From Rehearsal to Performance: The Journey to Concert Day By: Priscila Roque

As the seasons change and the weather gets colder, Hillgrove High Schools’ chorus classes are preparing in advance for their winter concert in December. Although each class is learning a different piece of music, students still insert a lot of focus and hard work to achieve the sound they want to portray as a choir. With dedication, skill development, and vocal performance, Hillgrove High School’s chorus program provides students with opportunities to gain experience and become better. The Hillgrove High school chorus website explains, “The Hillgrove High School Chorus program teaches music literacy while providing students opportunities to perform a wide range of vocal music. The program features the Advanced Mixed Chorus (Camerata), Advanced Treble Chorus (Bella Voix), the Intermediate Mixed Chorus (Crimson Chorus) and the Hawkapellas (audition group open to all students).” As rehearsals continue, each student, along with their chorus teacher, are working to perfect every detail before stepping onto the stage in December.

Students in chorus start working on fresh music for a new concert months in advance, giving students enough time to preview, learn, and memorize their music. A lot of effort is put into mastering music, especially in the advanced classes “Bella Voix” and “Camerata.” More difficult music is assigned to these chorus classes, meant to push and challenge students. Celena Ramahi, a Sophomore in Bella Voix says,” Okay, this piece is by Vivaldi, and so it's really advanced. It was from the Baroque period, so it has a lot of, its fancy music. It has a lot of like accidentals, which are kind of hard to understand, but it's okay. The rhythms are really weird a lot of the time. And for a lot of the songs, it's like each part or each voice part has a completely different rhythm and like notes. It's really weird, that's been the most challenging part." In class rehearsals are helpful for this reason. Students get a chance to run through the music all together, receiving input from their teacher and working based on it. Despite the obstacles, students are still committed to perfect each piece of the music before the concert. 

Since Hillgrove High school has three chorus classes all together, the chorus teacher, Sierra Randall, oversees teaching and leading all students to achievement. With classes like Crimson Chorus filled with mostly Freshmen who are new to Highschool choir, and the other classes including students from Sophomores to Seniors, each student has their own journey when it comes to singing. Sierra Randall mentions how she works with preparing all her students for the concert, she says, “We are rehearsing a lot every single day, as well as I'm trying to go and listen to the orchestra rehearse it. So that way I can take what they're doing and bring it in to try to prep the chorus, to be able to have those rehearsals with them. And that way we can put it together the best way possible." As the teacher is determined to guide her students to success for the concert, some difficulties may also occur. She says, “There's something that's difficult for each group, whether it's the actual notes and rhythms, whether it's adding the words, whether it's once we add in the instrumentation, all that's going to be some sort of challenging. It's one of the more difficult things we've done." Even with the obstacles each group faces, the chorus teacher remains focused on helping every student reach their full potential for concert night. All the student and teachers’ effort and preparation will soon pay off as the chorus steps into the spotlight, ready to deliver a performance that captures all of their hard work.