City Hill Middle School Choral Concert

The City Hill Middle School Choral Concert was held on May 31, 2012 at the City Hill Auditorium. For an hour the students entertained the appreciate audience of family and friends. The program included a mixture of sacred music, classic pieces and popular tunes and the numbers were performed by various combinations of students. Choral Director Mrs. Michele Beck conducted all of the student groups with animation. Pianist Wendy Ruggeri provided the accompaniment unless otherwise noted. Each piece was introduced by a student.

The program opened with the grade seven chorus singing "Yonder Come Day," "Jump, Jive, and Wail," and "Benedictus" with Emily Wingard on piano. Their set concluded with "Joshua!" with Ashley Priest and Christina Tran on trumpet and soloists Stephanie Clark and Yasmeni Vasquez.  Then the seventh grade young ladies sang "Al Shlosha D'Varim" in Hebrew.

The next group to perform was The Vocals. These 34 students auditioned to be in this group and practiced after school to prepare their more challenging pieces. They began their set with "Down by the Salley Gardens" with Band Director Mrs. Kathy Dravis on flute. Next up was the wonderful "Seasons of Love" from Rent with C.J. Janis on piano and soloists Kali Major and Ally Mezzo. "Kyrie Elison" by Elaine Schram and "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" with C.J. Janis on percussion rounded out their wonderful performance.

The Vocals and the Grade 8 band traveled to Lake Compounce Amusement Park in Bristol the following day to take part in the "High Notes" Music Festival. The students were adjudicated on their concert music by two distinguished college professors. The judges listened to, recorded and critiqued the students presentation on how well they performed their prepared music. Both groups received a "superior" rating.

The grade seven and eight young men performed "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" while wearing baseball caps and the eighth grade girls did "Nine Hundred Miles." The eighth grade chorus sang "The Tiger" and "The Laughing Song" with Emily's  sister Jennie Wingard on piano. "Indian Prayer" featured C.J. Janis (that's my boy!) on piano and Anthony Conner and Natalia Morales on recorders.

The next number was a showstopper. Mrs. Beck took the microphone and, in the words of my son, "did standup" while the students went backstage with Mrs. Dravis and art teacher Miss Christina Rinaldi to prepare. The students reappeared with their hands behind their backs and the lights were lowered. The students then performed "Do You Feel the Rhythm" by Greg Gilpin, a spoken piece without accompaniment or a conductor, with hand movements highlighted with glow sticks attached to their hands. It was amazing and had the audience on their feet.

The final piece "Oye la Musica" by Jay Althouse was sung in English and Spanish and featured C.J. and his partner in crime Grant Herchenroether mugging while they "oooo'd." The students did a wonderful job with all the music and should be proud of a terrific concert. Congratulations to the music teachers for a wonderful final concert of the year.