The Harvard Westlake choral concert was a wonderful way to enter into winter break and a good ending to the stressful few weeks beforehand. The different choral groups performed a teaser in front of the whole school during assembly which was a good way to get students interested into going to see the concert. The students were ready to sing and were super excited to perform in front of their classmates.
The boys and girls chorus started off the show with songs hey learned in class with their performing arts teacher, Jeremy Pease. Pease commented on the show saying, “I’m so proud of all the students who performed in the concert. Their hard work this semester was evident in the passion and determination demonstrated on stage, both in the assembly performance and in the evening concert. My favorite moments all revolve around students taking ownership of their music and rallying to be the best they can be!” They had been working on these for a while and even though most of them have just started singing, they worked really hard to showcase all they had learned.
After, a group of boys mixed from different grades called the Wolverine Singers sang a few pieces they learned in class. The Wolverine Singers are more advanced, so they had a chance to perform a song with the boys in Madrigals, who make up the highest level of singers for middle school choral students.
Following this joint performance, the vocal ensemble, made up of advanced girls in seventh through ninth grade, then showcased what they had learned in class and acapella. The acapella was student led which gave them freedom to express themselves and let them work independently. They sounded amazing and their student led acapella was very different from the other parts of the concert which made it much more entertaining.
Madrigals then took the stage, singing acapella and class pieces just like the vocal ensemble, except with more songs. They split off into sections of students for their student led acapella and amazed the whole crowd. You could see the hard work they put in and a really cool factor that got everyone’s attention was that some of the songs they performed were popular ones. Most of the songs performed during the whole show were not necessarily known so Madrigals singing these songs was refreshing and exciting. A member of Madrigals, Lucas Cohen-d’Arbeloff, mentioned “While the choral concert is always a wonderful event, I feel that the music this year was particularly interesting and beautiful. The addition of seventh graders into the Wolverine Singers and Vocal Ensemble this year was also a great decision that benefited both groups.”
Finally, to close up the show, all the choirs sang Shalom Rav together, which is a traditional Jewish song that made for a really warm ending. There was a mix of popular and unique Christmas and Hanukkah songs performed that pulled the whole show together and made for a fun, special school event.
