‘United’ brings College and community together in song
Shelley Ensor believes in the power of music to change the world. The Music adjunct lecturer and director of McDaniel’s Gospel Choir knows that music motivates, uplifts, inspires, energizes, unites.
So, distressed by the divisiveness she sees in today’s society, she turned to music to bring people together, to help everyone remember their humanity — and “United” was born.
The fruits of Ensor’s invitations on campus as well as throughout the region will appear on stage and in the audience when the curtain opens on “McDaniel United: A Celebration of Love and Unity” on Oct. 20 at 7:30 p.m. in WMC Alumni Hall. The event is free and open to the public.
“I’m hoping to start a ripple that will continue to move people long after the concert is over,” says Ensor, explaining that music was the most powerful weapon of the civil rights movement. “Everybody can’t do the marching and the protesting, but everyone can sing a song.”
United’s audience should plan to do a lot of that — singing along with McDaniel’s Gospel and College choirs to tunes such as “Ooh Child,” “Music Down to My Soul,” “Oseh Shalom” and “Love Train,” inviting “people all over the world to join hands, start a love train.”
Music adjunct lecturer David Kreider on the piano and Common Ground on the Hill executive director Walt Michael on dulcimer are among the performers along with McDaniel’s Theatre Arts students singing “A Song of Purple Summer” from their Nov. 14–17 production, “Spring Awakening.”
Several McDaniel students and faculty, including Molly Sherman ’22 and Katy Stanton, perform original poems and songs. Savannah Dawson ’18 performs with her father, Doug Dawson, their original "Thundercall (And Be As One)" and also "Somewhere Over the Rainbow/It's A Wonderful World," by Israel Kamakawiwo'ole. Also taking the stage are local blues musician Chris James and Joseph Meerdter and The Ebb Valley Chorale.
The list of performers keeps growing, much to Ensor’s delight. She hopes people will leave feeling better about the world than when they arrived.
“We hope people will leave uplifted, supported, ready to carry the message on,” says Ensor.
Music professor and department chair Robin Armstrong echoes Ensor’s thoughts.
“The concert serves to remind us that there are good things like music that uplift us, bridge gaps and unify people,” she says.
