Choral Spectrum, an annual festival of various types of choral music, was held yesterday afternoon at the Fine Arts Center Concert Hall.

The University of Massachusetts Music Department hosted the event that featured performances by all the University choral ensembles, as well as guest appearances by area choirs.

The University Chorale, Chamber Choir, Women’s Choir, Men’s Choir, Vocal Jazz Ensemble and Madrigal singers represented UMass in last night’s concert. Vivace, a children’s choir from Springfield, and the Lexington High School Madrigal Singers joined them in their performance.

Event coordinator and UMass choral music professor Dr. E. Wayne Abercrombie welcomed a near-capacity crowd, which included friends and family of the performers as well as professors from a variety of different departments to the 1000-seat hall.

“Welcome to a celebration of the human voice, and of human voices singing together,” he said. “People sing together all over the world, in every country. I think today’s program reflects that.”

The choirs sang in several world languages including Latin, Italian, English, Spanish and Russian. Selections ranged from African traditional songs to Bach motets.

In his introduction, Abercrombie also spoke of the unique attractions of the choral style in performance.

“When people sing as a group, they not only line up their vocal techniques, they line up their feelings together, and I think that’s where we get into the magic of choral singing,” Abercrombie said. “We breathe together. We utter things together.”

The audience was then invited to participate in the choral experience by joining in as the choirs sang “The Star Spangled Banner.”

Though the program is only two years old, Abercrombie said he felt that the concert was beginning to run more smoothly from a technical standpoint.

“We’ve worked the kinks out,” he said.

Abercrombie said that he started the Choral Spectrum tradition because he felt that, “the campus and people in the community needed a place to see all of the choirs and our choirs needed to hear each other.”

He said he hoped that the concert would bring choral music to members of the campus community who hadn’t experienced it before.

“In this day and age, people don’t get to a lot of events so I thought that a sampler was in order,” he said.

Abercrombie said that he hoped that the Choral Spectrum would draw new participants to the choral program, while giving those who are already members valuable experience.

“Singing is the kind of activity that helps the rest of [a student’s] social, emotional and intellectual life,” he said. “It’s a holistic activity that refreshes you for everything else you have to do.

“I’d like to see more people take advantage of these opportunities [to participate in choral music],” he added. “It’s a godsend to have these things available.”

“I’m pretty pleased with the availability of groups,” said Jennifer Berlin, a Junior Geology major who is also a member of Women’s Choir. “But sometimes it’s hard to get into a practice room. Most of the time the majors are in there.”

Most of the larger ensembles draw members from outside as well as inside the Music Department. Within the Music Department, those who participate in the choral programs may have majors in other fields such as composition or instrumental performance. Both undergraduate and graduate students participate in the same choirs.

The audience at yesterday’s performance was as diverse as the choirs. Sophomore Biology major Chrissy Boucher and Interior Design major Melissa Demers said they had come to watch a friend perform with the Chorale.

“This is great,” Boucher said. “I haven’t been to anything like this since before I graduated high school.”

Of the Chorale, Boucher said, “I liked their sound because it was a bigger group. The songs were also catchier.”

“I liked the fact that they came on singing. It wasn’t just walking on like the other groups did,” Demers added. “The variety of music they used was also great.”

Both said that they would probably come to see more events in the Fine Arts Center after seeing yesterday’s concert.

The audience seemed to enthusiastically support every group on the program. During the Men’s Choir performance of “Kalinka,” a Russian song, the audience clapped in rhythm with the chorus. The performance of the Chamber Choir was applauded with shouts and whistles. Also popular was the performance of “Student Logic” by the combined college groups because of the lyrics: “the more you study the more you know, the more you know the more you forget, the more you forget the less you know, so why study?”

After the selection, Abercrombie turned to joke with the crowd. “That’s student logic,” he said. “Not singer’s logic.”