ROBERT PIERCE
• Leader & Times
Friday, May 2, Seward County Community College’s Rapid Fit Health Club Showcase Theater will come alive with the sound of music as SCCC presents its annual spring concert.
The concert is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m., and Instrumental Music Instructor Claire Thompson said the evening will feature music from many realms of entertainment, including movies, television shows and video games.
“We are really excited to put on that concert and showcase what we’ve been working on this semester,” she said.
Thompson said audience members can expect a fun, upbeat concert that will keep them guessing and on their toes.
“They’ll also hear a lot of familiar things since it’s from movies, from composers like John Williams and Hans Zimmer,” she said. “They’ll hear things they have heard before from famous movies, and we’re looking forward to sharing that with everybody.”
May marks the end of Thompson’s first year at SCCC, and with a winter concert behind her as well as the return of a pep band, she is in a good mental state for the upcoming spring concert.
“I’m really excited to finish out the year strong,” she said. “It’s been an incredible first year at SCCC. I felt super supported by my students and staff members. It’s been a very exciting year, and I’m incredibly happy to be a part of the staff at SCCC.”
Planning for the concert too has been much fun for Thompson.
“We’re doing a piece called ‘Player One Press Start,’” she said. “It comes with a back track, and it’s all about video games. The composer of this piece is still alive, which is awesome. A lot of times, we play or sing pieces from composers who have passed on.”
This time, however, Thompson and her band of music makers will work an actual composer next week prior to the concert.
“He’ll be able to get us where we need to for our final performance of the piece,” she said. “Being able to work with an actual composer to perfect what we’ve been working on, we’re all really excited. These opportunities have been awesome, and we’re really looking forward to sharing it with everybody. It’s something different.”
While SCCC’s winter concert typically fits into the holiday spirit, Thompson said the spring concert, at least her portion of it, fits into the mood of the season, but she said those on hand will fresh music pieces.
“They’re more modern pieces,” she said. “They’re new. I didn’t go with it being spring. I went with my students had been interested in, and that’s how I picked the music we were going to do this semester.”
Tickets for the spring concert are $3 each and can be purchased in SCCC’s Hobble Academic Building at the welcome desk or at the door the night of the concert. Students get in free with their student ID. Thompson said she is extremely excited for upcoming night of music.
“I’ve got a lot of great students coming up from Liberal High School to help us out again,” she said. “I’ve got some friends and other community musicians who will be joining us. The theme is just incredible.”
Thompson said the concert’s theme is appropriate because her love of classical music began with movie music.
“It’s one of my personal passions, so the fact the students were interested in this as well and we get to work with a composer on one of our pieces, we’re all extremely excited to put on this show,” she said.
