In preparation for the holiday season, the acapella choir performed a variety of festive songs at their annual Festival of Carols concert on Thursday, Dec. 19.
Music director Joe Piazza said he is very pleased with how the choirs performed.
“The chamber choir started off, so everybody got to hear their level of progress and see how they’ve grown through the program, from the beginning to the end,” Piazza said. “The beginning kids, I thought they did a great job. It was their first time up there performing, so they were kind of nervous. For them to sing in three-part harmony, that’s some pretty sophisticated stuff for some kids who haven’t sung before.”
Piazza said he enjoyed the chamber choir’s rendition of “You Will Sow What You Reap” because the song carries a wonderful message.
“We decided to sing in a circle to capture the idea of community,” Piazza said. “It reminds us that choir singing is a group activity. It’s the unity of not only everyone’s voice, talent, and musicianship, but their heart, and their mind.”
Chamber choir member sophomore Drew Collins said although they were a little shaky going into the concert and were not sure how it would turn out, overall it was decently successful.
“Singing ‘Jingle Bells’ was pretty fun because it was really fast-paced and entertaining,” Collins said.
Chamber choir member senior Claire Lim said she really likes singing and being in acapella is a fun way to learn more about music and spend time with her classmates.
“I really liked singing ‘Ose Shalom’ because it is really pretty song and easy to sing, and it was nice to perform with the candles,” Lim said. “I think the concert went pretty well and I hope it prepared everybody for the holiday season.”
Beginning men’s choir member freshman Cade Becker said performing the dance moves with all the freshman guys while they sang “Lydia” was really fun.
“It was my first concert ever so it was fun and I liked it,” Becker said. “It’s just really fun to be with an awesome group of people and a lot of my friends.”
Advanced choir member junior Ryan Castle said being in acapella allows for fun camaraderie. He enjoyed singing the holiday songs and thought the concert went well for the amount of time they had to prepare.
“My favorite part was performing the groups songs where everyone sang because it was more fun and you couldn’t notice specific mistakes,” Castle said.
While the four choir sections, beginning women, beginning men, advanced, and chamber sang separately throughout the concert, they all joined together in a mass ensemble to close the night.
The concert was well-received by the audience, with crowd members even joining in to sing the final song of the evening, “The Christmas Song.”
Junior Amanda Champion said she liked how the choirs sang a variety of holiday songs, not just ones about Christmas. She said the concert got her in the holiday spirit and that she enjoyed when the choirs sang together in harmony.
“I also liked watching the freshman boys when they did the song about a tattooed lady,” Champion said. “It was kind of raunchy and they had good dance moves so it was really funny.”
Piazza said the goal of acapella is to expose students to a variety of literature, not just holiday music or popular music.
“[My aim is to] expand the breadth of repertoire to music history, to the idea of the folk song, of foreign language, of music from around the world,” Piazza said. “So from a historical context, from a cultural context, and then thematically tying it all together for a program.”
Piazza said being in acapella is just like being on a team.
“When you have the team together, they’re in mind, heart, and body,” Piazza said. “To me, that’s the most powerful experience.”
