A small two-year junior college located in Albany, south of Portland, has caught my attention – and not only because their mascot is the Roadrunner, a bird I feel at times strangely related too, although in my case it isn’t a coyote that is chasing me….

I had a chance to photograph the LBCC choir members and their conductor, Raymund Ocampo some weeks back.

I had not gathered any information on them, and so did not know at the time that the choral ensembles of this community college in small town Oregon have consistently won prizes, traveled and performed abroad, engaged in workshop with big-name composers and conductors.  All I had to do was listen to them and just acknowledge there was a group making beautiful music.

 

http://www.linnbenton.edu/current-students/student-support/instructional-departments/music1

Not only did they move heartstrings, and easily held their own when thrown in with another choir in joint performance, they also were intensely serious about it, as you can see in the photographs. Many people who go to community colleges have to work for a living at the same time that they pursue a degree. Many students in these rural communities are, in other words, not likely to have lots of extraneous funding and support when pursuing activities beyond the regular curriculum. Their achievements probably require sacrifices that students in wealthier institutions or from wealthier backgrounds do not encounter. The stamina and passion required to pull it all off, then, is remarkable.

And the results speak for themselves (from a performance some years ago in Europe): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OiD87OTQqa8

Of course I photograph them when they are busy, badly lit and in constant motion with a camera that is not particularly adaptable to these three factors.

Compare the results to the portraits of one of my favorite portrait photographers from NYC, who specializes in portraits of music performers and moves, needless to say, in very different circles with very different gear.

Laurie Anderson by Ebru Yildiz

Ebru Yildiz is originally from Turkey and now lives in Brooklyn. An incredibly talented photographer who manages to make her subjects feel at ease at the same time that she courts them in ways that make the perhaps feel powerful – at least that comes across for me in her pictures. Then again, maybe these subjects are already so famous that they feel powerful to begin with. Who cares. The photographs are brilliant.

 http://www.ebruyildiz.net

John Cale  by Ebru Yildiz

I wonder what the result would be if one put the young women and men from LBCC in front of one of Yildiz’ lenses. We’ll never know.

They are probably too busy rehearsing, a Mozart Requiem is in the works, I hear, to be performed at the Russel Tripp Performance Center on June 8th. But I still think I captured their dedication.