The Bakersfield College Chorale and Chamber Singers performed the “Requiem” by Gabriel Faure at St. John’s Lutheran Church to an appreciative audience. The director and the students were inspired by tragedies, personal and in the world.

Ronald Kean, director of the BC chorale department, sees the purpose of the seven movement “Requiem” as a way of viewing the afterlife and “the need to reconcile what we think may happen when a person passes on.”

In order to properly honor the dead, Kean believes that you must sing pieces such as the “Requiem,” “right.”

“If you have an impure heart, or if the music is not done with integrity then you lose communication with you ancestors. It’s important that we try to approach music with dignity and integrity so that we can transfer that integrity to our deceased,” Kean said.

He believes that the BC choir sang the piece with that respect. He describes their performance as having “such integrity and such passion.” He is “very proud” of what was accomplished by the choir.

Kean said the audience reaction has been “fantastic.” He said, “I’ve gotten e-mails and comments from people all over town, about how moved they were. Most of the people were saying they were weeping during the performance.” At the end of the performance of “Requiem,” many in the audience stood up and clapped in appreciation.

The BC choir students were inspired by both personal tragedy and recent world tragedies when singing the “Requiem.”

BC choir student Matthew Davis thought of his recently-passed grandmother while performing the “Requiem.”

“I felt like I could connect to the ‘Requiem’ more because I dedicated it to her. So I felt this was a good way to release all the pent-up feelings I had about mourning for my grandma.

“I really didn’t have a chance to mourn because I had to go back to school right away after the funeral. So it was really a nice, productive outlet for me,” he said.

Fernando Munoz, the baritone soloist, found inspiration singing his solos in the recent events in Japan. “I thought I was going to be nervous, but I wasn’t too nervous,” he said. “Kean was giving me a pep talk, saying the best thing to think about when you’re singing this is what just happened to Japan. I just started thinking about that. It was almost heartbreaking. I just had to sing my best. I had to give it my all for the people who have struggled as much as they did. So I gave it my all for the people that needed it.”

For Kean, both inspired him.

“It was a tribute to my mother who passed on late last November,” he said. “As a young teenager, we lived in France right outside of Paris for a year and a half, so a French piece would be entirely appropriate to honor her with.”