HFC hosts “Raise Your Voice” spring choral program

The HFC Music department will host “Raise Your Voice,” the HFC spring choral program, on Sunday, April 21, at 4:00 p.m. in the Adray Auditorium (Room F-100) in the MacKenzie Fine Arts Center (Building F on the main campus).

The HFC Chorus and the Music Club Vocal Jazz Ensemble will perform under the direction of choral director Amy Saari.

First-ever choral piece to be featured in Arabic

“We welcome listeners from all over the community to enjoy talented singing from a wide variety of vocal music traditions – from (George Frideric) Handel to Broadway and beyond,” said Saari.

“‘Raise Your Voice’ was chosen as the title for this concert not just because it’s also the title of the concert’s finale piece from Sister Act [the musical based on the 1992 film of the same name starring Oscar winner Whoopi Goldberg], but because all of this season's HFC Chorus repertoire deals with this theme in one way or another,” said Saari.

“It's not just about raising your voice in song – it's about raising your voice in protest, or praise, or remembrance,” she explained. “We will start off with our first-ever choral piece featuring Arabic language and reprise two powerful pieces from the President’s Collage Concert that call for Black liberation and recognition. Our Handel selection also fits into the theme with its poignant and timely text: ‘Their bodies are buried in peace, but their name liveth for evermore.’”

Saari is “insanely proud” of her singers

“Raise Your Voice” marks the end of Saari’s first year at HFC. She joined the music faculty prior to the start of the 2023-24 academic year.

“I am insanely proud of all the singers – for doubling the size of the HFC Chorus in one semester, for keeping the vocal jazz tradition rolling, for stunning the clinicians at the Michigan Community College Choral Festival in Grand Rapids, for making powerful appearances both at the Collage Concert and at the John McDonald Student & Culinary Arts Center for Black History Month, and, most of all, for being resilient amid a host of challenges, the least of which was adjusting to a new director. It's an honor to work with these singers and to keep envisioning with them what choral music could be for the future,” said Saari.

This event is free and open to the public. For questions or more information, contact Saari at asaari@hfcc.edu.