By Anthony Thompson/reporter
Since the beginning of time, people have used music in any form as a platform for connection, whether it was the first song heard on a first date or the sound rain makes when it hits a tin can.
TCC’s campuses plan to make sure those senses do not go untouched this fall.
The Collegian file photo
NE Campus invites musicians, both majors and non-majors, to make music through its many venues for student participation. If students sang in choir or played an instrument in high school, NE has performing ensembles where they can continue making music.
NE will offer the Music Through the Centuries concerts in October and April, music department chair Karen Parsons said.
“This packed house concert aims to present music, performed live, from the Middle Ages to the present,” she said.
More than a thousand students register for Music Appreciation each semester, Parsons said, and this live concert helps students pull the course content together regarding how music has changed and developed over the centuries.
“This concert is one of the highlights of the semester,” she said.
It is done rather informally in NSTU Center Corner almost “in the round” with many instrumentalists and vocalists, Parsons said.
“Music enthusiasts or beginners will enjoy the show,” she said.
Singers, a chamber choir performing music from the Renaissance era, will present a concert featuring music faculty, advanced students and guest musicians.
“Expect to hear acoustic guitar, harpsichord, piano, sopranos, tenors, basses, brass, woodwinds and strings,” Parsons said.
Choir students have the opportunity to audition for the Texas Two-Year College All-State Choir each fall.
NE instructor Bobbie Douglass encourages students to learn the music and audition, and then she takes the selected students to San Antonio for the Texas Music Educators Association annual conference.
The students spend four days rehearsing, recording and performing. Students can contact an instructor in the music department for more information.
Second-semester students can apply for two scholarships — Jim Barros Music Scholarship and Darlene Marks Music Scholarship — through the TCC Foundation at www.tccd.edu/foundation.
Greg Dewhirst, SE fine arts department chair and music associate professor, said his department has planned a full semester.
“We will have several performing groups, which provide opportunities for students to participate or listen,” he said. “There’s always something going on in the music department.”
SE Campus anticipates another set of fall concerts, another Fine Arts Expo, dance events (faculty and student), a number of art shows, several smaller performances. The campus also will host a University Interscholastic League All-Regional Clinic.
“All of the events are available to TCC students districtwide,” Dewhirst said.
South Campus has some musical events scheduled as well. The department has three jazz bands, two that meet at night and one that meets at 11 a.m. Monday/Wednesday.
Any students with previous jazz experience can enroll, either for transfer credit or for continuing education credit.
Rick Stitzel, South instrumental music director and music department chair, was pleased with a new addition to the fall schedule.
“We are going to be offering choir as a credit course,” he said.
Students also can take private lessons in voice, piano and guitar for beginners. The department has planned several fall concerts and recitals both on and off campus, which are open to TCC students and to the public.
Although TR Campus does not have a music department, its students can attend any of the concerts and recitals offered by the other campuses.
NE student Jessica Faulkwell is looking forward to the musical events.
“With all of the events going on districtwide at TCC, I will need to put some time aside just for studying,” she said.
