Glittering tinsel and twinkling lights were draped over the risers, which were packed with students dressed in Santa hats, antlers, and an Elmo Christmas costume, who sang of the festivities this holiday season. Huntley High School’s Fine Arts program held their annual Winter Choral concert in the PAC on Dec. 3, at 7 p.m.
Dressed in red shirts and black bottoms, freshmen boys and girls opened the concert with a haunting piece “A Winter’s Night”, their rendition – featuring vocals from Madison Overly- of “Believe” from beloved Christmas movie “Polar EXpress”. They ended with a crowd-pleasing performance of “Fruitcake”, complete with hilarious choreography and enthusiastic singing.
The Men’s Chorus made their debut by paying homage to the upcoming “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” movie. The PAC suddenly blacked out until one red light shown on Darth Vader, as he took the stage while his “Storm Troopers” sang his theme, the “Imperial March”.
After an array of dazzling color effects and an array of choreographed strobe lights, Vader began to beat box, inciting hollers and cheers from the audience. This came as a shock to many, since it wasn’t listed on the program.
They shifted their intense mood to a more comical, light-hearted one, when they sang Linda Spevacek “I Wish I Was Single Again.” Four of the of the guys invited their embarassed girlfriends on stage and sang of how they have ruined their lives. They close the song with each of them expressing their relief while attending their “wives’” funeral.
Playing on to the romantic theme, Concert Choir took the stage and performed George Michael’s version of “Baby it’s Cold Outside”, with the boys and girls singing directly to each other. The performance featured flute and finger-snapping accompaniments from sophomore Natalie Rainey and the boys of the choir, respectively.
Yet Concert Choir wasn’t the only one using their own fingers as instruments. Vocal Fusion’s finger-snapping to the doo-wop, rock and roll piece “At the Hop”, exemplified their Barbershop-esque style to the ‘50s jukebox classic.
The ladies of Treble Choir took the risers and continued the Barbershop style by performing the timeless classic “A Dream Is a Wish Your Heart Makes” from the movie “Cinderella”. To complement the magical theme, the girls used “fairy-tale” facial expressions and used a glowing wand to crescendo then cut the song off at the end.
Mastersingers ended their performance by sitting down on the edge of the stage and performing the up-beat, Pentatonix version of the grim “White Winter Hymnal”. The Christmas Elmo had also decided to make an appearance and snap/beatbox with his fellow mastersingers.
Finally, all the choirs came together, tightly packed on the decorated risers, to jingle-tingle their way through “Sleigh Ride”.
Despite having less rehearsal time due to the shortened semester, Choir Director Nancy Cross believes that each choir did a great a job of learning the pieces individually, but it was ultimately the chorus as a whole that stole the show.
“This wasn’t advantageous scheduling, but usually in ensembles, the whole is greater than just some of the parts,” said Cross. “I think this makes it fun to sing those finales with everybody.”