Singing Hoosiers to honor Carmichael’s musical legacy

The IU Singing Hoosiers will kick off their 2010 concert season with homage to one of IU’s most prolific alumni.

The Singing Hoosiers will perform “Hoagy Carmichael and Friends,” a tribute to the late composer and musician Hoagy Carmichael, Friday at Auer Hall in the Jacobs School of Music. The concerts, at 7  and 8:30 p.m., are free to the public.

Sophomore Kyle Straub, a member of the Singing Hoosiers, said the group chose to perform selections of Carmichael’s work because of Carmichael’s deep ties both to IU and to Bloomington.

“He did a lot of his work in Bloomington, and some historic sites on campus are places where he wrote his songs,” Straub said. “So there are places referenced in his songs that people pass by every day, not just on campus but in Bloomington.”

The group will perform a number of Carmichael’s tunes, including “Stardust”, “In the Cool, Cool, Cool of the Evening” and “Ole Buttermilk Sky”, alongside some of his lesser-known work. The concerts will be recorded as part of a preservation act for Carmichael’s legacy.

Carmichael was born in Bloomington at the turn of the 20th century and began
playing piano when he was 6. He attended IU both as an undergraduate and in law school, but found his true calling in music.

Carmichael composed “Stardust,” perhaps his most famous piece and a frequent jazz standard.

He found later success composing music for and acting in films as well as continuing his jazz career, working with greats like Duke Ellington and Frank Sinatra, and returned to Bloomington post mortem, laid to rest at the Rose Hill Cemetery.

Carmichael’s musical legacy, as well as his deep roots in Bloomington, keep him constantly relevant at IU, especially within the Jacobs School halls.

Michael Schwartzkopf, director of the Singing Hoosiers, said in a statement about the performance that Carmichael’s impact on IU continues to resonate with musicians and students alike.

Since the early 1960s, there has rarely been a Singing Hoosier concert without at least one song by Hoagy Carmichael, Schwartzkopf said.

“With this concert, we are starting a project of recording Hoagy’s music with most of the arrangements by the late Al Cobine, a very popular composer, arranger and band leader from Bloomington. Through this concert and recording, we are hoping to keep Hoagy’s music alive.”