Sharing their musical talents with the UTM community, the sisters of Sigma Alpha Iota presented their annual Musicale of American Composers last Monday evening.

The evening began with the sweet sounds of the SAI choir singing Pan in Canon, by Barbi Jeffrey. The choir was directed by Lindsay Roberts, a junior Percussion Music Education major from Lexington.

Their performance was followed by Emily Bethart playing Prelude II, by George Gershwin, on the piano.

Sarah Lemons and Roberts shared their vocal talents with the audience in their performance of Who Will Love Me as I Am?, from Side Show, by Henry Krieger.

The duet proved to be amazing. Both girls had excellent vocals and performed the song well. They were accompanied by Sarah Anthony on the piano.

Another great vocal performer was Shenika Turner singing Summertime, from Porgy and Bess, by Gershwin. She was accompanied by Linda Farmer on the piano.

Turner has a good soprano voice and the song kind of had a jazzy tone to it.

“I had a great time doing the piece,” said Turner, a senior Music Education major from Humboldt. “It was a fun piece to sing.”

Next to perform was Megan Beam playing Improvisation, by Edward MacDowell, on the piano.

The piece had a sweet melody and Beam performed with great technique on the piano.

“Although I didn’t have much time to practice the piece, it went pretty well,” said Beam, a sophomore Music Education major from Union City.

The girls showcased each of their wonderful talents in smaller groups, but truly shined when they came together in the SAI Choir.

The choir sang many pieces, such as Our Song by Sara B. Frank, Our Symphony by Bernice Gay, the Benediction by Luise Mueller and the Sigma Alpha Iota Chorale by Margaret Blackburn.

“I’m so proud of the girls for pulling through the choir,” said Roberts, director of the choir. “They sounded absolutely great!” In Our Song, the SAI choir sounded teriffic. The song had a gentle tone and was very well performed.

With her last year in college, Amy Hutcherson sang one of her favorite pieces -- Blah, Blah, Blah by Gershwin with Sarah Anthony accompanying on the piano.

The song is a comical piece about a girl who writes her boyfriend a poem. The piece makes fun of girls gushing in love movies, talking about their boyfriends a lot. The comical aspect of the song is that it is filled with “blah, blah, blahs” because the girl can only remember a tenth of the poem.

Anthony also joined in her vocals at the end with a few “blah, blah, blahs.”

“It was a fun piece to sing,” said Hutcherson, a senior Music Education major from Fairview. “I wanted to end my last Musicale with something I really enjoyed.”

Peforming a duet on the piano, Hideko Umehara and Beam played Applachian Christmas Carols by Vincent Pesichetti.

The piece started out with a somber tone, then progressed into an upbeat melody. The melody was nice and also had great bass chords.

Uptown-Downtown, by Norman Farnsworth and William Minor, Jr., was performed by Jeannie Pritchett and Kanako Ueda on the clarinet.

The piece has a reoccuring melody with a simple tone. The girls performed well on the piece.

A wonderful performance in the Musicale was Sarah Lemons singing Back to Before, from Ragtime, by Stephen Flaherty. She was accompanied by Beam on the piano.

Lemons has an amazing voice for singing. She performed the song well, both vocally and theatrically.

“I love doing musical theatre pieces,” said Lemons, a sophomore Vocal Music Education major from Brentwood. “It gives me a chance to express myself. Besides, it’s an easy song to wail on.”

The evening ended with the SAI Choir. In the Sigma Alpha Iota Chorale, the sisters asked for any members of SAI in the audience to come on stage to sing the last song as one group. It was truly a warm moment seeing all the sisters of SAI singing together. They sang very well together and stated the celebration of music perfectly with the line, “Music is a kind and truthful speech, in a language out of mere words reach... sing we now to Sigma Alpha Iota.”