The South Windsor High School Choral groups performed on Wednesday, December 4th at 7 pm in the auditorium. The choral groups performed for their annual winter concert, also known as the Season Of Song, which included four groups and many soloists throughout. The groups went on stage as follows: Treble Choir, Sound Factory, Understaffed, and Choral Spectrum.

As the groups set up to perform in the sold-out auditorium at the high school, the audience was introduced by treble choir, which is the all-female audition group. Treble choir went on stage to sing the Star Spangled Banner to start the performance, they then went on to sing Santa Baby, Lift Thine Eyes To The Mountains, Silent Night and Deck The Hall. Silent Night and Deck The Hall both included two different soloists. For Silent Night the solo was performed by Megan Labbe and for Deck The Hall, the solo was performed by Lizzie O’brien. 

After treble choir got off stage, three spotlight soloists came out to entertain and show off their voices. The first solo was done by Sarah Cloutier with the song In My Dreams by S Flaherty. Next up, Leah Cunha performed her solo with freshman Rakshan Chadha on the piano. Cunha sang the tune of Love Like You with Chadha playing the background music. The two received loud cheers at the end of their performance. The song Someone You Loved was performed by Nikitha Kikanamada. Kikanamada ended the section of spotlight solos with a wonderful piece that included a tough rhythm, which wasn’t a challenge for the soloist.

Right before Intermission, Sound Factory, which is the one non-auditioned choral group, started off their performance with a piece that included only two words, that song’s name would end up to be Dai Diddle Dai. Right after they performed Dai Diddle Dai they moved onto their second piece which was called Imbakwa. Imbakwa included soloist Sarha Cadman and featured Jia Yazon. To finish off the sound factory performance, the group finished with the songs Home on Christmas Day and Sleigh Ride. The Sound Factory crew was separated into two classes all quarter long and even despite the little time working together, freshman Kylie Correale still believed they sounded well. Correale stated, “It felt like a family, we all blended together even though we were separated into different classes.”

Then a brief fifteen minute intermission occurred where the audience was able to purchase snacks and beverages, and the groups were able to take a break from performing. After intermission the all-male acapella group, Understaffed, performed two songs. The first song was called Good Ol’ Acapella which was arranged by Sharon. In the song there were two solos that Sean Banducci and Asher Robino sang to the best of their ability. Soon after this, the group performed Some Nights that was arranged by Beck. Throughout the song there were additional solos by Josh Lee and Jake Silverman. Overall, according to senior Will Lewis who is apart of Understaffed, the performance went well. Lewis specifically states “We were very prepared and executed our performance as planned.”

Following the acapella group’s performance was the “Miracle Minute” where Martineau talked about the Thirst Project and how the choral program has been supporting it for the past two years. He went into detail explaining how there are so many people around the world who don’t get the water that they need, and the water that they do get, is polluted and unsafe to drink. As a result they became affiliated with the cause and have been raising money for the project for the past two years, so that wells will be built in communities that do not have easy access to safe drinking water. After Martineau finished his explanation, a handful of Understaffed members went out in the audience and collected money from everyone watching. But there was a catch: They only had sixty seconds to collect as much money as possible for the cause. Once the collecting started, the crowd went crazy as they were trying to find cash for the cause, and there were even kids running across the aisles to get money to any of the Understaffed members. The crowd had a lot of fun doing this and it was very fun to watch everyone get so excited about a great cause. 

Continuing on from the hectic “Miracle Minute,” things slowed down when sophomore Olivia Hedley and Sophia Peruccio performed Okay by Blackhouse Mike. Hedley played the background piano part as well as singing her part of the duet with Peruccio. Both of the girls’ voices sounded great together and they had an overall great performance and the audience was over the moon about it as well. Apparently, Hedley thought the same as she explained that “it went pretty well, actually me and Sophia both sang our song how we practiced. My mic fell, which was kind of difficult, but I was able to pick it up and continue with the song. Other than that, it went great and I’m proud of both of us!” 

Subsequently, the group of soloists consisting of Sean Banducci, Jayvian Geronimo, Will Harper, Andrew Kotait, Noah Pichay, and Ishayu Ray performed Like It’s Christmas by the Jonas Brothers. This was another hit with the audience and the group of guys looked like they were having the time of their lives up on stage. Along with this, each of their voices sound almost perfect and the group did a really great job working together as well as stunning the audience with their voices. Harper, who picked all the guys to perform in the group, stated that “I picked each guy in the group because I knew that they all had amazing voices and that they performed very well. That definitely showed during the performance on Wednesday, we sounded great together.”

After the boys departed, the most anticipated choral group of the night took the stage, Choral Spectrum. The group that is made up of auditioned singers and dancers at SWHS and has won many awards in the past. The group is a legacy at our school and everyone knows why… they kill every performance, and they did exactly that on Wednesday night. Choral Spectrum performed their set of four songs that were as follows: Power arranged by Breeze (with a solo from Harper), Man Like That arranged by Abrahamson (with a solo by Anthara Shivkumar), Imagine arranged by Emerson (with solos by Lindsey Osit, Micaela Hanson, and Amelia Savola), and Lucky Strike arranged by Abrahamson (with a solo by Andrew Kotait). The audience was definitely happy with their performance as they clapped loudly when they finished performing. Not only was the audience happy with the performance, but so was the group. Sean Banducci, who is a member of Choral Spectrum, said that “Spectrum has worked insanely hard and we are all super proud that we gave everyone a good performance.” 

All in all, this year’s Season of Song concert was a success and all the groups gave the audience a great performance. From the Sound Factory to Choral Spectrum every group was happy about how they performed. The next chorus concert will be held in the Spring of 2020, the choral groups can’t wait to see you there!