parts of the concert together in time.

“I think it’s just tricky to take a lot of different groups and put them all together, especially because we get a lot of time to rehearse separately but not a lot of time to rehearse all together,” Thompson said. “And I think that’s the biggest challenge, to create a unified vision of what we’re trying to create with a very limited amount of time.”

In addition to the difficulty of getting the choir program, orchestra and band together, there are challenges within the singing portion of the movement as well. According to Miculek, learning to sing in a different language can be difficult, especially with this year’s movement’s language: Estonian.

“It’s difficult to sing in a different language, and like learning all the different pronunciations is kind of interesting,” Miculek said. “This year, we’re doing Estonian so it’s kind of different, and it’s also challenging because there’s so many movements that we have to remember.”

While it is a lot of music to learn at first, Wiggins thinks that it’s actually easier than other concerts because the songs don’t need to be memorized. All the members get to have the sheet music in front of them when performing, which helps Wiggins.

“And the pieces themselves are very long and have some very strange rhythms,” Wiggins said. “So the pieces themselves are just really challenging, but once you learn the pieces, it’s great, because you don’t need to memorize them; we have the sheet music with us on hand in the concert.”

Before Thompson arrived, this tradition had faded away at McCallum according to Wiggins. There was a Masterworks concert, but not in the same form as Thompson had directed. Thompson brought back the performance of a whole movement, as opposed to songs pulled from different requiems being performed like Wiggins said happened his sophomore year. During his freshman year, Wiggins and the choir program did not have a Masterworks concert at all.

When Thompson reintroduced the former tradition at McCallum, members like Miculek and Wiggins were amazed at the end result of the concert.

“Last year, my junior year, was the one where we did a full Requiem for the first time ever,” Wiggins said. “And it was, it was a surreal experience because every single song flowed into the last really well. It was, honestly, it was kind of beautiful.”

Miculek agrees that the concert sounded beautiful last year. She believes that in the moment everyone comes together for the final performance, you can tell how happy Thompson is with his work.

“I just think it’s a beautiful way to celebrate a piece of music because Mr. Thompson is very thoughtful with the music he chooses,” Miculek said. “And once we finally all come together and learn it, and we come together with the orchestra, it just sounds amazing. And like you can tell how happy Mr. Thompson is that his vision has been accomplished.”

Thompson decided to bring back this tradition because it was one of the reasons he came to McCallum in the first place. It was a unique experience for him, especially since not many schools get to participate in a Masterworks concert. He also just loves having performances with both choir and orchestra.

“[I] have a love for these really large pieces of music that incorporate both choir and orchestra,” Thompson said. “So it’s something that’s just very near and dear to me.”