Winter concerts bring warmth to hearts of the audience

Chorus Concert

The Massapequa Chorus students put on quite a show. On March 15, these singers performed songs for a crowd that nearly filled up the Baldwin Auditorium.

The first act to perform was the Chordettes, whose first song was “Lean on Me,” arranged by Joey Minshall. The song started off subtly and ended with the girls and the audience clapping along with the melody.

The other song that the Chordettes performed was “Dear Future Husband” by Meghan Trainor. The harmonies in the song worked flawlessly, and the song even featured a bit of theatrics and dancing.

“That was our first performance in front of a lot of people, so we were nervous but excited,” Chordettes singer Erin Russo said. “But the audience seemed to really like our performance and our little dancing.”

The next act to follow was the full Chorus, who performed  “Flight Song” by Kim Arnesen. This song featured tranquil rises and falls in notes and involved the exchange of the melody between the boys and the girls.

The Chorus also performed “Baba Yetu,” arranged by Chris Kiagiri. This song, written in Swahili, featured a resounding Chorus and was one of the best songs of the night. Though the audience may not have understood the lyrics, the song attested to the fact that music can transcend lingual and cultural barriers.

“It was fun. The songs were really nice and they were all hand-picked from people from Carnegie Hall. My personal favorite song was probably ‘Flight Song’,” Chordette and Full Chorus singer Renee Smestad said. “The music is really wonderful, and I’m excited to perform with these wonderful people at Carnegie Hall.”

Finally, it was time for the Crooners. Their first song was “Let Me Call You Sweetheart” composed by Leo Friedman. This sweet song captivated the audience despite its brevity.

The Crooners then went on to sing the ever-iconic love song “Can’t Help Falling in Love” by Elvis Presley. Their final song was “Coney Island Baby,” which took a comical take on marriage and included fun dances from the members of the group.

“I really enjoyed performing all of the songs, but one in particular, ‘Coney Island [Baby],’ was a very fun song to work on,” Crooners member Brandon Frascino said. “It was actually the only song in the performance that had choreography which we had to make up as we went on, which was very interesting. Overall, I thought the performance went very well, and I can’t wait to sing with the full choir at Carnegie Hall!”

Many of the members of the various choirs performed at Carnegie Hall on March 26.

Orchestra Concert

On March 21, the Orchestra groups  and other groups performed for an equally crowded auditorium.

First to perform was the Full Orchestra. From the moment concertmistress Michelle Fong played the note A for everyone to tune, the crowd knew the show would be wonderful.

“Being the concertmistress taught me the importance of having unity within an Orchestra because when there’s no unity, everyone’s just playing as soloists, not an Orchestra,” Michelle said. “During our rehearsals, we worked on uniform bowing and intonation, and I personally had to improve cueing my section. The finished product of our concert, in my opinion, demonstrated our hard work towards these goals.”

The first song they played was “Drifen” by Shirl Atwell. The song featured fantastic crescendos and got the audience excited for the rest of the show.

They also played the song, “Night On Bald Mountain,” which was written for Disney’s animated film “Fantasia.” The song lasted nearly twelve minutes but never ceased to impress the captivated audience.

“I am so proud of not only how far I’ve gotten as a cellist, but more importantly, my group as a whole,” cellist Nicole Leonick said. “In my opinion, ‘Night on Bald Mountain’ was amazing, better than expected, and I’m glad our hard work paid off.”

“Orchestra is always one of my favorite concerts to play in, this concert especially because of the difficulty of the pieces,” bassoon player Matthew Schector said. “I’m glad that our practicing and rehearsing paid off and we put on our best performance.”

The next group to perform was Poparazzi. They first performed a medley of popular songs by the band Queen, which featured three of their familiar hits.

The group then performed “Carry On” by the band Fun. This melodic and powerful song featured poignant lyrics, sung by senior Margaret Smith.

Poparazzi then went on to play its final song, “Sweet Child O’ Mine” by Guns N’ Roses. Like “Carry On,” this song featured singing to accompany the musical performance. Luigi Locaszio sang, in a strong, deep voice, the lyrics to the song.

The Jazz Band performed next, performing the familiar theme song from “The Odd Couple,” then “Walkin’ and Talkin’” by Mike Carubia, which had an upbeat mood.

“Playing with the jazz band was really awesome!” trumpet player Krystal Wheaton said. “The group has such a great atmosphere and we all have fun while learning the music in rehearsals, not to mention the music is more difficult, so it’s a good experience to learn how to play it. I’m proud of how our concert went, and I can’t wait for the next one.”

 

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