“When you have a student telling you, ‘Dr. Basili, you are doing great. We love you, you are awesome,’ that tells me I am in the right place,” Franco Basili said.
California Lutheran University celebrated the holiday season with “Glory in the Highest,” the Music Department’s annual Christmas concert from Dec. 6 to 8 in Samuelson Chapel. The performance featured Cal Lutheran’s choirs and the string symphony.
Franco Basili, the university’s new choir director, led the singers as the show’s conductor and selected the concert’s repertoire. In a previous interview with The Echo, Basili said he wanted to bring more Latin American music to the choir this year.
“We are using five different languages, and the Cielo Choir is singing in English and Latin and doing really well,” Basili said.
The choir performed traditional songs in various languages including “A La Nanita Nana” in Spanish, “In Dulci Jubilo,” in Latin, and “Ai, nama māmina,” a Latvian folk song, according to the show’s program.
Baritone Logan Kerns, a junior, performed the song in Latvian with the Cal Lutheran Choir. He said the process of learning an arrangement was made possible through Basili’s instructional techniques.
“Basili has been really good about working on fundamentals,” Kerns said. “We always have the [International Phonetic Alphabet] outlined in our music, so we work on pronunciation so that we can get it right.”
The show also featured Christmas classics such as “It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas” and “Winter Wonderland,” performed by the Kingsmen and Regal Quartets.
Kerns is a member of the Kingsmen Quartet as well as baritone in the Cal Lutheran Choir. Kern said unlike the choirs, the quartets are mainly student-led.
“In the quartet, your parts are way more exposed. We are all on our own individual part,” Kerns said. “So if any of us mess up … it all kind of starts to come down.”
When selecting songs to perform in the Christmas concert, Basili said he felt like “one piece was missing” within the program. That was until he saw a familiar face, first lady Monique “Ms. Mo” Nunes performing at the Homecoming Concert in October.
“I saw Ms. Mo singing. Singing a gospel piece with the alumni choir,” Basili said. “I fell in love with her voice.”
Ms. Mo said she selected “Joy” by Whitney Houston from the movie “The Preacher’s Wife” to perform as a featured soloist.
“I really resonate with that whole movie and the whole concept, so I’ve always wanted to sing that song in a choir,” Ms. Mo said.
Nunes performed the song with the Cal Lutheran Choir and Soren Ficklin, a senior, on the piano as the penultimate arrangement of the show.
“I think it’s fabulous, the energy that she can bring on the stage. The people that were here, they saw that and they felt that,” Basili said.
The concert ended with both choirs and the audience singing “Silent Night” while lighting each other’s candles.
“We wanted to finish with something that will touch the hearts of the people,” Basili said. “I think the candles … the symbol of the candle, everyone lifting them and singing together … it’s something very moving and very impactful,” Basili said.
The Christmas concert marked the end of Basili’s first semester as choir director at the university. He said he is grateful for the support he has received from his students along his journey.
“The students saw me struggling … but they are taking care of me. And that’s the most beautiful thing,” Basili said. “When you have a student telling you, ‘Dr. Basili, you are doing great. We love you, you are awesome,’ that tells me I am in the right place.”