On February 14th at 7:00 pm I went to Cordiner Hall at Whitman College to watch Walla Walla Symphony Presents: Starlets – The Women of Song. The Walla Walla Symphony was joined by the guests artists Lance Inouye (conductor), Natalie Brown (singer), Christine La Fond (singer), Vivian Scott (singer), and Joe Spraker (pianist). The women performing are professional singers from Las Vegas. The orchestra was arranged like a typical classical orchestra. However, the music being played was contemporary popular culture songs that had been rearranged to fit a classical style. From the very first note, I was captivated with the performance. The music was arranged so beautifully. It was amazing hearing songs that I was familiar with played in a new …show more content…
It felt like one of the biggest song, which is a recommended choice for the end of an intermission since a strong song at the end of the first part will keep people interested and make them excited to hear the second half. The other especially strong songs were at the beginning of both sets and the finale, which again makes sense as you want to start and end strong to quickly grab your audience’s attention, maintain it across a break, and end strong so they walk away remembering how amazing the performance was rather than walking away thinking of how weak the ending was.
I thought it was an interesting concept to have popular culture music played in a classical style. I always thought of the two styles as very separate things. However, this performance along with this course has shown me how music is not set in rigid boundaries that cannot be crossed. Music is a flowing ebbing ocean that can blend and meld in amazing ways that I never imagined possible.
The whole performance was an experience of beauty and creativity. I would strongly recommend to anyone who wanted to to see a similar performance. It was a great night full of new experiences. The music really brought together the idea of art transcending the styles that people try and categorize things