One of the region’s leading men’s choirs, the Iowa Statesmen, performed Saturday night at the Perry Performing Arts Center in the Perry Fine Arts concert series. About 200 people attended the 90-minute show.
The Iowa Statesmen is composed of students from Iowa State University. The chorus was founded by Dr. James Rodde in 2000 and specializes in the performance of traditional and contemporary male chorus literature.
Early in the performance, when Rodde was introducing a song and chatting with the audience, he asked the members of the chorus to raise their hands if they were not music majors, and virtually the entire body of students, about 130, raised their hands.
“These are young men who just love singing and singing together,” Rodde said. Amanda Jennings was the accompanist at Saturday night’s performance.
The group performed 17 songs. As with every show, the Statesmen closed the concert with the Iowa State University school songs.
One of the show’s highlights was the Richard Burchard song “Dedication,” with lyrics by Mark Twain. Two soloists performed, including Christian Loaiza of Perry, a 2015 graduate of Perry High School.
The Statesmen annually join the other three ISU choirs to present both the Holiday and Masterworks Concerts, each with orchestra, and the choir also embarks on a brief regional tour every spring. This was their first performance in Perry.
The next concert in the Perry Fine Arts series in Tiesday, April 25, when the Russian choral group Lyra returns for a second annual performance both of ancient songs from the Orthodox Church and contemporary Russian music.
Too bad the Perry Performing Arts Center was not packed to see this outstanding performance. There should have been more Perry students there as well. It is very disturbing to see such poor attendance for such a great concert.