Men’s
choir moves back in
By Tina Page
On-line Forty-Niner
Cal
State Long Beach has reinstated the men’s
choir as a premier ensemble open to all
male students for the first time in 22 years.
This will be the first year that the university
will provide academic credit for men that
want to sing in a choir.
The men’s choir is open to all majors and
students at any level, from freshmen to
graduate students. Since there is no music
background experience, there will be no
audition.
“The choir is open to guys that don’t have
much experience in singing to grad students
who are getting their degrees in music,”
said Scott Melvin, director of the men’s
choir.
The levels of experience in the group vary
dramatically. Some students are getting
their degrees in conducting and others have
absolutely no singing background at all,
Melvin said. The variety of experience is
an advantage to the less-experienced singers
because they will be getting free lessons
from the choir members with a more extensive
background, he added.
“The majority of our guys are just doing
it for fun,” Melvin said. “There has been
such a stigma for men in choirs. This choir
is helping to erase the stigma. It’s fun
and completely laid back.”
The choir was formed because of an overwhelming
amount of male students that wanted a singing
outlet. In the past, men have had to join
the women’s choir. This year, there was
such an extensive amount of interest that
the music department added the choir at
the last minute.
“I heard about the choir through the University
Kiosk System,” Gustov Mentzer, an English
major and a freshman said. “I have no singing
background but have grown up in music all
my life and I would like to learn how.”
Brian Sullivan, a music education major
and also a freshman, has been in choir for
the past six years. He is looking forward
to participating in the program.
“I think that the choir is going to be a
blast,” Sullivan said.
The choir will be singing classical works
from Bach to jazz to drinking songs. It
will be performing on campus and locally.
Practices are on Wednesdays from 7 to around
9:30 p.m. in UMC-301C. After practice the
choir will be going to Pizzamanina for pizza
and drinks.
“The men’s choir is for guy’s that don’t
consider themselves singers that want to
sing. We’re gonna sing a lot about drinking
and women,” Melvin said. “It’s going to
be a very laid back group.”
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