The performing arts were showcased through the talents of the Cerritos College Community Choir and selected student soloists at the 5th Annual Spring Sing Concert.

The doors at the California Heights United Methodist Church in Long Beach were open to friends, family and everybody else on a sea-breezed and sunny Sunday afternoon.

For fifteen weeks Director of Choral and Vocal Studies Anna DeMichele has been working closely with her students to perfect their performance for this day.

“There have been very difficult pieces this year. Sometimes we do easier things, but this time it’s been very hard. We’ve been working since the beginning of this semester. 

“The student soloists auditioned for their spots back in March and they had to be prepared for that audition to be selected to sing and they’ve kept preparing up until the time of the concert.”

Twenty-four intricate pieces of music from composers such as Giuseppi Verde and Franz Schubet, as well as adaptations from the pen of William Shakespeare, spanned the two-hour event. 

Songs filled with romantic tragedy performed by the soloists segued into powerful love songs brimming with passionate abandon and back to sonic triumph with the accumulated vocals of the Cerritos choir. 

“Tschaikowsky (And Other Russians)” was a difficult comedy number executed by vocal major Jose Maldonado.

This quick-witted piece has been taken on by the likes of comedic icon Danny K and proved to be a crowd pleaser throughout the decades, to this day.

“In the music, there’s a psychology,” Maldonado says. “This piece has the ‘whole tone’ scale in it. This scale tends to hypnotize people.  It was a lot of work, a lot of fun. I’m glad the people liked it.”

“My Man Is Gone,” written by Hetward/Gershwin, begat visions of melodic heartache provided by the voice of music major Cynthia Hernandez.

“This song is completely human. Fortunately, I’ve never personally, thank God, have had someone get killed like the woman in the song, but nonetheless, I have had heartache through the loss of someone.”

Hernandez was visibly energized from the event. “Oh I loved it. I loved it! Everybody did so well. I loved hearing all the repertoire and hearing how everybody has grown and become so polished.”

For music major Jorge Arevalo, bringing Verdi’s “Questo O Quello,” from Rigoletto, to life was especially fun for him.

The song portrays a most virile womanizer on the hunt for every man’s woman with no regard for the destruction he leaves behind.

“He thinks love is for fools. And if you want to stay faithful, that’s up to you.” He adds, “The husbands are jealous and furious but the character just doesn’t care. That’s the part where I start laughing at their love, ‘Ha ha ha!’ “

A repetition of the choral material is on May 20 at the Burnight Center Theatre, which will be shared with the orchestra and the band.

Additional selections will be performed called the “Beethoven Choral Fantasy.”

The event is free of charge.