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‘The 2016 Winter Concert’ casts questions, is a prelude to change

By Chris Baldus,  cbaldus@charlescitypress.com

For those who attended Monday’s choral concert at 500 N. Grand, two questions might have lingered: Where’s my car?  And, how many Christmas songs are there in “Christmas in About Three Minutes?”

The former question is reflective of the size of the audience — and that it’s winter and few likely walked to the concert. The old middle school’s parking lots overflowed as did the ring of streets around the building.

The answer to the latter question is 23. Charles City High School Director Derek Sturtevant looked it up to help with this report.

The song by Mark Weston has become somewhat of a tradition at the Comets’ winter concerts. It was performed by the Concert Choir right after the more serious “In the Bleak Midwinter” as arranged by John Bertalot. “Midwinter” is based on a poem by Victorian poet Christina Rossetti, who died in 1894.

The initial lines of her poem about the birth of Jesus are:

“In the bleak midwinter, frosty wind made moan,

“Earth stood hard as iron, water like a stone;

“Snow had fallen, snow on snow, snow on snow”

Charles City, by the way, was blanketed by 4.5 inches of snow over the weekend.

The 7th and 8th grade choir opened “The 2016 Winter Concert” with “Let It Go,” a favorite from the movie “Frozen.” Ashlyn Cother was the soloist.

The middle school choir also performed “Canon of Praise” as arranged by Hal Hopson and “Hallelujah” by Leonard Coen, as arranged by Roger Emerson.

Before the high schoolers took the stage, the CC Sweepers from the middle school, clopped, swept and “mooed” to a beat with their brooms before Cother exited the stage and coming back with jingle bells. The sweepers sang the beginning of “Jingle Bells” and took a bow. It was “Jingle Farm” by middle school choir director Tara Dean.

The Comet Chorus opened the high school portion of the concert with “Breath of Heaven” as arranged by Roger Emerson.

The next song was “Cradle Hymn” by David Von Kampen. It was Chamber Choir’s final song in its current incarnation. The Chamber Choir will be undergoing a transformation into a jazz choir before possibly appearing again at a February concert. It will perform a range of jazz from the 1920s to modern day and compete in a festival in March, Sturtevandt said.

A high school female acappella group is also slated to debut at that Feb. 21 concert, which will include a collaboration by the Concert Choir and the Charles City Singers to perform “The Faure Requiem” by French composer Gabriel Faure.

At Monday’s Concert, the male and female acappella group Unaccompanied Minors performed the Pentatonic mash-up “Winter Wonderland/Don’t Worry Be Happy” as arranged by Katie Schuld.

About 50 students tried out for the two acapella groups, Sturtevant said.

The members of Unaccompanied Minors are Stephen Bachman, Tyreque Baker, Ashlyn Bauer, Marquis Cross, Abigail German, Devon Koenigsfeld, Hanna Laue, Lars McFarland, Maci Milks, Aaron Montemayor, Ryan Parker, John Perez, Ruby Peterson, McKenna Oleson, Cinnamon Evans, Billie Rodemaker, Jacie Wink, Olivia Wolfe and Ryan Wolfe.

After inviting alumni and all the choir members from both schools to sing the Charles City High School Alma Mater, the choirs spread out to encircle the first floor audience and sing “Silent Night” first in English and second in the original German.

Sturtevandt, who studied German in college, said teaching that German version meant speaking the works to choir members and having them repeat. It can take a while, he said.

–20161221 —

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