Chorale going 'Al Fresco!' to start singing season outdoors

Marc-Andre Bougie and Mary Scott Smith
Marc-Andre Bougie and Mary Scott Smith

TEXARKANA, Ark. - The Texarkana Regional Chorale returns to the stage at an atypical venue: a downtown art gallery where the TRC singers will perform "Al Fresco!," a concert outdoors.

Presented at 6 p.m. Tuesday at 1894 Gallery, the show will feature conductor Marc-Andre Bougie, pianist Mary Scott Smith and the chorale members performing selections by Hagenberg, Hogan and Whitacre, along with a world premiere of "The Gift of Dreams to Dream" by Robert Cohen.

Accompanying will be drummer George Buckner and bassist Jeff Madlock. Admission will be free, but lawn chairs for seating are suggested.

For the members of the Chorale, this comeback is a long time coming.

"It is our return after I think close to 18 months of no TRC concerts. The last event we had was Mardi Gras 2020," Bougie reflected. "Our people, they're excited to getting back to singing. We've been practicing for almost a month now. We're ready for action."

They'll use best practices and follow safety distances because of the pandemic. But they're ready to go with an outdoor concert style they previously used at CHRISTUS St. Michael Health System.

"On the other hand, people want to sing. We need to adapt. This is why we're going to start with an outdoors concert," Bougie said. "There's no safer environment than outdoors for singing. It's safe for the performers. It's safe for the audience. I thought that would be a great way to go back in the limelight, if you will, and bringing back a concept that we've done already before, the 'al fresco' concept, the fresh air concert."

In the fall with temperatures and sunset at an opportune time, the outdoor concert works well, he said.

"This kind of a concept has all the ingredients of creating some really magical moments. I think it's going to happen again this year, so we're excited," Bougie said.

The TRC has had it in mind to perform downtown for a while, and the 1894 Gallery might be the perfect place. Outside on the deck, the singers can perform on a large, elevated surface with plenty of room, while the audience can spread out on the street level.

"There's plenty of space there for our 50 or so singers to sing and perform," Bougie said.

A fall theme will run through the repertoire, along with jazzy, upbeat numbers, such as "Try to Remember" from the play "The Fantasticks," a song that mentions September.

"We'll be doing 'Autumn Leaves,' the great jazz standard, a fantastic choir-choral jazz arrangement. People will love it," Bougie said. Expect some scat singing from Candace Taylor on that one.

Then there's an arrangement of the Neil Diamond song "September Morn." That's originally a French song, Bougie explained.

Beyond that, expect gospel music and new American music for the repertoire.

Cohen's "The Gift of Dreams to Dream" premiere presents a work the composer penned during the pandemic. The Chorale has performed Cohen's work before with "Alzheimer's Stories."

"Beautiful music. Robert writes in a melodic style that's very accessible," Bougie said, "but the music is also rich, the texture is rich, the harmonic language is rich. It's full. It's pleasant to sing and very pleasant to listen to. It's been a great joy to work on that song."

For the TRC, being back as a group will make for a powerful moment for them, the conductor said. They've been experimenting in smaller groups with churches and the like, but that singing is limited in scope.

"It's not like we disappeared from the map totally, but this will be the first time where we don't have any limitations," Bougie said. He believes it will be cathartic to perform en masse again.

(The 1894 Gallery is located at 105 Olive St. in Texarkana, Arkansas. Email [email protected] for more information.)

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