The music department at Kellogg Community College will bring more than 70 performers together for a free spring musical celebration at First Presbyterian Church in Battle Creek on Sunday, Apr 23. An award-winning educator, Dr. Gerald Case-Blanchard, is a primary organizer of the event. He joins Cara Lieurance to share the details of the concert, and to explain how the music program continues to serve and engage with the Battle Creek community.
Case-Blanchard highlights some of the planned performances by residential choirs, concert and jazz bands, and special student and faculty performers. He will lead the KCC Choir in a particularly significant piece of music called “Praise The Lord,” by Florence Price. It was the music that kept the choir singing during the pandemic and through a cancelled 65th anniversary concert, changing course into a video project combining the voices of the isolated singers. Case-Blanchard also talks about one of the strengths of small communities: the informal network of recommendations and encouragement for young people whose talents become apparent.
Singing in the Spring: Making Our Musical Garden Grow is free, but donations will be accepted toward an upcoming concert tour of Austria in 2025.
