By SANA SHAH
Staff Writer
This year’s UHS Choir Program fall concert included Canta Bella, Undertones, Concert Chorale, Vista Verde Ensemble, Footnotes, Madrigals and various solos. It was held on October 16th in the big theater.
“The fall choir concert is a very special night, [it is the culmination] of all the hard work every section of Uni’s choir department gets to showcase for the first time of the year.” Sofia Canul (Jr.) said.
The concert began with the new choir class added last year, Canta Bella, an all-girls chorus, who performed a French piece, “J’Entends Le Moulin” by Trad. French and two other melodious pieces astoundingly.
“The Fall Concert was such an amazing experience. My favorite song was ‘Hexenleid’ because of how challenging it was and how well it came together in the end,” Elyana Lee (Jr.) said.
Following Canta Bella’s performance, Aniket Mehrotra (Jr.) performed “The Vagabond” by R.V. Williams, an adventurous jolly piece composed in the 1900s.
Afterward, one of the two student-run acapella groups, Undertones, performed “Ubi Caritas” a sorrowful latin piece in which they smoothly sang together to create bold harmonies.
Erik Diaz (Sr.) said, “All I could feel was joy while singing the song because I knew that I had friends standing and singing beside me.”
Another member of the acapella group, Celine Tran (Jr.), shared, “Undertones is like family and performing together only brings us closer. Being able to share our music at concerts allows us to showcase the many talents of our individual members and prove that together we don’t need instruments to make the kind of music we love.”
After the Undertones’ performance, Sofia Canul (Jr.) performed “Bester Jungling” by Mozart. Sofia explained, the Fall Concert, “gives soloists like me an opportunity to grow as an artist and student of music.”
Concert Chorale displayed their ability to blend by performing “Cherokee Traveler’s Greeting” and “Jabula Jesu” right after. Their first song explored various volume levels and beautiful, controlled harmonies.
During the second half of the concert, the Vista Verde Ensemble proudly joined the UHS Choir Program and performed “Another Day of Sun” and “Skyfall.”
Next, the second student-run a cappella group, Footnotes, beautifully performed “Ecce Homo” or notoriously known as the Mr. Bean theme. The beautifully haunting piece sounded quite serious however the Latin concealed the true humorous meaning of the song.
Lastly, The Madrigals began with the soft yet bold Renaissance motet “Sicut Cervus” and closed the stage with “O Sifuni Mungu.” The final piece was of gospel genre sang in a mix of Swahili and English lyrics with an uptempo and African style tune.
“I loved the vibes on stage while singing ‘O Sifuni Mungu’,” Shaden Ahadi (Sr.) said. “Everyone was clearly enjoying themselves while singing which made our overall performance a lot more unified and entertaining to watch.”
The next performance by the UHS Choir Program will be the Winter Concert on December 19th.
