On Tuesday, Oct. 1, students from all grade levels in the Chorale, the Concert Chorale, Bel Canto and Concert Choir gathered in the main gym to perform in the first choir concert of the year. A large and enthusiastic audience greeted them. With the conducting of the choir director Dr. Jeffery Brown and Mrs. Claire Dixon’s piano melodies, the Choir Concert sounded harmonious yet powerful.
The performance started with Chorale, made entirely up of freshmen, who sang a traditional Irish folk song, “Rising of the Moon” by Roger Emerson, and then sang “Oye” by Jim Papoulis, both in Spanish and English. Sophomore Dani Hwang accompanied “Rising of the Moon” with the violin.
“I was very pleased with how all the kids sang in each choir class,” Dr. Brown comments. “[For] some of them, [it’s] their very first choir concert here at the high school, [such as] all the freshmen, but then we have a lot of new kids in choir this year, and so I was a little nervous about some of the things, but a lot of things went really well.”
The Concert Chorale, Bel Canto and Concert Choir each sang two songs including Concert Choir senior Jack Gerber performing a solo during “The Times They Are A-Changin” by Bob Dylan. Additionally, Concert Choir seniors Wren Frey and Nate Kolterman sang a solo together during “Blue Skies” by Irving Berlin.
The concert boosted morale of some of the underclassmen and new choir members. Furthermore, it provided everyone involved with a takeaway.
Concert Choir senior Amani Tedesco started choir her freshman year hoping to have fun and get to know people.
“I wanted to sing, but I [didn’t] want to sing alone because I’m terrified singing by myself,” Tedesco said. “It’s fun to get to know people that I got to meet [and] people that I didn’t know that had the same interests as me.”
Chorale freshman Grayson Kennedy learned the importance of smiling during the performance, in addition to speaking loud and dedicating time to practicing the songs.
“I think I messed up a little bit because I didn’t practice that much for [one] song,” Kennedy said. “I think [I will try to] give myself more time before I practice.”
The Choir Concert ended with all of the choir groups combining to sing “Omnia Soul” by Z Randall Stroope, “Do You Hear The People Sing?” by Claude-Michel Schonberg and “Crowded Table” by Andrea Ramsey, which was accompanied by sophomore violinist Dani Hwang.
Through hard work and practice, these choirs brought team effort that did not go unnoticed by Dr. Brown and the audience.
“It’s really rewarding to get to this point because I’ve sort of been with them through the whole process when they had no idea how the songs went, and then getting them to this place,” Dr. Brown said. “These events are really special to me…High school goes by pretty fast, and I hope that there’s a memory of it that…they remember.”
