The Spring Sing ensemble group is made up of various classifications and majors from every department on campus and widely different home backgrounds. Though each individual is set apart in their own way, they all come together to form one group with a unique dynamic.
Dottie Frye, director of the hosts, hostesses and ensemble, said that while preparation and good learning techniques are essential for a brilliant presentation, interactions with other people are just as important.
“It’s a life lesson,” Frye said. “We are putting a group of completely random people together and telling them ‘do something great,’ and we have to figure out how to do that.”
Senior Megan Hughes said Frye has accomplished her goal. After transferring to Harding as a freshman in the spring of 2011, Hughes was exposed to Spring Sing for the first time. She said she knew she wanted to be a part of the ensemble. Now in her third year of ensemble, Hughes has experienced much of what the process has to offer.
“I have seen three different groups of ensemble, and I can see how we all bond together, and we really do become a family with these people,” Hughes said. “All of us are from different worlds, but we all just come together and mesh. It’s really special to see people who don’t know each other at all be friends, though they are all so different.”
Like Hughes, junior Taylor Provencher is also in his third year of ensemble. But unlike Hughes, he said he knew well before his freshman year he wanted to be a part of the group. Provencher said some of his favorite memories are not from performing but from sharing simple moments with the ensemble cast. Whether it be a short break between rehearsal numbers, a quick McDonald’s run before curfew or laughing during practice, the small things are what are most important to Provencher.
“Little moments are what make up the process,” Provencher said. “Those little shared moments with one another are what make the memories, and those little moments are what make the performance better.”
