Community members gathered at the St. James Roman Catholic Church on Sunday to listen to the choir chamber for their concert, “Memories from the Mediterranean.” The choir was also accompanied by the Vestal Voices choir from Vestal High School and the Binghamton University Chamber Singers.

The vaulted ceilings of the church, adorned with grand murals, reverberated the angelic echoes of songs performed in Italian, Spanish and Turkish. Translations provided with the hymns and songs described lyrics about love, admiration and comedy which captivated many audience members.

This event was hosted by the Southern Tier Singers’ Collective, founded in 2018 by William Culverhouse, the director of choral activities and an associate professor of music at BU. The collective consists of mainly of music educators from around northeast New York and Pennsylvania. Culverhouse explained that since their creation, the organization has worked with the Binghamton Philharmonic, Fifth House Ensemble, Momenta String Quartet and more.

They also collaborate with BU’s School of the Arts to foster connections with the professional musical world.

“Collaborating with professional-level musicians gives our students an experience of music-making that they cannot get with an all-student music ensemble,” Culverhouse wrote in an email. “For those that are contemplating pursuing music as a career, this provides an invaluable preview of professional musical life.”

As the concert progressed, the mixes of the Mediterranean styles became evident as the choir became accompanied by tambourines when certain songs switched, a harmonic blend of the different regions of the Mediterranean.

This performance also included working with artist and Palestinian, Jordanian and Canadian composer Shireen Abu-Khader to represent Arab voices for peace. Culverhouse mentioned how this collaboration became more significant after Oct. 7, 2023.

“Shireen and I sought to offer musical experiences representing Arab voices for peace, since these voices have been underrepresented in many current conversations about the situation,” Culverhouse wrote. “The commissioned work, Rumor Mill, to a poem by Palestinian-American poet Naomi Shihab Nye (who was just awarded the Wallace Stevens Lifetime Achievement Award for her poetry), is a particular example of this.”

The School of the Arts designs many opportunities to create exposure to art influences. Christopher Robbins, the school’s founding director, explained the presence and opportunities students have across different art installations, including Downtown Binghamton’s annual LUMA Festival, the HCS Center for Art and Counter Culture in Vestal and Spool Contemporary Art Space in Johnson City. Working with the collective is just one example of the range in which students can experiment with the arts.

“The arts are essential to how we understand culture and the world around us, even if people don’t always realize it,” Robbins wrote in an email. “They shape our perceptions of people, events, and ourselves. One key reason for establishing the School of the Arts was to foster collaboration and raise the visibility of the arts both on campus and in the community.”