Choir holds its annual Winter Concert

By Beckett Navarrette

Staff Writer

The Mira Costa Choir held their annual Winter Concert on Dec. 17 in the auditorium where all four choirs and the two acapella groups collectively performed 20 songs.

The groups that performed were the Concert Choir, Coterie, Advanced Women’s Chorale, Mira Costa Muscle, the Men’s Choir and the mixed Vocal Ensemble.

“We performed a mixture of classical and holiday music showcasing the work we have been doing throughout the semester,” Choir Director Michael Hayden said.

The songs were chosen by Hayden and many of them were pieces that the choirs already been performed at their Nov 6 and 20 festivals. According to Vocal Ensemble choir member senior Maddy Angstreich, this allowed the choir to put in much more practice and to perfect their performance more than they normally would.

“I’m really excited to be performing during the concert because we have put so much time and effort into our music pieces and I can’t wait to see it pay off” Advanced Women’s choir member junior Claire Layden said.

Along with the classical songs, the choirs performed traditional christmas songs such as “Three French Carols” by Donald Moore, “O Holy Night” by Adolphe Adam and “Snow on a Moonlit Night” by Catherine Delanoy.These songs were crowd favorites according to Vocal Ensemble President Calyssa Frankel.

“Since the concert was holiday themed, we sang holiday carols and the audience loved them,” Frankel said.

The Advanced Women’s Chorale performed “God Bless Us Everyone” by Alan Silvestri and Glen Ballard, “Sudden Light” by Donna Gartman Schultz, “Gloria!” by Nancy Hill Cobb, and “Resonet in Laudibus” by Z. Randall Stroope.

“The songs I’ve been looking forward to is our new song that we are learning right now called “God Bless Us Everyone” from Disney’s A Christmas Carol,” Advanced Women’s choir member sophomore Ginger Schwartz said.

This was the first Costa Winter Concert with a Men’s Choir, and they performed “Laudate Dominum” by Dan Davison, “Stars I Shall Find” by Victor C. Johnson, “Three French Carols” by Donald Moore and “O Holy Night” by Adolphe Adam.

“This is the first year that the men’s choir is in the concert because Mr. Hayden decided to make this new ensemble at the end of last year to show how incredible the male voices in our department are,” Angstreich said.

At the end of the concert, all four choirs came together and performed “Silent Night” by Franz Gruber. Unlike the other songs they performed, the group sang the song while translating it into its corresponding sign language.

“I’m so proud of what we have done with ‘Silent Night,’” Layden said. “We learned the sign language that corresponds to the song lyrics and performed the piece as an entire department of  four different choirs put together. ”