Sarah Candido ’22 is a jack of all trades when it comes to Lafayette’s choral groups.
Throughout her four years at Lafayette, Candido has been a part of both the Concert Choir and Chamber Singers. She also takes part in the Marquis Consort, a small group of mixed instrumentalists and singers covering music from the 16th through 18th centuries.
Candido’s passion for singing began when she joined a children’s Broadway choir at only six years old. From there, she joined choir after choir before landing at Lafayette. She now focuses primarily on classical singing.
An English and music double major, Candido originally planned to pursue music as a minor.
“I decided, ‘no, I can’t really do that. I have to be fully involved.’ And there were so many cool music classes I wanted to take,” she said.
Candido now combines her fascination with the two fields to spawn a new interest: audiobook production.
“Audiobook [production is] basically editing people reading books aloud, so music technology and sound recording are combined with books,” she said.
For her senior project, Candido is currently working on a “mini-album” featuring four songs, including “Non Disperar,” an Italian aria sung by Cleopatra in “Giulio Cesare,” and “On the Steps of the Palace,” from Stephen Sondheim’s “Into the Woods.”
Candido recorded these songs live on stage at the Williams Center for the Arts. She is now putting her music technology skills into practice to finish the editing, sound mixing and crossfading for the project.
Studying at Lafayette has changed the way Candido views music.
“I’ve been given so many opportunities to perform and so many opportunities to be close to people who are involved in music,” she said. “I’ve definitely grown as a singer and a musician since coming here, and I’ve become more confident and more independent.
One of these opportunities for performance came when Candido sang Lafayette’s alma mater at President Hurd’s inauguration in October.
Furthermore, opportunities such as the Marquis Consort have given her the chance to explore types of music she never imagined.
“I got to work with all of these cool people that I didn’t really know before because they play instruments and I sing, so we don’t interact as much,” Candido said of her experience as part of the Consort.
“We’ve done Irish music, Spanish music, French music—we’ve done it all,” Candido said. “It’s all early music from different eras that aren’t as widely known.”
This coming weekend, Candido will be performing in a 20-minute micro-opera that Anna Zittle ’22 wrote for her senior thesis. Candido is one of two students singing in the performance and has been preparing with Zittle since the fall. She will then perform with the Concert Choir and Chamber Choir performances on Saturday, followed by the Marquis Consort performance on Sunday. She will also be the recipient of the John Raymond Award for outstanding musicianship at this year’s Honors Convocation.
