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WMU hosts Cafe Concert featuring student talent
Cafe Concert delights audience with show tunes, dance, and student artwork
Southeast Iowa Union offers audio versions of articles using Instaread. Some words may be mispronounced.
WINFIELD — Winfield-Mt. Union’s annual Café Concert delighted a supportive audience with a diverse program of music and art from the student body a little earlier in the year than normal.
Usually held in early spring, WMU’s music department rolled with new scheduling this school year, including moving the Café Concert to Saturday, Nov. 23.
“We have a unique opportunity this year with some changes in our scheduling, we are excited that we can put our middle schoolers and high schoolers all together in one group and have a grand old time,” WMU Music Director Lindsey Pogmore said.
As a combined group, WMU students showed off many artistic talents at the café concert including music, paintings, sculptures, and dance. The music portions of the evening loosely followed a theme of “Music of the Small Screen: Themes from TV.”
While not quite on theme with the concert, the evening kicked off with a rousing performance by the sixth-grade band, who played a lively rendition of the classic "Jingle Bells” which Pogmore explained was originally written in 1857 as a Thanksgiving song for the composer’s father’s Sunday School class.
The choir begrudgingly, but beautifully, sang the Sesame Street theme song, with some encouragement from the audience per Pogmore’s request. The WMU music students received additional audience participation as the band and choir each performed the Addam’s Family which Pogmore said “is probably the most easily recognizable song featuring snapping in the history of finger snapping.”
With one student dressed as Perry the Platypus, the eighth-grade students more enthusiastically sang “Today is Gonna be a Great Day,” the Phineas and Ferb theme song. The sixth-grade choir members couldn’t hide their smiles as they sang the SpongeBob SquarePants theme song.
Breaking from a theme of shows for younger audiences and the program one student took on the challenge of hitting the interjections in the “Tequila” song by The Champs. In a more somber turn, WMU Senior Brynn Pogmore showed off her singing talent as she performed a solo of Nadia’s Theme from The Young and the Restless.
The choir also performed a medley of other popular theme songs from shows from their grandparents’ era. This Medley included the theme songs from Scooby Doo, the Flintstones, and Yogi Bear.
“The students really didn’t know much about the Flintstones or Yogi Bear,” Pogmore said.
According to Pogmore, band students performing the Comedy Classic medley also were unfamiliar with some of these vintage shows such as Happy Days, The Beverly Hillbillies, and I love Lucy.
In addition to a performance of a variety of songs with voice and instrument, the WMU Dance Team donned their sequin covered red uniforms and danced to their own TV Medley as another display of WMU talent.
In between musical acts, the WMU Art Club took center stage to promote their fundraising efforts. The students sold handmade ornament, both unpainted and painted, during intermission to raise money for a trip to St. Louis. The lobby was also filled with paintings, sculptures, and other artwork from the WMU students for guests to check out during intermission.
As the concert came to an end Pogmore shared changes to the WMU Jazz Band. While the café concert normally ends with Jazz Band, this year’s band features many new faces and they came into the concert with not as much experience, yet.
“The thing that is different this year from years past is that we’re just sort of getting Jazz Band started this year,” Pogmore said. “But we have a lot of new faces and a lot of people that want to play, so, we’re trying something a little different. We’re starting it much earlier.”
“Usually I’m here to say, wow, we have a had a great season, which I’m sure we will, but this is sort of still a work in progress,” she continued.
Ending the night with the lively performance of “Naptown Blues,” WMU music department looks forward to keeping the momentum going. To see how they’re progressing, WMU music supporters, fans, friends, and family can mark their calendars for Jan. 29 at 6 p.m. when WMU high school and middle schools will return to the stage with the addition of WMU’s Elementary students for their winter concert.
Comments: AnnaMarie.Kruse@southeastiowaunion.com
