Featuring a wide collection of spring and romance-themed music, the Spring Concert is one of the four annual concerts that includes all four choirs, from the beginner choir Concert Chorale to the advanced Entertainers.
“The Spring Concert is supposed to feel more like, welcome to spring, welcome to our school, kind of more upbeat,” sophomore Alyssa D’Angelo said.
While other vocal music events such as the Winter Concert or Broadway Rocks focus on a specific style of music, the Spring Concert integrates a wide range of styles, from classical to jazz to folk to create a melting pot of culture, message, and music.
“What I love about this concert is that it features a mix of different styles of music,” choir director Jim Blackett said.”
Every choir performs their unique songs, each aligning with the theme of the concert as well as the specific specialties and difficulties of the different choirs.
Concert Chorale, Woodbridge’s beginning mixed choir, was one of the choirs showcased in the Spring Concert.
“Concert Chorale is singing a piece that combines two songs: “Lo How a Rose E’er Blooming”—a melody sung for hundreds of years—and “The Rose,” sung by Bette Midler in the 70s. They’ve been combined because they both present the image of a rose and the theme of nature reawakening after the winter. We hope the audience will be moved by it,” Blackett said
Bel Canto, the intermediate treble choir, sang a set of unique songs, all differing in mood and conveying diverse messages.
“Bel Canto [performed] a set of three songs. The first [was] “Sea Fever”. It [was] a powerful, uptempo piece [telling] a very descriptive story about a person who longs to be at the sea. Our second song in the set [was] very smooth and enchanting in Spanish called “El Humo”… It…paints a vivid image of a country sunset and the slow and enchanting style gives the set variety. The final song in our set [was] “This Little Light of Mine” by Robert T. Gibson. It is a very…lively piece [that] we performed…at Disneyland as well as a music festival a few weeks ago,” freshman Elira Cromar said.
Chamber singers also sang a mix of songs, including a piece called “TaReKiTa,” which is in the style of Indian classical music. The challenge of performing a song in another language is another of the special aspects that define the range of songs seen in the Spring Concert.
“TaReKiTa…which is an Indian song,…[is] supposed to represent the instruments that you play during a classical song from India. So it’s really cool because it’s acapella and [we] had multiple peers help lead us on how to say the words, how it should sound singing phrases and how the dynamic should go,” D’Angelo said.
Entertainers, vocal music’s advanced treble choir, performed previous songs from their February Jazz concert as well as a new, more contemporary piece picked by the students.
“They are going to sing a piece by Laufey,…there’s this beautiful piece that is been arranged for the choir to sing, it’s called Must be Love. I suppose that it fits into the spring theme with the idea of Valentine’s Day-its this very dreamy piece, it’s slow, [and] the harmonies are beautiful,” Blackett said.
With a dynamic performance, the performers conveyed an exciting, engaging and enlightening experience for the audience.
