Congrats to the CASL and COB Medallion awardees
This commencement season, 12 students across the university are recognized with UM-Dearborn’s top honors....
Picture a remixed version of the King of Pop.
But instead of a Michael Jackson impersonator, throw about 15 UM-Dearborn students onstage.
UM-Dearborn’s choir performed “In Memory of Michael Jackson: A Tribute and Requiem” on Dec. 2 at the College of Arts, Sciences, and Letters building. Led by music Professor Richard Rischar, students strayed from the more conventional version of Jackson’s hits.
“We’re deliberately trying to avoid karaoke,” Rischar said.
Rischar decided last summer to feature Jackson’s work in a University choir concert.
“Putting this kind of new, remixing song-arrangement onstage was risky,” he said.
But the students pulled it off by belting out classics like “Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’” and “Man in the Mirror.” And they also mixed in more of Jackson’s hits, including “Bad” and “Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough.”
About 50 people attended the concert, but Rischar hopes to generate larger audiences for upcoming events, like a Jan. 12 concert in Kochoff Hall featuring four singers from different continents.
