On Tuesday, December 18th the Choral Winter Concert, conducted by Ms. Terry Mathews featuring the Women’s Chorus, Men’s Chorus, Counterpoints, and Pop Choir was held in an effort to put everyone in a holiday spirit.
For this year’s concert, the Counterpoints choir started the show in the balcony by singing, “Musicks Empire,” composed by Lloyd Pfautsch, an a cappella song full of dynamics and depth, ending in a beautiful celebration singing, “Hallelujah!”.
After that, the Women’s and Men’s Choruses began their selection of songs with the Women’s Chorus performing “Heavens are Telling,” composed by Jean Anne Shafferman a very graceful, cheerful song designed to take the audience back to a different era. The Men’s Choir then performed their first song of the evening, “Carol of the Bells,” arrangemed by Riccardo Spina. “Carol of the Bells” is a song full of mystery buttons that keeps the spirit of Christmas with its harmonies. The men and women combined to sing “Decembers Keep,” composed Greg Gilpin, which is a chilling song made pleasant by the harmonies of both men and women’s choirs. The Men then sang, “The Shepard’s Spiritual,” composed by Donald Moore. This upbeat song was filled with hope and happiness. After that, the Women sang, “The Snow Has A Song,” composed by Ruth Elaine Schram which was filled with grace and harmony.
“Our hardest song to do was, ‘The Snow Has A Song.’,” said Rebecca Jones, a member of Women’s Chorus. “There were a lot of different harmonies and we had to make sure we all blended well”.
The Men ended this portion of the concert with the Christmas classic,” You’re A Mean One, Mr. Grinch,” as arranged by Jeff Funk.
“We did really well with, “the Grinch”,” said, Justyce Veltman-Smith, a member of the Men’s Chorus. “We were really well balanced.”
Finally, the Women’s Choir ended their portion of the concert with another classic holiday song, “Jingle Bell Rock,” arranged by Roger Emerson, which left the audience with a feel good Christmas song.
Next up in the concert was the Pop Choir. First on their list of songs was a jazzy version of another holiday classic, “Santa Clause Is Coming to Town,” arranged by Michele Weir. Their next selection was the favorite for many, the Charlie Brown classic, “Christmas Time is Here,” arranged by Steve Zegree. This was followed by another upbeat song, a jazzy version of “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer,” arranged by Paul Langford. The pop choir came down from the risers to the edge of the stage for their last performance for the winter concert. Their last number was a song from the famous Broadway musical “Rent” entitled “Seasons of Love”, a heart- felt song about life, friends, and love.
“My favorite song we did for the concert was, ‘Seasons of Love’,” said Sophomore Brett Klock, a member of the Pop Choir. “It’s a really pretty song and I love the harmonies”
The last of the choirs to perform was the Counterpoints, Bel Air’s A Cappella Choir. Their second song for the night was “Gloria Fanfare,” composed by Jeffery Ames. “Gloria Fanfare,” was a loud, energetic piece that was meant to fill the room with rejoice and excitement. The next song was “Bogoroditse Devo,” composed by Sergei Rachmaninoff, a beautiful, peaceful a cappella song performed in Russian. The next piece was, “Deck the Halls”, arranged by James Mckelvy. This traditional carol is a song many enjoy listening to around the holiday season but with a twist. It had an irregular seven-eight time signature as opposed to the standard signature of four-four, giving a bit of a peculiar, off-beat feel. The last song Counterpoints performed was an a cappella version of the classic holiday song, “White Christmas,” arranged by Deke Sharon.
“White Christmas is my favorite” said Alyssa Wellman-Houde, member of Counterpoints. “The harmonies are really nice in a cappella”.
As tradition for all winter concerts ending, all choirs combines into one huge choir and an invitation is given for any Alumni in the audience to come on stage for the ending song, “Shalom Chaverom/Silent Night.” It was a great way to end the Winter Concert with a combination of a chilling to peaceful song shows hope and love for the holidays.
This year’s winter concert was a great way to bring holiday cheer to BAHS. “The concert definitely got me in the holiday spirit!” said audience member Madison J. Krchnavy after the performance.
Each chorus did a great job and brought pleasure and enjoyment to everyone in the auditorium.