What better way to get an audience to sing than to offer them tasty desserts?

On November 1-2, the three university choirs performed the ninth annual Dessert Evening to raise money for the choir program at UTM.

The choirs participating in the Dessert Evening were the University Singers, the New Pacer Singers and the Women’s Choir.

All three choirs performed throughout the evening. Several members from each choir also performed solos or duets.

Lauren Evans, a senior Music Education major from Dyersburg, and David Allen Winton, a junior Vocal Music Education major from Pelham, performed a duet together singing Chances Are by Bob Segar from the movie Hope Floats.

Winton played the piano and sang with Evans. Their two voices complemented each other very well. Evans has a very beautiful voice which matches Winton’s tenor voice.

“Chances Are is about chance encounters,” Evans said, “and how they evolve into more than chance.”

Another good solo performed that evening was Anna Grayson singing Moon Faced, Starry Eyed by Kurt Weill. Grayson performed the selection very well, teasing the audience and being very sultry. The piece was from a 40s movie, a jazzy operatic scene.

“It was a lot of fun to do,” said Grayson, a junior Vocal MusicEducation major from Memphis. “I can be out of character, since I’m not really that outgoing.”

The New Pacer Singers, consisted of eight men and eight women, opened their performance with Hine Ma Tov arranged by Neil Ginsberg.

Hine Ma Tov is a folk song which is translated roughly into how good it is and how pleasant for brethren to dwell together. The distinction between the male and female vocals adds to the mood of the song. The song was very rythmic and upbeat.

Another piece performed by the New Pacer Singers was Jambo Rafiki aranged by Moses Hogan.

The piece is a tribal call piece with each member of the choir having a solo to showcase each other individual vocal talents.

After each solo call, the choir responded with a chorus. The choreography in the selection was also amazing. The choreography was done by Lori Denman, a senior Music Education major from Dyersburg.

“Jambo Rafiki features every person,” says Shenika Turner, a senior Music Education major from Humboldt. “It puts people in an upbeat, joyful mood! The choreography is fun and we’re grateful to Lori Denman for choreographing it.”

The audience sang such pieces as You are My Sunshine, Danny Boy and All things shall perish from under the sky.

The Women’s Choir consists of six women. They did a comical piece titled Who Shot Cock Robin arranged by John F. Campbell.

The evening was definitely filled with a diverse musical selection, ranging from R&B, folk to comical pieces. Brooke McGee, a junior from Linden, sang Wouldn’t it be Loverly by Frederick Loewe.

It was an amusing piece since McGee sang it with cockney accent. She also worked the crowd which added to Eliza Doolittle’s character from the movie.

An unusual piece, performed by Amy Hutcherson, a senior Music Education from Fairview, was Blah, Blah, Blah by George Gershwin.

Delana Easley, accompanist for the Music Department, also joined in with the singing, adding her own “blah, blah, blahs.”

The piece is about a girl who writes her boyfriend a poem, a beautiful routine which she hopes he likes. The piece makes fun of girls gushing in love movies, talking about their boyfriends all the time. The comical aspect of the song is that it is filled with “blah, blah, blahs” because the girl can only remember a tenth of the poem.

“It was funny,” Hutcherson said, “I knew that I could have a lot of fun with it.”

The evening ended with the University Singers singing The Love of the Sea by Donna Rhodenizer Taylor. The choir sang from the balcony of the Fine Arts gallery. It was truly a soothing sound with the many talented voices.

“I hope that the Dessert Evening inspires people to enjoy music more,” said Joel Malin, a freshman Music major from South Fulton.

The University Singers is directed by Dr. Kevin Lambert. Accompanists for the evening were Delena Easley and Sarah Anthony, a sophomore Pre-med major from Martin.

“The evening was extremely,” said Fred Spano, assistant professor of Music and also the director for both the Women’s choir and the New Pacer Singers. “It was very musical, we were able to create an emotional atmosphere through the different choirs and the solo selections.”