A Visit from the Hilltoppers

The new year of 2013 was scarcely upon us when a group of singers from our neighbor up the hill, Denison University, came to Kendal to share their talents with us. An all-male ensemble, aptly named the Hilltoppers, they are one of several fine musical organizations that Denison sustains, and we at Kendal were particularly fortunate to be given the opportunity to hear them because the university's winter break still had a week to run. So we wondered: What were these guys doing in town anyway? Didn't they have something better to do with their vacation?

The musical fare for the evening was wide-ranging – a Scottish folk song, some old barbershop numbers (though close harmony was not in general the Hilltoppers' preferred style), recent pop hits, a spiritual, and songs from the 1960s. All of this was enlivened and punctuated by some unexpected whoops, hollers, and yelps. As the concert proceeded we also heard some rich solo voices. There was a bit of designed choreography thrown in, but much more frequently the young men seemed to be improvising their individual and idiosyncratic kinetic turns. The audience loved it.

Before the concert began each singer introduced himself by name, home town, and major. It turned out that they had come from all over the country, and they were studying a diverse set of fields, with majors from the natural sciences, the social sciences, the arts, and the humanities. They were collective testimony to the breadth and excitement of a liberal arts curriculum.

Each number was received with loud clapping, and when the concert was over, the Kendal crowd showed its final approval with a surge of applause as enthusiastic as any accolade I can recall my friends and neighbors ever bestowing on a visiting group.

It's not hard to figure out why the Hilltoppers were so appreciatively received. First, they brought music to Kendal, and as people as distant and different from each other as Plato and Madonna have acknowledged, music has a strange power to enchant. Second, they brought talent to Kendal, and the community's residents, from lifetimes rich with experience, have come to realize that gifts are unusual and to applaud these gifts when people have given time over to cultivating them. Third, they brought youth into our midst. This is important, for contrary to some rumors, we seniors don't begrudge youth their youth. If anything, we draw hope about the future from it. It seems safe to say that the life of senior communities prospers when young people – enthusiastic representatives of the new directions the world is taking – share their universe with ours.

As the audience dispersed to their residences after the concert, I heard only one complaint: the Hilltoppers hadn't sung a Denison song. Not unimportant, I guess – though since I'm not an alumnus, maybe I'm not best positioned to judge the gravity of the omission. But even so, scarcely worthy of a demerit. And maybe that can be our excuse for inviting them back to sing an all-Denison-music concert. Sounds like a good solution to me.