Arts & Entertainment
Love Notes Linger with BG Singers' Sunday Concert
Choir's weekend show pays tribute to love.
The BG Singers wrote a love note to an auditorium full of fans Saturday night at Stevenson High School.
Actually, they sang many notes Saturday night, and they’ll sing them again today (Sunday) in the third and final installment of their 18th annual Choral Show, “That’s Love!” The show is a rousing musical tribute to Cupid’s favorite emotion.
The program was inspired by the upcoming marriages of the children of three choral group members.
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“Our director, Linda (Rosen), her daughter became engaged, our choreographer, Charla (Silver), her son became engaged, and our accompanist, Jeannie (Workman), her daughter became engaged, all at the same time,” said Lindsay Grandt, performing arts coordinator with the park district, which sponsors the group. “So we just felt, ‘Why not, we just have to go with it.’”
With the men dressed in snappy black shirts and pants and red ties and women wearing cool red vests, white blouses and black pants, the 70-plus member group put on an energetic journey through contemporary love songs, including Michael Jackson’s “The Way You Make Me Feel,” “Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)," “Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow” and a gospel-inspired take on “Lean on Me.”
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In fact, the Bill Wither’s piece, with soloists Jill Gavin and Greg McWright, brought loud applause from the audience as the final tune before intermission.
“Single Ladies” drew a few laughs as Steve Bulmash, Michael Garfield, Tom Korman, Gary Mednick and Barry Schaff donned Chicago Bears jerseys and joined the line of female dancers.
Rosen said the idea to fashion a program solely around love songs “very unusual” but “very universal. Everybody loves love songs.”
The show is the major event of the year for the chorus, which Rosen said rehearses for seven months out of the year. Smaller ensembles from the group perform at community events the rest of the year, she said.
“I can’t think of any other community that has a group like this. In terms of a contemporary pop choir, I can’t think of any other area that has anything like this.”
She pointed out that the group is involved in several community service projects involving the park district, American Cancer Society and the Rotary Club.
Today’s final performance of “That’s Love” gets underway at 3 p.m. in the Performing Arts Center of . Tickets are $18 at the door.
