There's a song in the air

The 115-voice Crestview High School chorus delighted a packed Pearl Tyner Auditorium last Thursday with one of its best Winter Concert performances in recent memory. The diversity of the ensembles and their repertoires boasted both old traditional pieces and new favorites, producing one of those wonderful evenings you wish wouldn’t end.

Under the direction of CHS choral music director Kevin Lusk, the evening opened with a grand processional entrance that brought the entire chorus down the aisles to the beat of “Ring the Bells,” the piece that opened the group’s enjoyable Madrigal Dinner the week before. It was a perfect opening for a perfect evening.

The all-female show choir Destiny then kicked off the performance with a selection of light favorites including “Let it Snow! Let it Snow! Let it Snow!”  But it was their closing number, “Goin’ on a Sleighride,” that proved the most fun.

The mixed Chanticleer show choir kicked off with a very Brubaker-esque performance of “God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen,” which I knew I’d enjoy even before I heard simply because the program notes included the often-dropped comma after “Merry,” the absence of which always bugs the heck out of me! Grammatical correctness aside, the piece, with its Donald Moore arrangement, is a wonderful twist on the traditional tune.

One of the things that I really enjoyed about the whole concert was that the kids clearly were having a good time. Their injection of personality into their performances made them all the more enjoyable for the audience. In the Men’s Choir performance, for example, guys including Marcus Mastra, Joel English, Kody Lusk, Edgar Alcevedo and Jarick Rivers were clearly getting into the music, particularly during the “Elvis Christmas” medley.

The Women’s Choir was filled with soaring, heavenly vocals, beginning with quite a moving version of “I’ll Be Home for Christmas,” which interpolated snippets of “There’s No Place Like Home,” “Joy to the World” and “Jingle Bells.” “In the Bleak Mid-Winter” was hauntingly lovely, and “Snow By Morning” was particularly evocative. Though a difficult piece complete with vocal and piano effects, the girls—and accompanist Leon Curenton—handled it masterfully.

The Chorale ensemble Delighted the audience with several stunning numbers, including an unfamiliar but just exceptional version of “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel,” during which they were also accompanied by Taylor Lindley, a flautist from the CHS band. The “Song of Galilee” was another difficult piece tackled with aplomb, and featured an increasingly building tempo for its somber Hebrew lyrics.

The spirited version of “Joy to the World” that closed Chorale’s performance showed that though it might be hard to improve on a favorite joyous holiday song, there are exceptions, and in this case, the chorus did it masterfully.

When all 115 singers packed the stage for the finale, it was for two audience favorites without which the chorus’ annual Winter Concert would not be complete. After the audience got to sing along with the chorus on “Silent Night,” alumni rushed to the stage and joined the chorus for the grand finale of Handel’s “Hallelujah Chorus” from “The Messiah.” Lusk’s training and discipline were evident as, after greeting old friends, the alumni dutifully reported right to their old positions in the risers.

It was refreshing to see such a large, clearly appreciative audience in attendance, proving not only the viability of performing musical groups in Crestview, but their importance to the community’s cultural growth and life. Kudos to the chorus as well as their brethren in the CHS band who performed to a packed house of their own two nights earlier, for being such important components of Crestview’s holiday season celebration.

Enjoy a rebroadcast of highlights of the chorus’ Winter Concert on Christmas morning at 10:06 a.m. on WAAZ 1050 AM, or WJSB 104.7 FM.