Ethan McGrath
Jordan Otis
Ethan McGrath and Jordan Otis
After a successful performance at Southern Adventist University last week, vocalist Jordan Otis and pianist Ethan McGrath are slated to perform the same concert on April 27 at First Baptist Church’s McEwen Chapel, 401 Gateway Ave. The concert will feature poems from Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book, which Mr. McGrath has recently set to music, alongside John Alden Carpenter’s song cycle Gitanjali, which features poems by Rabindranath Tagore.
“We loved the idea of featuring Kipling and Tagore in the same concert,” said Mr. McGrath, “as they were contemporaries and both lived in India.” Indeed, Tagore was a native of Bengali, and Kipling, though English, was born in India and spent many years there. “Though they were markedly different in terms of style and political views,” said Mr. McGrath, “there is enough commonality between them to create some interesting interplay between the works on our concert.”
A Chattanooga-based composer, Mr. McGrath holds degrees from UTC and the University of Cambridge (UK), and his mentors have included J. Bruce Ashton, Jonathan McNair, and Roland Carter.
Ms. Otis is a local mezzo soprano who studied voice at Southern Adventist University and the University of Redlands (CA). Equally at home singing art song, opera, and musical theater, Ms. Otis’s recent roles have included Belle in Beauty and the Beast and Cathy in The Last Five Years, both at the Chattanooga Theatre Centre.
For Mr. McGrath’s songs, which he says are influenced by both classical and popular styles, Ms. Otis was a natural fit. “She sings in a very uncontrived way,” said Mr. McGrath, “and she knows how to draw the audience into the story; there’s never any sense of the barrier that ‘classical’ training sometimes places between singers and lay audiences.”
When asked about her approach to singing multiple styles, Ms. Otis said, “I don't have a ‘classical voice’ or ‘musical theatre voice’ or ‘choir voice.’ I have my voice, and while I use different techniques in different styles, the fundamentals are the same.”
In the more “popular” vein, Ms. Otis and Mr. McGrath will also perform music from Disney’s 1967 animated version of The Jungle Book, as well as the musical Just So.
In short, the concert will offer an eclectic blend of familiar music, new music, and neglected music from the past. “I think it is important to expose the public to new and uncommon works, especially those of local artists and composers,” said Ms. Otis. “If you are nervous about hearing ‘modern’ or unfamiliar music, let me tell you that this concert is the perfect way to dip your toe in the water.”
The concert will take place on Saturday, April 27, in McEwen Chapel on the campus of First Baptist Church. It begins at 7:30 p.m, with a brief pre-concert talk by the artists at 7 p.m. Admission is free.