On Mar 17, at six o’clock p.m. at Burks Museum, Millikin Men, Millikin University’s all male choir, performed a St. Patrick’s Day concert for the students and faculty members of Millikin University.

The concert was a mix of both classical Gaelic and traditional Irish songs, and featured a variety of different songs performed by both the choir as a whole, while also featuring various different ensembles of performers, many of whom had to try out in order to be a part of the various ensembles.

Millikin Men performed a total of eight songs, many of which featured at least one soloist. The first song performed, “Ceann Dubh Dilis,” a traditional Gaelic song written by Michael McGlynn, demonstrated the choir’s ability to adapt to any foreign language, in order to produce a unique and dignified sound. “I’ll Kiss Thee Yet,” written by Jackie O’Neill, demonstrated the group’s ability to sing a very slow, soft, but none the less, passionate and powerful song. “Almost Like Being In Love,” a song from the musical Brigadoon, written by Lerner and Loewe, which featured a solo from Cory Arnold, showed how the group is able to perform dignifiedly around a single soloist.

The group also demonstrated their ability to interpret the tone of a song through acting and movement with the song, “Byker Hill.” This coal miner’s song arranged by Mitchel Sandler featured solos from Trevor May, Colin Uthe, Joe Bezenek, and Brendan Chapman. “Paddy Works on the Railway,” an Irish-American folk song arranged by Lon Beery featured a solo performed by Nick Scarpinato. Both of these songs, which featured the men singing in a very rough, singsong tone, while they moved around the stage, demonstrated the group’s ability to mimic the Irish. Additionally, the group performed “Dulamon,” written by Michael McGlynn, “The King of Love My Shepherd Is,” arranged by Mark Wilberg, and “Salley Gardens,” arranged by Benjamin Britten.

The concert also featured a variety of ensembles – some arranged for the concert, others who were already arranged, that were featured during the performance
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Thomas Hagen, Scott Mitchel, Grant Sauter, Colin Uthe, and Issac Wieser performed the traditional “Rocky Road to Dublin.” The ensemble, Note-ified, featuring Hunter Soyak, Andres Rivera, Harrison Meggos, Sundance Herman, Dillion Blankenship, Tyler Davis, Deion Corely, and Brendan Chapman, sang the Irish traditional, “Red Is the Rose.”