 |
|
|
|
|
The SHS all women-chamber choir prepares to perform at St. Andrew's
By Leigh Ann Maze
A new sound will fill the cathedral at Saint Andrew's Episcopal Church during Saratoga High School's annual holiday concert Dec. 13. The school's music program this fall added a chamber choir class to accommodate the school's many talented singers, said Jenny Guemmer, chorale director.
"We have a huge number of women who are extremely talented and really interested in singing," Guemmer said.
Nineteen young women were selected for the chamber choir class after advanced auditions last spring. Guemmer chose to make the choir all women after only a few men and more than 20 women auditioned. It also creates a more balanced ratio of women to men among existing concert and jazz choirs, Guemmer said.
The chamber choir debuted Oct. 26 at Saratoga Presbyterian Church and will perform at the holiday concert there. The featured piece will be "Gloria" by John Rutter, and the concert and chamber choirs and the orchestra will perform it together. The choir also will perform Angel's Carol by Rutter, a Caribbean piece called As Lately We Watched, and a ballad called Candles of Christmas, Candles of Chanukah. They recently added a new Latin piece, Tota Pulchra Es, to the program.
The chamber choir will attend its first festival in the spring, when the California Music Educators' Association hosts one in San Jose for local schools. In April, the young women plan to travel to Southern California to participate in the Heritage Festival in Anaheim with other choirs from across the country.
"I don't care so much about competition," Guemmer said of the festivals, "I just want them to learn and grow and hear other groups."
The Saratoga High School Holiday concert will take place Dec. 13 at 7:30 p.m. at Saint Andrew's Episcopal Church in Saratoga. The event is free and open to the public; it will be followed by a reception at the church with refreshments.
|
|
|
|
Saratoga, California Since 1955
