On December 6th, 2024, Woodbridge High’s four choirs sang with South Lake Middle’s choir in their winter concert called, “A Winter Celebration” which celebrated the fun, loving, wonderful feeling during the winter season with beautiful and upbeat songs. There were solos, duets, and all together group songs accompanied by instruments. Students Isaac Howell, Lily Testerman, and Lucy Morgan were some of the singers in this concert and they gave some thoughts on the performance.
The opening song was “Ding Dong Merrily on High” and was sung by all the choirs including South Lake’s choir. It started with only a few singers on stage and as the song went on, other singers and choirs joined, creating a unique visual. As the title suggests, the song sounded like beautiful ringing bells and had a very happy feel to it.
Each choir took their time singing songs they had prepared in class. The 4 choirs at Woodbridge, Concert Chorale, Bel Canto, Chamber Singers, and Entertainers, each represent different amounts of musical knowledge. All the choirs sang different and unique songs from one another giving lots of variety.
Senior Isaac Howell from Chamber Singers said, “My favorite piece was the Christmas Waltz cause it had some crunchy harmonies and we got to dance.”
In between choir songs, there were some solos, duets, and trios. Some of the songs were “Santa Baby” performed by Taylor Ro, Finn Allred, and Bennett Fillmore, “Santa, Can’t You Hear Me” performed by Sara Ford and Lily Testerman, and “Snowman” performed by Futaba Takahashi.
The final song of the night was “Carol of the Bells” sung by all choirs. With the different choirs singing different parts and harmonies, it made the song very mesmerizing. Like the opening song, “Carol of the Bells” ended with very dramatic and mysterious sounds of ringing bells. It was intense and dramatic ending the concert.
After hearing about what the concert was and how it went, now we will hear what some of the singers thought of their concert and what it was like before the concert. When asked how prepared he was for the concert, Howell said, “The week before was like, we were not confident in what we were singing and then [Mr. Blackett] gave us a part singing assignment so we all had to do it individually and then everyone came back on Monday of show week and we did like super well and from that Monday to the concert it was great.”
In the concert, each choir had their own successes during their performances, and junior Lily Testerman was very proud of her choir, Entertainers, and their successes. Testerman said, “For entertainers, because Mr. Blackett wasn’t with us, he was playing the piano, we had to like conduct ourselves. So it took a little while to coordinate like what we were gonna do, especially in one song Solstice Carole we we’re all across the entire PAC and starting the song, we had to like all take a deep breath together and then start the song together completely like without any direction or anything, and that was really scary, but we finally got it. Which I was really happy about.”
There were definitely some big improvements from the first concert to this concert. Freshman Lucy Morgan noticed some improvements in her choir Bel Canto. Morgan said, “I think we have just like a better skill set. Like we’ve definitely improved a lot since the beginning of the year, and also like our bonds have gotten like stronger so like it was more fun to sing with everyone.”
Howell said, “…after the concert, I like wanted it to happen again. Like I wanted another experience like that just it was so fun and I loved hearing everyone else’s songs.”
“I think it went well. It’s the holiday concert and it’s always really fun because there’s the solos and small groups and everyone likes to hype each other up, which is always really fun. you know, I feel like everyone thinks there’s something they could have done better, Like, definitely when I was singing my duet, I was kind of like, wow, there are a lot of things that I’m doing right now that I wasn’t planning on doing with my voice. But at the same time, it’s like, you kind of can forget about all that. I think it went really well. It was just really fun,” Testerman said.
The winter concert was a wonderful, heart-felt concert that not only made the audience happy but the singers themselves. If you are interested in seeing more from Woodbridge High’s choirs, consider seeing there upcoming Spring Concert on March 21 and any other future concert or experiences!
