The choir classes had their pre-festival concert on Feb. 24. The event was a means of preparing the classes for a festival taking place the next two days that the Treble Singers and A Capella choir were to perform at.

Upon attending the concert, I was surprised at the quality of the performances.

Although the classes were a little quiet at times, there were other times where I could feel the contentment and pure enjoyment coming from the singers.

The concert opened with the Women’s Chorus singing “Yonder Come Day (Sea Island Spiritual)” by Judith Cooke Tucker, my favorite of the Women’s Chorus performances.

The song was accompanied by clapping and the choir sang loud and proud.

The choir also sang “Ally Bally Bee” by Douglas E. Wagner and “Mary Had A Little Blues” by Charles A. Collins. Both were nice performances.

Next came a solo from sophomore Natasha Nieuwenhuis. She sang Gladys Rich’s arrangement of “American Lullaby.” Her voice had a nice soprano sound to it.

The Men’s Chorus took the stage next, opening with “Be Cool” by Bob Chilcott.

They then sang “A Captain I Shall Be” by Glenda E. Franklin.

The choir’s final song, “Joshua! (Fit the Battle of Jericho),” arranged by Kirby Shaw, was my favorite piece of their performance. The song was fast-paced and the boys sang wholeheartedly.

As the Men’s Chorus exited, junior Leslie Brissette took the stage and performed “When I First Sang My Song” by Ernest Charles. Brissette’s voice mixed, with the raw emotion she conveyed, made her performance one of my favorites.

Senior Samantha Redick sang next, performing “When the Roses Bloom” by Louise Reichardt.

I enjoyed the way her voice smoothly transitioned from a melodious tone to a more chipper tone.

The Treble Singers performed next, opening with “Five Haiku on Rain” by David Evans. This was a unique performance because the song followed a pentatonic scale, which means the song followed a five-point scale instead of the normal seven-point scale, giving the song a more jazzy feel.

“Castle On A Cloud” from “Les Misérables” was the next song. Opening with a solo from senior Sydney Owens, the quality of the performance, coupled with the fact that the song is from a great movie, made this performance my favorite of the Treble Singers.

The Trebles then performed “Dodi Li” by Nira Chen. I was impressed with their pronunciation, what with the song being in Hebrew.

Senior Angie Greer sang “Vittoria, Mio Core!” by Giacomo Carissimi.

Her performance blew me away.

She was loud and projected her voice well. It looked like the stage was where Greer was supposed to be.

The Melody Makers then took the stage, performing wonderfully, as usual. Everyone fit together well and the choir just looked happy to be on the stage.

They opened with “Sing We and Chant It” by Thomas Morley and closed with Orlando Di Lasso’s “O Occhi Manza Mia.”

Junior Zack Broughton performed “Rolling Down to Rio” by Edward German. His singing was great and he sounded like he was in his element, performing flawlessly.

After Broughton left the stage, the A Capella choir entered. They sang Jack Klebanow’s “Erev Shel Shoshanim (Evening of Roses)” first. The performance was pretty, and I could tell when the choir got to a part they all enjoyed singing because they got louder.

The choir then sang “Vuelie/Heimer Aradalr,” a choral suite from the movie “Frozen.” This was my favorite performance of the night because the singers sounded beautiful and melodious, the boys and the girls harmonizing well (also coupled with the fact that I love “Frozen”).

Next came “Home on That Rock” by Kirby Shaw. The song, accompanied with clapping and finger snapping, sounded great.

The final song of the night was the traditional “Irish Blessing” performed at every choir concert. This one was special, however.

Before the song, senior Arika McClain left the stage and came back with a present for choir teacher Mrs. Renee Kotzian. The choir seniors were about to perform their last “Irish Blessing,” and, as a thank you, gave Kotzian a plaque that had the words to the song on it.

All in all, I enjoyed the concert and am looking forward to seeing (and hearing) what kind of talents the future will bring to Kearsley’s choirs.