When Lipscomb’s Gary Wilson was a student at Harding studying to be the Lipscomb Choral Director he is today, he never knew what kind of impact Dr. Cliff Ganus, his professor and mentor, would have on his life.

“Dr. Cliff Ganus was my collegiate choral conductor and mentor,” Wilson said. “I wanted to do something with him to honor our professional relationship and friendship. He’s also about to start his 50th year at Harding, and this joint concert seemed like a good way to do that.”

They have now been able to celebrate that mentorship and friendship by combining their two choirs for a performance of Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana over the span of two weekends.

“Cliff and I talked about pieces we might do together that neither of us would do alone,” Wilson said. “Carmina needs a large choir of about 100 to be effective, and both of us wanted to do it, and it seemed like a logical choice for this concert.”

On February 19, the Harding University choir made the trip from Searcy, Arkansas, to perform at Lipscomb. The concert featured choirs from both Lipscomb and Harding, a full orchestra and the children’s choir from Lipscomb Academy.

“It was miraculous!” Wilson said. “Think about it: two choirs with two conductors at Lipscomb, another choir and conductor at Harding, part of the orchestra that I rehearsed for a couple of weeks and the full orchestra that I rehearsed for about one and a half hours before the choir arrived. We basically ran straight through the piece one time before the performance, but everyone was well prepared, and that made it work.”

This past weekend, Lipscomb made the trip to Searcy to perform at Harding University. The concert there went smoothly as well, but it looked a little different than the one performed at Lipscomb.

At Harding, Dr. Ganus conducted, and instead of a full orchestra, there were two pianos and percussion, which gave it a different sound. That version was prepared by one of Orff’s pupils and was approved by Orff, allowing groups that don’t have easy access to an orchestra to perform the work.

For more information, visit the Lipscomb School of Music website or call (615) 966-5932.

Photo courtesy of Lipscomb University

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