First choir concert of the year: Voices

By Brittany Snow

Staff Writer

  On Oct. 11, the Gabrielino Choir department hosted their 3rd annual Voices concert in the Goodson Theater.

  The event consisted of solos, duets, and groups from two themes. “Hooray for Hollywood” consisted songs from known Hollywood productions, and songs from the musical, “Chicago.”

  “City of Stars” from the 2016 musical “La La Land” was featured as a duet between junior Shawn Yoshitani and senior Tricia Liu.

  “I was nervous since I had my duet, and I felt unprepared,” stated Yoshitani. “[The duet] sounded good in the end, and I’m ready to prepare for our upcoming [performances].”

 Although the majority of the event was focused on the different talents within the program, every choral singer had the opportunity to sing background.

  Three total performances listed as “All Choirs” included songs such as “Hooray for Hollywood” from “Hollywood Hotel”, “Alice” from “Alice in Wonderland”, and a reprise of “All That Jazz” from “Chicago”.

  “I was excited to see all the individual performances,” stated freshman Michelle Li. “It was interesting to see all the choirs perform together.”

  In between each performance, the following individual acts would go backstage and go through wardrobe changes to better accommodate their performances.

  “A lot of hard work and dedication went into getting prepared,[and] I felt extra pressure to step up and showcase my talent for this show,” stated Hannah Pitts, daughter of choral director David Pitts.

  For the musical “Chicago,” the individual acts had the opportunity to perform more as a musical theater performer, rather than an ordinary choral singer. Getting into character and involving props helped indulge the audience with each performance.

  “I was extremely nervous because I had a duet in the second half but excited for the audience to hear what we’ve been working on.” stated junior Melina Gonzalez.

  A small group performance of “Cell Block Tango” featured six of the female Chamber Choir members which included Tricia Liu, Elisa Pitts, Hannah Pitts, Victoria Sam, Kelly Tran, and Kayla Villalobos. Each solo was performed in character by each singer, and a male Chamber member came out for each solo, according to the storyline.

  The next choir concert will be the winter concert on December 5.