Beverly Benjamin Cole, a 94 year old composer currently living in Sault Ste. Marie, will have his songs performed at Central United Methodist Church April 2 at 2 p.m.
Cole graduated from the University of Michigan with a masters in piano and a minor in theory in 1952. Over the past few years, he sent out copies of his manuscripts to voice professor Stephen West. In the accompanying letter, he asked West if any students were interested in performing his songs, a news release said.
West looked over the music and got into contact with Cole, who explained that he had never heard any of the songs sung before. West ended up performing and recording 10 of the songs himself with staff pianist Kathryn Goodson and sent the recordings to Mr. Cole. They also performed some of his songs in a UM faculty showcase in early 2022.
Jack Morin, a student of West's, decided to scan all of the manuscripts after performing one of the pieces, and became enthralled with the works. The manuscripts had multiple versions of each song for different vocal ranges, each posing unique musical content with variations from slight to massive.
In order to organize the pieces and their various versions into a cohesive edition for all voice types, Morin began learning how to digitize Cole’s manuscripts so that they look cleaner and were more accessible to performers. Morin and West also visited Cole in the summer of 2022, and they were able to perform many of the songs with Cole at the piano. It was the first time he’d ever heard most of the songs sung.
Since the summer Morin has been digitizing and editing the manuscripts of music, and hopes one day to be able to publish the works on behalf of Cole, who has stated that he simply wants his music to be performed.
Morin has also been gathering nine collaborators to perform all of these vocal works in concert both at the University of Michigan and in Sault Ste. Marie in collaboration with the Soo Theatre. The music itself consists of five cycles of songs, with text from the psalms to A. E. Housman, and each cycle will be performed by a separate pianist and singer duo.
Admission on April 2 is by donation.
