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Photo Credit: Lauren Scott
On Monday, March 6 in the performing arts center the choirs at Fossil Ridge High School got to show off their singing abilities. This concert was directed by John Garner and Briana McCormick. There was a new accompanist, Sabrina Miller, who played beautifully alongside percussionist John Meriwether. The audience had the privilege of hearing six different choirs all with very talented students.
This particular concert focused on traditional folksongs from America, and Appalachian and pieces from Europe, Latin America, and Asia. The purpose to was bring rich cultures to life.
The first choir to sing was the concert choir; they did four different songs. They sang “Let the River Run”, “She Sings”, “Soon I will be done”, and “Bright Morning Stars”. The soloists for this choir were Zach Crane and Paul McBride.
The next choir to take the stage was Vox Puella. They sang four different pieces including “Ouvre Ton Coeur”, “Wayfaring Stranger”, “I’m Going up a Yonder” which featured soloist Lily Sherman, and “Go Down Moses” featuring soloists Davin Tonn, Tyne Klammer, and Nicole Combs.
Sabercat Singers was the third choir. They sang four different pieces. The first one which was very popular with the crowd was “Rejoice” which featured Maria Cuddemi and Travis Turner as soloists. Next up featured the very talented Becca Hotra as a soloist and the piece was “I Been In the Storm”. “Ride on King Jesus” had Austin Hand and Luke Ramirez soloing. The last piece this choir sang was from a popular Bollywood movie and was sung in Hindi. In addition to a challenging song, there was accompanying choreography. It was Choreographed by Tyler Zuschneid who volunteered to do it after no one else did. That being said, he committed himself to the project. “It [teaching] was easy because I just kind of didn’t give people an option to not do it right,” Zuschneid said. The crowd loved it and senior Elizabeth Woolner said it was her favorite piece to sing. “ “Balleilakka” is so different. We sing in different languages a lot but it’s usually latin or German or Italian and a lot of them are slow ballads and this one is way more upbeat.”
After the Sabercat Singers there was a brief an intermission while the audience had one minute to fill huge buckets with donations to the choir program at Fossil. It was a fun minute and a great opportunity to give to the music department at Fossil.
After the intermission Vox Femina (the all women’s choir) sang four pieces” “Hoj, Hura Hoj!”, “Will the Circle be unbroken” which had Donna Than, Megan Blad, Brooklyn Schaffner, Kira Francom, Kathryn Bates, Chloe Greer were the featured soloists for that piece. They also sang “Tango to Evora” which in addition to beautiful singing voices included an actual tango which was danced by Ryan Clark and Aislynn Fehlberg.The singing soloist for the piece were Maddie Torrey and Carli Cobaugh. The last piece was “Music Down in my soul” which featured Megan Bean, who delivered a solo that was nothing short of soulful.
Next up the Men’s Choir sang 5 songs. “Colorado Trail”, “Nine Hundred Miles”, “Till the Stars fall” which had soloists Jonathan Lu, Marshall Forbes, Noah Miller. “Two sisters” had Chris Sedmak, Hugh Withers, Jonathan Lu, Tony Neilsen, and Noah Miller sang the solos. The last song was sung in Spanish called “Yo Le Canto todo el dia” (I sing all day).
The last Choir to sing was Fossil’s Jazz choir, Tenth Bass. Their songs were arranged by Stephen Ross and Senior Taylor Smith helped arrange the girls’ piece, “I found” by Amber Run. The boys started with Mumford and Sons, “Below my Feet”. The whole choir sang “You Give Love a Bad name” by Bon Jovi as the final piece of the concert and brought the audience to their feet. There is no denying the talent we have at Fossil. According to Senior Maddie Grigg, “Choir is something that we want to show them [students] and show them what we’re capable of.”
