Choral students bring it ‘Home for the Holidays’ in concert
The Warwick Valley High School Music Department presented its “Home for the Holidays” choral concert on Thursday, December 8. The concert featured the high school’s Mixed Choir, Jazz Choir, Treble Choir, Meistersingers, Mistersingers and the WVMS Honors Choir.
“This year’s concert theme was Home for the Holidays,” said Choral Director Noreen Hanson. “I did not base the theme on our songs as I usually do, I based it on the occasion. The music department is home to our students and we are so happy to be home for the holidays.”
The Treble Choir led things off with Choral Hymns from the Rig Veda by Gustov Holst, White Christmas by Kirby Shaw, California Dreamin arranged by Mac Huff, and Poor Wayfaring Stranger arranged by Jonathan Rogers, which included a solo from Helena Stone.
Soloists Riley Portka and Flora Gilley then performed with the Period 9 Mixed Choir Bonse Aba by Victor C. Johnson before the Combined Mixed Choir sang Hannukah by Derric Johnson and Will the Circle be Broken by J. David Moore, which included a small ensemble of Scarlett Belotti, Salemah Brown, Jayden Bussell, Wyatt Cerbis, Mya Chocallo, Sophia Del Valle, Haley Faust, Paisley Felker, Jolene Hernandez, Jaida Martinez, Victoria Martinez, Madison Mattera, Leila Morris, Aryanna Ramos, Acadia Sealy, Riley Sejas, Maeve Sutliff, Denali Vazquez, Arianna Weinberg and Natalia Yackob. Abigail Yurchuk was a soloist for the Period 4 Mixed Choir, which sang Homeward Bound by Marta Keen and arranged by Wilberg.
The Jazz Choir performed O Christmas Tree by Adam Podd and Matt Podd with soloist Phoebe Paddock. The Mistersingers sang Coney Island Baby/We All Fall by Les Appleton and arranged by SPEBSQSA. The WVMS Honors Choir sang with the Meistersingers Ubi Caritas by Audrey Snyder.
The Meistersingers sang Unclouded Day arranged by Shawn Kirchner, Shenandoah arranged by James Erb, On the Other Side by Yuri NamWasserman and arranged by Ron De Fesi, Shalom by Elio Bucky and John the Revelator arranged by Paul Caldwell and Sean Ivory. To wrap up the concert, all groups gathered on risers and completely on the stage at the high school auditorium to sing O Fortuna by Carl Orff as the finale.
“I am so proud of the hard work that my students put into their music,” Ms. Hanson said. “They strive towards excellence with every rehearsal and I couldn’t be more proud of them.”
In addition to Ms. Hanson, Shane Peters also was a choral director and Alison Echevarria, Abigail Gatdula, Nathan Link and Lionel Wolfe accompanied the choirs on piano.
View a slideshow of photographs from the concert below:
