On Dec. 3, FGCU’s Bower School of Music & the Arts performed its annual Christmas extravaganza, “Joyful & Triumphant,” at Moorings Presbyterian Church in Naples. The concert featured four choirs — Bel Canto, Cantabile, the Chamber Choir and the University Choir — along with FGCU’s Symphony Orchestra.
This is the fifth consecutive year that FGCU performance major Sebastian Plymette has performed in the concert.
“Every year we seem to add something new,” said Plymette. “Our Cantabile, our tenor and bass choir, was founded only two years ago so having that fourth choir join really changed up the pacing, how we interweave each song into the show. And then with our orchestra, we do something greater and greater every year. And I think that our “Gloria Patri” [from “Magnificat”] this year with orchestra is going to be something that nobody should miss. It's incredible.”
Plymette is a member of the FGCU Chamber Choir, which performs three songs in the concert. But it’s when all four FGCU choirs are on stage together that the singers and symphony really forge a bond with each other and the audience.
“We encourage people to sing along,” said Plymette. “So having 100, 200 students singing carols to an extra thousand, it’s one of the few things I feel that really brings unity across everyone. And just seeing everyone's faces in the audience, their joy and just happiness so they can be a part of something so large and so important to the community is it's really inspiring.”
In addition to performing regularly in local theatrical productions, Plymette sings with Opera Naples. But he regards “Joyful & Triumphant” as the pinnacle of his time at FGCU.
Sophomore music education major Mia Laboy Reyes has performed in “Joyful & Triumphant” the past two years. She relishes the musical journey that the choirs take audiences on over the course of the production.
“In a way it is like a theatrical production because there is a consecutive story being told and there's different scenes that happen, like the orchestra will play by themselves and then they'll accompany the choirs,” Reyes observed.
This year’s journey includes a number that Reyes couldn’t wait to perform.
“I love the arrangement we use of “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing,” said Reyes. “It is just soaring and gorgeous, and it's one of those staples in your carol repertoire that, like, it really gets you in the spirit.”
Reyes believes that even people who aren’t into Christmas or who may be done with caroling should catch one or more of the broadcasts of “Joyful & Triumphant.”
“Outside of the Christmas carols, while that is exciting for many people, it's also exciting how beautiful it is that so many people with a shared love of creating music can get together and put on this incredible performance,” Reyes said.
MORE INFORMATION:
Sebastian Plymette has appeared locally in a number of theatrical productions. His stage credits include Jon in “tick, tick … Boom!” (2024), Marcellus in “The Music Man” (2023) and Brad Majors in "The Rocky Horror Show" (2023), all for Fort Myers Theatre.
Last summer, Plymette was part of Opera Naples’ youth production of “The Mikado” and will be featured in January in its upcoming production of “Don Pasquale.”
On January 8, 2024, Sebastian took sixth place and $500 as a national finalist in the National Association of Teachers of Singing National Musical Theatre Competition (Florence Birdwell Musical Theatre Competition) at the Manhattan School of Music in New York City. He competed against 25 national semi-finalists – emerging professional level singers/actors from across the top music programs in the United States.
Plymette sings with the Chamber Choir, which is a mixed, auditioned ensemble open to all FGCU students, regardless of major. Recognized for its remarkable versatility, the ensemble performs choral music from the Renaissance to newly commissioned works. The choir performed for the Florida chapter of the American Choral Directors Association (ACDA) conference in 2021. Every three years the choir performs internationally including in Spain and France (2023), Rome (2020), the Baltic States (2017), and Austria and the Czech Republic (2014).
Plymette performed in “Joyful & Triumphant” in 2020. At the height of the pandemic, he and the Chamber Choir performed, masks on and spaced six feet apart, to a house that included only the WGCU camera crew.
“While that was a lot of fun,” said Plymette, “being able the following year to have the orchestra and the other ensembles come back was a life-changing experience. It was the first time that I had ever performed with an orchestra, and being able to see the audiences after having that year of not being able to attend performances, not being able to really go anywhere, be able to sit down for an hour and a half and just enjoy something again, was something that I think I will hold close to my heart for a very long time.”
From a performance standpoint, the difference between performing with the Chamber Choir as compared with all four choirs and the symphony orchestra is mind-blowing.
“In our own choir [the Chamber Choir], we see each other four times a week,” Plymette said. “You know, we have this very close bond with each other. And then we go to this performance and we're seeing hundreds of students that we may not really ever get to talk to. And being able to build those relationships with those people, it really helps. With the sound, we go from a 28, 30-person ensemble to a 180-person loud, very just joyous sound. It's something that we all really are excited for every year. The sound is amplified at least by 10. I mean, when you're having 180 sopranos, altos, tenors and basses just sing their hearts out in front of the thousand people in the room, you know, it really makes you very happy that you are able to have this unity with everyone, have this shared passion with everyone to sing.”
Plymette graduates in the spring. He intends to go on to earn a master’s degree in opera performance.
Mia Reyes began her FGCU journey as a theater major, but after singing with the Chamber Choir in her fall semester, including “Joyful & Triumphant” last year, she switched majors to music education.
“It was my first time in a larger-scale production featuring a choir and an orchestra,” said Reyes. “It was my first time singing with a live orchestra, so that was really intimidating, and as a meek and humble little freshman, of course, I had the stage fright. But as soon as we started performing, I was, like, I see why you guys do this every year. It is a marvelous production. When that first round of applause begins, you're like, OK, OK. And then as soon as we bring the candles out for “Silent Night” and seeing people's faces light up in joy, it's, it's really, really rewarding.”
Aside from “Joyful & Triumphant,” Reyes is not much for caroling. But she does enjoy karaoke. She’s non-judgmental when it comes to the other performers.
“While I do study voice, I believe that everyone can sing and should sing. OK. And karaoke or no karaoke. I get a little stage fright. To be honest, however, if Britney Spears is on the docket, I am a karaoke person,” Reyes said, laughing.
In addition to the Chamber Choir, Florida Gulf Coast University has three other choirs.
Although she is now a music education major, Reyes still enjoys performing in plays and musicals. At FGCU, she has appeared in “Heathers the Musical” and “Silent Sky.” She contrasts performing in a musical theater with performing in a concert like “Joyful & Triumphant.”
“In a musical, you are one character, and in each scene, sure, you're feeling different emotions, but you still are the same person,” said Reyes. “When you're performing a concert like [“Joyful & Triumphant”], each piece has a different tone, a different character, a different emotion that you're trying to evoke out of the audience. So in a way, each song is like performing as a different character.”
The latter can be pretty challenging.
“To really captivate the audience, understanding the text and the word painting in the lyrics is really helpful to convey the emotion of the piece.”
Bel Canto Choir is open to all sopranos and altos by audition regardless of major. The choir champions repertoire specifically composed for treble voices, especially works written by women. The ensemble began in fall of 2019 and has consistently impressed and inspired audiences in performance. They have been selected by peer review to perform at the Florida ACDA convention in October.
Cantabile Choir of tenor and bass voices includes students of all majors from across the university. This is the first year the ensemble has been offered as a course at FGCU.
The University Choir is a non-auditioned, mixed ensemble open to students of all majors on campus at FGCU. The choir studies a diverse choral repertoire from many cultures and historical eras and gets the opportunity to work with choral clinicians from around the United States every year. Students in the ensemble receive General Education (Humanities) credit. The choir performs choral-orchestral masterworks, and have recently performed Poulenc’s Gloria, Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms, and will perform Dvorak’s Te Deum this April with the Naples Philharmonic Chorus.
The Symphony Orchestra is the top, auditioned orchestral ensemble at FGCU. The symphony performs on and off-campus, and frequently collaborates with the FGCU choirs in the Southwest Florida region. A versatile group, it has a repertoire ranging from large Romantic era works to smaller, Baroque and Classical productions and recently composed modern works.
While each choir rehearses separately for several weeks, the four choirs and orchestra have but a single combined rehearsal prior to their two performances at Moorings Presbyterian Church.
From the students’ perspective, “Joyful & Triumphant” is particularly beneficial. Beyond performing with 200 of their fellow students, FGCU’s musicians enjoy the experience of performing in front of a large audience of more than 800 people, twice.
Participation in the holiday concert represents a rite of passage for those students who graduate the following year, as well.
You can enjoy the WGCU PBS TV Broadcast of “Joyful & Triumphant” on:
- Monday, December 23 at 9 p.m.
- Tuesday, December 24 8 p.m.
- Wednesday, December 25 at 2 p.m.
The WGCU FM Radio broadcasts are:
- Sunday, December 22 at 8 p.m.
- Tuesday, December 24 at 7 p.m.
“Joyful & Triumphant” will be played on WGCU Classical FM Radio onTuesday, December 24 at 8:00 PM
Upon first airdate, the show will be on WGCU.org (PBS Media Manager) for streaming on demand.