This winter the Millbrook High School Choir did their annual winter concert on December 12. The choir program started their show off with the Novum choir. Sophomore Sophie Halabicki kicked off singing the first solo of the night. The show also included bowl singing which is played by rotating a mallet around the outer rim of a bowl to create calming vibration sounds. The group included this into one of their three songs which was soothing and beautiful. In Novum’s last, song they had an all-girl quartet closing off their performance.
After Novum, the boys in Ingen came on to also sing three songs. Their first song was completely in Latin, which was very impressive to the whole audience. In their next song, they sang some of the lyrics in Arabic. Ingen also used a drum in their performance which sounded fantastic with their deeper voices.
There was a brief intermission in the performance where the families could go visit their kids who had just performed. You could buy a gift to celebrate the night as well as Millbrook ornaments which were also for sale and a popular item among Millbrook families.
The next group to perform was Chamber, which is an all-girl choir group. They wore stunning blue dresses that are featured in the picture above. During one of their songs, the music behind them stopped but their collective voices kept going. It was a chilling and breathtaking moment. Chamber sang an emotional final song to their portion and Mr. Adams was in awe of his students.
Sophomore and Chamber member, Campbell O’Connor, told me, “My favorite part about being in choir is possibly Mr. Adams because he makes choir a really friendly and positive environment. I can always look forward to the class because I know I’m not going to be judged and I can do what I love, which is singing.”
O’Connor also said, “Rehearsal has been good, the last couple of weeks before the concert were stressful because the concert kind of crept up on us but it’s so exciting and I feel really good about it.”
“As a choir, we’ve become more cohesive through rehearsal, and sometimes at the beginning it was hard to get used to singing so many parts but we’ve definitely got a lot better at that!” O’Connor said.
The second to last group to perform was Celeste. They are about a ten-person treble choir. They were also wearing blue dresses but they had silver sashes around their waist. The first song they sang was “Sing Out My Soul,” then they included stomping and clapping in their second song which brought energy to the stage. Most performances had three songs per group, but Celeste had four. In one of their last songs, “United In Purpose,” the text was written by Maya Angelou. Alison Hinnant was the soloist in this group and she really stole the show. Hinnant, a senior Celeste member, said “My favorite part of choir has been the environment it has offered me and how I’ve seen improvement in my dedication to choir. Now I take classical vocal lessons outside of school and I’m the section leader of the sopranos.”
The very last group was Madrigals. They are the highest level of choir at Millbrook. They wore very professional black and white outfits and were very talented. They started with a song called “Caminante” which was all in Spanish and included maracas and repetitive hitting of drumsticks. The group celebrated the holidays with a song in Hebrew for Haunakka. Kael Alley was the soloist in this song and was magnificent. They closed the night with “Run To You ” by the groundbreaking acapella group, Pentatonix. Mr. Adams was obviously very proud of his students throughout this whole night. Mr. Adams said, “Rehearsals vary from day to day. I think it’s challenging to consistently perform to the best of one’s ability every time you have the opportunity but rehearsals are also one of my favorite parts of the process. Some of the most transcendent moments happen during rehearsal and not during the concert.”
Mr. Adams stressed that he values being a part of the choir community just as much as his students do, and that just as much as they learn from him, he also learns from them. Of the groups that performed, he said, “The confidence on their parts grew tremendously. It’s also rewarding to see how all of them increase their connection with the repertoire and each other. Overall the choir concert went very well and gained much applause from the audience. “We sing not for perfection, [but] for a purpose. I think this is one of the more critical areas of improvement,” Mr. Adams said. Millbrook’s choir is certainly on their way to achieving that.
