by Jia Johnson
Last Thursday, October 26th, was the fall choir concert which included the BISFA choirs in addition to the eighth-grade middle school chorus, directed by Mrs. Jessica Reynolds, Mrs. Melissa Mackley, Mr. Alex Moore, with additional accompaniment of Mr. Jared Shay, a student teacher. The concert was divided into five sections based on who was singing.
The Concert Choir started with “Be Like the Bird” which started with the whole choir singing but eventually ended with just three people. Next was “Music of Life” which was one of the many pieces that had themes about the love and joy of singing, which was heavy in this concert. While “Be Like the Bird” was performed acapella, this piece did have piano accompaniment. The main lyric of this empowering piece was “Music is in our voices.” The final concert choir song was “Tongo” which sounded significantly different from the majority of classical pieces the vocal department usually does. This piece had egg shakers, later on, multiple different drums, clapping, call and response, and many other unique sounds, as well as being the first piece of the night in another language.
The Chamber Choir performed two pieces. First was “Ubi Caritas” which was a softer acapella piece, then came “Wait on the Lord” which was the first religiously thematic piece of the night. This piece was very theatrical and heavy on the call and response between the different vocalists. The main lyrics of the piece were one group saying “Wait” and the other saying “On the Lord.”
The Cantala Choir also performed two pieces; “Wondrous Love,” and “The Seal Lullaby.” Both pieces were softer and very beautiful but specifically “The Seal Lullaby.” It was a very emotionally touching and engaging piece and one of the highlights of the night.
The first piece the Smithsburg Middle School Choir performed was entitled “Stars Shall I Find” which was accompanied by amazing piano playing, followed by “Kyrie.” This song was prefaced as a blessing saying, “Christ have mercy, Lord have mercy” and was executed wonderfully.
A combined chorus of BISFA and Smithsburg Middle School performed the final song of the night. The song entitled “Why We Sing” followed a similar theme to Music of Life and was a very powerful piece to end the night with a lot of longer-held notes and vocal accompaniment from Mr. Alex Moore, and Mr. Jared Shay.
This was a remarkable first choir concert of the year, to be followed by many more—excellent job to the choir and the conductors.
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