By Seth Jones | Reporter

The Baylor Concert Choir,made up of 98 male and female students, and the Baylor Bella Voce choir, composed of 34 female students, came together on Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. in Jones Concert Hall to perform their fall concert, titled “Our Hope.”

The concert was conducted by Dr. Lynne Gackle, director of choral activities for the Baylor School of Music. The two choirs collaborated to perform one show because there was not enough room on the schedule for two separate concerts. However, Gackle said she believes seeing the two choirs in the same concert proves to be interesting for an audience.

“It really allows the audience to enjoy both types of voices,” Gackle said.

Gackle also said she hopes those who attend a show that she conducts carry away a message that they can hold onto and apply to their lives.

“Hopefully [the audience] will walk out having reflected,” Grackle said. “I hope they also walk out having their spirits renewed, uplifted by the music and by the text.”

Katy junior and Baylor Concert Choir member Meredith Taylor said she sees that the words and the meanings behind the songs are important to Gackle and admires that about her.

“Dr. Gackle is just really good at making you think about … the text and why you’re singing, what you’re singing and just how much of a gift it is to be able to make music,” Taylor said.

While the music presented many themes, the most glaring of them appeared right in the name, and that is hope. According to the program, the central theme of hope was intentional, and the choir’s goal was to turn the audience’s eyes back towards faith.

“Despite the trying times of this year, experienced both on the Baylor campus and within our country, we are a people called to ‘put our hope in Christ’ with the knowledge of our redemption through Jesus Christ (Ephesians 1:12-14),” the program read. “Hope is abiding and is found in the darkest moments as well as in the most joyous of life’s experiences.”

Keller sophomore Jenna White attended the concert as a former member of the Baylor Concert Choir and said she was impressed with the performance’s use of themes.

“They did a really good job of having the overarching theme,” White said. “They did a good job of having the fast, fun songs but then also the slow, beautiful songs.”

Gackle said that when she hears her choirs sing, she hopes that people feel the authenticity that she and her choirs aim for because they would have no reason to perform if there were no audience.

“The human voice is the original instrument, and so when they sing … it’s an expression of the heart,” Gackle said. “Without the audience … our work is in vain.”

While Gackle said she hopes that the audience carries the messages along, she also said she sees that the choirs are taught valuable lessons from the music.

“I feel that even though we are singing in a performance, that as we sing … these words become submerged within us,” Gackle said.