Almost everyone in the world has sung at some point in their lives, but not many have the courage and confidence to perform. On Wednesday, December 11, the Highlander’s choir put on the performance of December Moon in the Theater building from 7 to 9 p.m. With the holidays coming up, they gave the audience a wondrous holiday concert, including songs such as Once Upon a December by Lynn Ahrens, arranged by Audrey Snyder, Run Rudolph Run by Chuck Berry, Veni, Veni Emmanuel by John Michael Trotta, and December Moon by Sean Ivory.
The show consisted of five different choirs, Kingdom Chorale, VoiceMale, Show Choir, Highland Harmonics, and ReignCheck, as well as three solo singers. There were costumes of Christmas sweaters, colorful lights, and other holiday wear worn by the singers, creating a festive atmosphere. A combo band played for them as they sang, as well as during periods between performances, filling the room with music even without the main performers on stage. Each of the performances was fantastic, surely having been practiced again and again in preparation for the concert.
After the show, the Choir Director, Mr. Peter Davis, explained the process of choosing songs for the concert. “We spent a lot of time at the end of October going over some different songs with the choir, and so they picked a few, I looked for some, and we found some that were good for everyone’s voices.” This is his first year directing the choir, having been an elementary school music teacher beforehand. He enjoys working with older students and being able to get into detail about the music with them.
Junior Jazlynn Stanley, who was a part of the group’s Show Choir and ReignCheck, had this to say about preparing for the concert: “It was really hard because at first, it was just like an ambush of a lot of songs at us, but I would go home, practice an hour every single night, each song that I thought I needed to practice on and that was my process.” Her favorite song to sing was Veni, Veni Emmanuel, and believes the hardest one to learn was Linus and Lucy, an acapella song of the Charlie Brown theme.
December Moon was entertaining and fun throughout the entire night. There was never a moment where it felt like songs were going on too long since everyone was great and sounded fantastic. It was a great way to celebrate the holidays and was an amazing performance in every aspect.
