Aliyah Corrao
“The whole concert was like traveling through time from the 1900s to around this decade,” said junior Quintin Orbello.
The past Thursday and Friday were busy days for the choir department.
“It was fun but it was really stressful,” senior Emily Morris said.
The songs in the recent “Legends: Top 40 Hits” concert were organized by each decade starting with the 1900s.
“There was a lot of really old music that I hadn’t heard of before and a lot of recent songs that I hear on the radio,” Orbello said.
All three of the MC choirs performed in last week’s showings.
“Classical ensemble is the highest level here at MC. It’s an audition only choir so it’s hard to get in to. There’s Bel Canto which is the all-women’s choir. There’s also concert choir which is for everyone who signs up,” said Morris.
Creating such a long and complicated concert takes a lot of work from both directors and the chorus.
“We work about an hour every day in class and as it gets closer to the concert we have more rehearsals on Saturdays,” junior Reed Wagner said. “The week of the concert we also have after school rehearsals. It’s almost a whole trimester of working on songs and choreography.”
Learning each song was a challenge for even the highest level of choir students.
“The choreography was really hard because there were so many songs and each had its own dance,” Morris said.
This year it was especially difficult because of missed days of practice.
“We lost two major rehearsal days from the fires so we had to work extra hard this week,” Wagner said.
Some would ask why put so much effort into two nights of showing, but according to some of the students, it’s not all about the work and money.
“At concerts you raise money but it’s not a fundraiser.” Morris said. “It’s not about the money. It’s more about showing your family and friends what you’ve learned the whole trimester.”
Overall most of the choir students believe that Friday’s showing was better performed than the one on Thursday.
“The first day was just running through it; ironing out all the kinks,” Morris said. “Everyone’s nervous to finally do it in front of people and to have an audience, so when you do it the first time you get all the jitters out. Then the second time you kick-back, have fun and just enjoy it.”
There are also many advantages and great things about being in choir.
“I enjoy the environment. There are a lot of nice people in choir. You get to know a lot of people,” said junior Michael Dasch.
Wagner added some of the benefits of meeting people through choir.
“It’s nice to come into a class where you don’t know anyone and see somebody that’s in choir and you know that you can immediately start talking to them,” Wagner said.
According to Wagner, choir can also be good for mental health.
“It’s such a creative outlet to your emotions and your stress,” Wagner said. “It’s a great stress reliever. And that’s for all music, learning and practicing,” Wagner said.
Even though there will be no more concerts this year, choir will be performing for the last time at graduation.
It seems like even if you’re not in any of the choirs you can still feel the students’ passion for singing and being together.
“We’re all connected through music,” Morris said. “We hand out with other people outside of choir but when we come in were all good friends. Singing kind of connects us all.”
