North choirs take audience around world

North+choirs+take+audience+around+world

Georgia Slowik, Staff Writer

Take a trip around the world without ever having to leave the school auditorium. North’s annual choir concert held on Feb. 21 took a different approach to the standard choir concert.

The concert included Mixed 7th  all boys Choir, Mixed 6th  all girls’ Choir, Treble Choir, Concert Choir, Acafellas, Bella Voce and Northern Voices who all worked together to put on the production.

“In this concert we sang music from around the world trying to honor all different types of culture through music,” choir director Monica Bertrand said.

The pieces performed were from various cultures in hopes of celebrating the diversity of music.

“In this concert we traveled to Italy, Korea, Russia, Ireland, Norway, Australia, England, Hungary, Brazil, Baltics, America and South Africa,” Bertrand said.

The concert also aimed to explore different cultures through the power of music.

“The theme was ‘wild and free’ yet spoke so many beautiful messages of love, self-empowerment and beauty,” senior Matt Swanson said.

Preparing for the concert was not an easy task, especially with the unpredictable weather interfering with practice.

“It is always difficult to be away from the classroom for multiple days, but we worked diligently to make up for the time lost,” Bertrand said.

Despite the lost days, the choir students worked to bring the show to life.

“The hardest part was putting it all together,” senior Alexa Lezondra said. “Every choir rehearses individually and doesn’t come together until the dress rehearsal.”

Each song conveyed a different message, and through those songs, the choir hoped to move the audience members and to get them to pay attention to serious topics.

“My favorite song we performed was ‘please stay’,” Lezondra said. “Jake Runestad composed the piece for those struggling with depression and suicide.”

Seniors who were given the opportunity to perform solos embraced the opportunity.

“It was so nerve wracking to me,” Swanson said. “I’m always afraid my voice will crack, or I will forget the words, but I am always glad I did one after.”

Other seniors will miss the people they performed with as well as the memories they made throughout their high school careers.

“I will miss performing and being able to sing with the people that are like my second family,” senior Brianna Heckman said. “I will also miss Ms. Bertrand as she has truly been an inspiration and the most amazing teacher.”

The choir also performed with multi-media visual aids to enhance the overall experience for the audience.

“Each piece has a picture that will be projected to represent the piece,” Bertrand said. “I put it together.”

The concert ended with a piece accompanied by an orchestra to join everyone together in harmony.

“We’re ending the concert with a piece that represents all cultures through the orchestration,” Bertrand said.