As the director of choral activities and music technology at Southern Utah University, Steve Meredith wants students to experience the reality of life for a musician on tour.
“For every minute of what feels really glamorous, there’s three hours of just backbreaking, drudgery work and rehearsal,” Meredith said in an interview. “It’s wonderful when it all comes together, and it is pretty glamorous when it all comes together. It’s a pretty hard job.”
Twenty-one Southern Utah University students will get to experience a taste of that life as they accompany Josh Groban and Sarah McLachlan in their On Stage tour performances Friday, Aug. 19, in Denver and Saturday, Aug. 20, at USANA Amphitheatre in West Valley City. Twenty singers from OPUS, SUU’s chamber choir, and one trumpeter, Austin Clark, will be traveling on a bus from southern Utah to Denver to West Valley City to be part of these performances.
This is an educational opportunity for students to learn what takes place behind the scenes of performances, Meredith said, adding that Groban's agent approached them about participating.
“For many students, it’ll be the first time that they’ve ever actually got to see what some of the other jobs in music look like,” said Meredith. “They get to see all the behind-the-scenes stuff that not only is just cool, but … it might give you some ideas as to what you might like to do with your education and with your career.”
With the performances at the beginning of the school year, Meredith is excited for this to be their start of the semester. He hopes this will help the students form friendships and get excited for the rest of the school year.
“It will be a way to kick-start our season in terms of teamwork and getting a sense of knowing each other as people and musically, and that’s great for both me and students in the group,” Meredith said. “I hope they get from it a sense of closeness that sometimes is hard to capture.”
The concert includes music from Groban's most recent record album, “Stages.” Meredith said he wants audiences to be impacted by the students' accompaniment and see how they stand out from other musicians.
“What I hope they get from us is that additional musical color that only a choir can bring,” Meredith said. “When the music is really supposed to swell your emotions, one of the first things that you do is you bring in a choir. So we are there to raise the excitement level, we are there to raise the level of emotion, and that’s what I hope the audience feels that when the choir enters that we’ve brought our own unique specific color and feeling to the song.”
If you go ...
What: Josh Groban with Sarah McLachlan in concert
When: Saturday, Aug. 20, 7 p.m.
Where: USANA Amphitheatre, 5125 S. 6400 West, West Valley City
How much: $32.50-$128
Web: usana-amp.com
Email: cstimpson@deseretnews.com