When Jerry Bell attended the first Spectrum Concert, hosted by the UNC Department of Music, he said there were only about 30 other people in the audience. Four years later, the concert is a staple of the department.
"I thought, 'This is a crime against nature,' our students are so great — it has to be displayed more for people to come," Bell said. "So I decided I was going to try to get that to happen. It’s a golden treasure on the campus and almost nobody knew."
The original concert was held to celebrate the opening of the newly renovated James and Susan Moeser Auditorium in Hill Hall. But with Jerry and Tina Bell as sponsors, the music department's now annual Spectrum Concert lives up to its name. The concert features a wide spectrum of student ensembles, from the UNC Violin Studio to the Glee Club.
The event will take place Feb. 29 at 7:30 p.m. in Hill Hall. General admission is $10. Student and faculty tickets are $5.
The line-up at this concert includes the UNC Violin Studio, Carolina Bluegrass Band, Marching Tar Heels, UNC Piano Studio, UNC Glee Club, UNC Opera, UNC Harp Ensemble, UNC Wind Ensemble, Carolina Choir, a brass quintet, a string quartet, a flute ensemble and a graduate research presentation by Meg Orita.
Kayla Richardson-Piche, the president of the Carolina Choir council, said the idea of the concert is to display the range of ensembles and programs within the music department.
“You get to see so much stuff that you might not normally see and it's always a packed house because we’re pulling from so many different audiences and things you might not even know exist," Richardson-Piche said.
The Carolina Choir will be performing a song from Stephen Sondheim's musical "Sunday in the Park with George" at the concert.
Evan Feldman, a professor in the music department, helped curate the music for the concert. Feldman compared the variety of music at the concert to a buffet.
