On November 14, 2025, the North Central College Department of Music presented the annual Explore the Sound Concert, featuring the Concert Choir, Chorale, and Chamber Singers.
“Explore the Sound, while offering a different visual and sonic effect than most concert presentations, is always first and last about the music, the gift of organized, expressive sound that humans have enjoyed since the beginning of time and will continue to rely upon as a way to, as anthropology scholar Ellen Dissanayake so aptly describes it, ‘make special,’” wrote director Ramona Wis in her notes at the beginning of the program.
Exploring the Wentz Concert Hall
Explore the Sound began in 2008 as a way to discover the newly built Wentz Concert Hall. Musicians and singers performed in various spaces in the hall, not just on the stage.
“Instrumentalists and vocalists learn to be adaptable, inventive, and more sensitive to timbral qualities of their instrument in the context of the space around them; they grow in independence and leadership and extend themselves beyond their comfort zone as artists,” wrote Wis.
Vocal performances and instrumental interludes
To create a seamless production, each student performance was followed by a musical interlude, with each song flowing into the next.
The student program featured the following songs:
- Alleluia, Rejoice, Based on Medieval chants, arr. J. Edmund Hughes (b. 1947)
- Ave Maria, Javier Busto (b. 1949)
- Hine Ma Tov, Neil Ginsberg (b. 1969)
- By Night, Elaine Hagenberg (b. 1979)
- Sizalelwe Indodana, South African (IsiZulu), arr. Victor C. Johnson (b. 1978)
- Go Tell It On the Mountain, African-American spiritual, arr. Stacey V. Gibbs (b. 20th c.)
- Alegria, Puerto Rican carol, arr. Conrad Susa (1935-2013)
- O Yule Full of Gladness, Norwegian carol, arr. Carolyn Jennings (b. 1936)
- Brightest and Best, American hymn tune, arr. Shawn Kirchner (b. 1970)
- I Will Light Candles This Christmas, Kim André Arnesen (b. 1980)
