Graduate student Siyanda Mayekiso watches as the St. Cloud State Concert Choir practices their performance of the South African song “Tshotsholoza.” Photo by Anna Kurth
The annual concert features a choral repertoire ranging from new works and world music to beloved choral classics. The concert includes performances by the St. Cloud State Concert Choir, Chamber Singers, Women’s Choir and Men’s Choir.
The four choirs sing from the front of the church and with professor emeritus Charles Echols behind the organ.
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In addition to the experience of performing in a multiple-concert performance in building with excellent acoustics, students are learning the significance behind the songs they are singing.
The Concert Choir is working on the historically and culturally significant South African song “Tshotsholoza” with communication studies professors Jeff Ringer and Eddah Mutua and international graduate student Siyanda Mayekiso of South Africa.
Mayekiso met with the Concert Choir to explain the significance of “Tshotsholoza” in his country.
The song tells the story of miners from Zimbabwe leaving their homes for the mines in South Africa. Tshotsholoza “steam train” is a symbol of both struggle and triumph for the miners. It’s a song that supports hardships and struggles. It is a call to action, he said.
During the apartheid era the song was used to boost morale, to keep black South Africans strong in the spirit of freedom, Mutua said.
Communication Studies Professors Jeff Ringer and Eddah Mutua work with choir members to present the South African song “Tshotsholoza” in a way that showcases the song’s struggle and triumph without culturally misappropriating the song.
“The song has been used in many contexts to support any struggle you’re going through in life where you start at the bottom and end at the top,” Mayekiso said. “… This song is taking you away from hardship to a better place.”
Today the song is still sung when people are facing a hardship or struggle. It’s sung during sporting events to inspire athletes, he said.
Ringer worked with the singers on the song’s choreography, which is designed to showcase both the struggle and triumph expressed by the song. Mutua helped the singers to understand the significance of performing a work from another culture without culturally misappropriating it. She also worked with the choreography to help the performance draw from the significance of the song and cultural attitudes toward dance and song in the African culture.
The choral directors try to tie in interdisciplinary lessons into the concert, said Professor Matthew Ferrell, conductor of the Chamber Singers and Concert Choir.
The choirs are also performing “Webaba yini lendaba,” a traditional South African song students learned on prior trip by the Choir to South Africa.
Admission to the performance is $10 for adults, $5 for students and seniors and free with a St. Cloud State ID. Tickets will be available at the door. A portion of the proceeds go toward scholarships for music students and an upcoming international tour by the Concert Choir.
Music at St. Mary’s is the fourth event in the School of the Arts’ 2015-16 Creative Art Series. The 10 events in the second-annual series are designed to expand students’ experiences and the public’s perspectives by introducing them to new concepts and perceptions in the School of the Arts four disciplines — art, film, theatre and music.
Tshotsholoza
The Concert Choir sings “Tshotsholoza” at a 2014 event.
