UPPER CUMBERLAND – Roane State Community College students will soon be letting the world hear their voices.
Seven students and Music Department Professor Brenda Luggie are practicing for their roles in an upcoming online performance with the Stay at Home Choir (SAHC), based in the United Kingdom. The students are members of Roane State’s Vocal Ensemble.
“Each SAHC project includes thousands of participants from around the world, so we are a very small part of the impressively large whole,” Luggie said.
“What a great opportunity for her students during the pandemic,” said Roane State history teacher Charlie Cobb.
Luggie said SAHC has been offering “virtual choir opportunities since the early stages of the pandemic and has grown exponentially since.”
The organization “provides instructional videos with composers, live rehearsals with professional voice coaches and singers and an incredible sense of international community,” Luggie added.
The students practice and then prepare and submit individual videos, which will then be edited and combined. Participants are performing “Sogno di Volare” (Dream of Flight) by Grammy award-winning composer Christopher Tin, and they’ll be singing in Italian.
It likely will take months to complete the project, Luggie said. “We could never sing with this many singers live, and to just see our names scroll in the credits is incredible!”
She said this marks the second SAHC project many of the students have done. “In the fall, Vocal Ensemble worked with the world renowned acapella group VOCES8 on their arrangement of a well-known Scottish tune titled ‘Caledonia,’” Luggie said. The final project just premiered and is available to watch on YouTube at the following link: bit.ly/SAHCRSCC.
Roane State is a two-year college providing transfer programs, career-preparation programs and continuing education. Founded in 1971, the college has locations in Roane, Campbell, Cumberland, Fentress, Knox, Loudon, Morgan and Scott counties as well as a branch campus in Oak Ridge. For more information, visit www.roanestate.edu or call (865) 882-4554.
Remember, eligible adults can now attend Roane State tuition-free with the new Reconnect grant. Learn more at www.roanestate.edu/reconnect.
