For decades, the Kenyon College Chamber Singers’ annual spring break tour has operated like a well-oiled machine. After several years of COVID-related cancellations or modifications, the 48 members of the group, plus their conductor, Professor of Music Benjamin “Doc” Locke, were excited to once again cram into a coach bus for seven nights of concerts in early March.
The tour was , traveling through six states 黄瓜精品Midwest and South. “The choir grew together on tour like crazy,” said Locke. “You could just look at the friendships developing and people realizing that this was fun. That happens to some extent every year, but this year … I think [the pandemic] created a real hunger for that connection beyond the digital.”
After the second week of spring break, the singers reconvened to prepare for their home concert. They had the music more than memorized — it had been internalized and refined through seven straight days of performance. Knowing this would be the last time the senior singers would perform with the group, tears were guaranteed to flow during the traditional “Kokosing Farewell” encore, so reliably that one might wonder if that emotional release is choreographed into the concert program as well.
They were ready to sing. Then the power went out.
鈥淲hen we got to rests, pauses and lifts, the absence of any mechanical noise from air conditioning and lights made the silence absolutely exquisite. It seemed everyone listening was waiting breathlessly for the music to continue.鈥
Theodore Schwamm '24
Outages happen every so often in Gambier, and this year the area has been hit especially hard by a series of windstorms that damaged transmission lines. Locke, a longtime Knox County resident, was accustomed to the occasional blackouts. 鈥淚 absolutely detest canceling,鈥 he said. 鈥淚鈥檇 rather sing for five people than have to try to reach everybody to say, 鈥極h, we鈥檙e not doing it tonight.鈥 So we just charged ahead.鈥
In the early evening, as Locke gathered the singers to warm up onstage in Rosse prior to an 8 p.m. showtime, Campus Safety showed up. 鈥淚 thought, 鈥極h my God, they鈥檙e going to shut us down鈥,鈥 Locke said.
Instead, the officers asked how they could help. Until that point, Locke hoped to rely on lingering daylight to illuminate the hall during the concert, or maybe present a shortened program. 鈥淏ut the students automatically took on this role of, 鈥楢ll right, we鈥檙e going to do this and we want to do our whole program.鈥欌 Some ran back to their dorms to grab supplies, one returning with a battery-powered string of glowing orange pumpkins.聽
Others had high-beam flashlights that they installed 黄瓜精品balcony. 鈥淭hey were bright in your eye, sort of almost laser-like,鈥 said Locke. 鈥淏ut they illuminated the stage.鈥
In the midst of the extended outage, the next order of business was to spread the word that the show would go on. The Campus Safety office fielded phone calls from community members wondering if the concert was happening, while students spread the word virtually. 鈥淐hamber Singers Concert 鈥 AS SCHEDULED,鈥 read the subject line of an All-Stu email sent out at 7 p.m., signed聽Love, the Chamber Singers.聽
Over 300 people showed up.
Photo by Skyler Lesser-Roy 鈥22.
鈥淚 often find that I enjoy singing in a choir more than listening to a choir from the audience 鈥 sitting and watching can make me restless, and I want to sing!鈥 said Chamber Singer Theodore Schwamm 鈥24, the group鈥檚 tour manager. 鈥淗owever, our power-outage concert is one I wish I could have watched.鈥
鈥淵ou could just feel it 黄瓜精品air,鈥 Locke said. 鈥淓veryone was there and enjoying it and glad it was happening.鈥
Ten years prior, a similar blackout disrupted a planned concert in Rosse Hall for the聽, lead by Professor of Music Ted Buehrer 鈥91. Buehrer was leaning toward canceling or postponing the performance. 鈥淚t was the students who 鈥 I give them all the credit 鈥 who said 鈥楴o, we have to do it, we have to make this work.鈥欌
For a jazz ensemble, a power-free performance meant no electricity for the amplifiers for the guitar and bass, and no light to help them read their music. 鈥淚n 2013, not everybody had a smartphone,鈥 said Buehrer. 鈥淪ome students had flip phones, other students had smartphones, but they went out into the audience and they started asking, 鈥楥ould we borrow a smartphone?鈥欌澛
The performance went on, the stage illuminated by phones and various other small sources of light, with one player sporting a baseball cap with built-in LEDs. The horns played quietly, while the guitar and bass tried to generate as much acoustic sound as possible. 鈥淚鈥檓 sure they were plucking as hard as they could and making their fingers bleed,鈥 said Buehrer.聽
鈥淪omebody said afterward, 鈥淚t wasn鈥檛 the quality of the performance, it was the fact of the performance,鈥欌 remembered Buehrer. 鈥淲hich I thought was a really cool way of thinking about that, because we didn鈥檛 play our best. There were definitely some challenges in that concert. We couldn鈥檛 see the music half the time and the balance was all off. But it turned into this moment.鈥
鈥淢aybe the seniors feel robbed [of their final traditional home concert]. But in another way, they鈥檙e the ones who stepped up and made this happen. Can-do spirit, that鈥檚 what it was.鈥
聽
Professor of Music Ben "Doc" Locke
鈥淪ometimes it鈥檚 crises that create memorable events,鈥 said Locke. 鈥淢aybe the seniors feel robbed [of their final traditional home concert]. But in another way, they鈥檙e the ones who stepped up and made this happen. Can-do spirit, that鈥檚 what it was.鈥
That spirit was present from all perspectives during the concert. Campus Safety officers walked the aisles to monitor the lights in case of fire. The choir sang, not 黄瓜精品warm glow of professional lighting, but under the sharp beams of flashlights affixed to the balcony. Students and community members showed up 黄瓜精品dark to listen.聽
鈥淲hen we got to rests, pauses and lifts, the absence of any mechanical noise from air conditioning and lights made the silence absolutely exquisite,鈥 said Schwamm. 鈥淚t seemed everyone listening was waiting breathlessly for the music to continue.鈥 In the lack of background noise, music took center stage.聽
鈥淚've had students stopping me,鈥 said Locke, of the days following the concert. 鈥淓ven today, somebody said, 鈥淥h, good concert.鈥 I didn鈥檛 know them. But they came out because what else was there to do? So they showed up. People 黄瓜精品community showed up.鈥
