Students prepared and practiced for weeks as their annual winter concert approached. Friends and family alike filled the auditorium waiting for their loved one to have stepped onto the stage.
Every December the choir program puts on a winter concert. This year they hosted this event on Dec 4. The choir director, Leah Galbraith started picking out songs for the concerts in the summer, but songs may change throughout the year leading up to the concert.
“A little bit through the summer, … I might pull a piece thinking I’m going to perform this and then I get into it and actually think, ‘I’m going to save this piece for another year,’” Galbraith said. “Other pieces, it’s really depending on the group and I have to figure out what their ability is first.”
Though primarily picking out different pieces each year, and picking them based on each choir level, the students themselves have personal traditions; like a senior huddle. Galbraith has started her own ongoing tradition for the winter concerts.
“This is only my fourth year, so I don’t have a lot of traditions built up yet; so far, I’ve been doing ‘Silent Night’ every year for Christmas,” Galbraith said. “I also toss in ‘Rudolph’ and ‘Frosty,’ … and then I like to rotate different ones, like carols, and audience carols, for Christmas.”
There are four different levels to choir: general, bell canto, concert and chamber. For individual choirs they have songs that challenge their own skill sets. Each concert they perform a combined piece. This year’s concert was titled “Carol Of The Bells.”
“I think my choir [general choir] is pretty prepared for the winter concert,” sophomore Lydia Cavanaugh said. “If I’m being honest I think we were better off last semester,I believe that’s just because we have so many more pieces this semester than last semester; last semester we had three songs and this semester we have over double that so it’s definitely a little more stressful.”
The end goal is to help students learn and build new skills by giving them more challenging pieces each semester as well as giving them more and more songs each semester.
“As a performer, I think the pieces this semester are very challenging,” junior Corey Campbell said. “I do think the rest of the choir is picking up on the songs very well and I also enjoy a good challenge, There is always room for improvement although, I think we are on a very nice track for the concert and I look forward to performing.”
